DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon or any video games, books, films, TV shows or pieces of music referenced in this story. Original characters owned by me are stated in my profile.
Chapter Two: Inferno
Wednesday 1st September, 2010 - 2pm
Howden-Smythe Girls' Grammar School, Scholes, West Yorkshire.
Rika grimaced and turned up the volume on her iPhone as the shouting coming from the headteacher's office reached a roaring crescendo. The girl soon lost herself in the dark, brutal tones of Disturbed's "The Night", nodding her head unconsciously in time to the music. After a couple of minutes, she winced again as a voice which the redhead plainly recognized as belonging to her mother somehow managed to reach a high enough volume to break through the wall of sound emanating from her silver headphones.
It was plainly obvious to anyone who happened to pass by that Rika was in a lot of trouble. She was sat in the dreaded hard, plastic chair outside the headteacher's office, her brand new white shirt and dark green blazer stained red with blood. And this started out as such a good day… the Tamer thought sarcastically. Ten minutes later, the screaming match had come to a close and the door slammed open, revealing the tall, beautiful blonde-haired form of Rumiko Nonaka, her pale complexion and hair colour making it obvious that the woman was not fully Japanese. Rumiko was only twenty-eight years old and could have easily passed herself off as being a decade younger. The supermodel fixed her daughter with a glare that the Digimon Ice Queen would have been proud to wear herself.
"Car. Now."
Rika followed the livid blonde out of the old-fashioned private school and climbed into the waiting limousine. She was silent and avoided meeting her mother's gaze the whole time, not out of shame or guilt, but because she knew they'd just get into a screaming match. As George started the car and pulled away, Rumiko was the one to break the silence.
"I hope you're happy," she growled, barely keeping her temper in check. "You've managed to get yourself expelled from the best private school in Northern England on the first day. Every other private school in the country will have a black mark next to your name after this! Do you have any idea how much blackmailing and brown-nosing I had to do to make sure that girl's parents didn't press charges?"
Rika just kept staring at her feet, giving no indication that she had even heard her mother's rant.
"What the hell could have possessed you to do something like that?"
With that last sentence, Rika's head snapped up and she met her mother's angry gaze. The sheer intensity of the cold rage in her daughter's eyes left Rumiko speechless as the girl began to tell her story.
That morning - 11:25 am
Howden-Smythe Girls' Grammar School - Computer Room 2
"So, who's the new girl?" a pretty black-haired girl sneered as she glared at the red-haired Japanese girl sat on the other side of the computer room.
"Who, that Rika Nagino? I heard her dad was an oil baron!" a slightly less pretty brown-haired girl with pigtails chipped in.
"Nah, that's the girl in Simone's class. I heard she was the daughter of a Japanese supermodel - Runny-kami or something like that. And her name's Nonaka you moron! God, Kate, you call me a dumb blonde!" a bored-looking girl with long, wavy blonde hair snapped as she doodled on her worksheet.
"Wait, Nonaka?" the first girl hissed in surprise before turning to the blonde. "Ruby, was her mother's name Rumiko Nonaka?"
"Yeah, that's it. You know her?"
"Ebony, Ruby! Is there a problem?" a nasal, high-pitched rang out as the school's IT teacher, Mr Simmons, glared at the two talking girls.
"No, Mr Simmons!" the dark-haired girl identified as Ebony replied. "I couldn't find the 'Delete' button, so Ruby was showing me where it was."
The balding, fat little man let out a short "humph!" and returned to his marking. Ebony merely grinned as she opened Internet Explorer and explained her plan to her two companions in hushed whispers. The three girls spent the next forty-five minutes Googling the young girl and her mother, gathering as much dirt on the family as they could. When the bell rang, signalling the start of lunch, the trio intercepted Rika in the corridor outside the main hall.
"Hey, Nonaka!" Kate yelled, causing the redhead to turn and glare coldly at her.
"What?"
"We heard you're the daughter of Rumiko Nonaka, the supermodel. Is it true?" Ebony butted in, seeing that Kate had frozen under the Ice Queen's gaze.
Rika's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Yeah, so what?"
"What's with all the coldness? We just wanna get to know the new girl…" Ruby replied, her voice so sickly sweet it even made Ebony want to throw up.
"No, you just wanna score some Bitch Points after spending the whole lesson trying to dig up some dirt on me," Rika replied, and seeing the identical stunned look on all three girls' faces, she added: "Kate, you really need to learn to whisper quieter."
As her prey turned and began walking towards the lunch hall, Ebony felt her temper flare. Nobody walks away from me!
"No wonder you don't have any friends - who'd want to hang out with a cold-hearted bitch like you?" she yelled, her temper flaring yet again as Rika just kept walking. Not one to be defeated easily, the dark-haired girl started walking, closing the distance between them until she was just a few steps behind her victim. "Your own family doesn't even want you - you were just an accident!" Rika stopped walking and clenched her fists at this last remark, which Ebony foolishly took as her cue to continue. "I mean, it's no wonder your dad ran off - who'd want a kid like you? Hell, the only reason your mum didn't leave you was because he beat her to it!"
The edges of Rika's vision frayed and turned red as she span on her heel and glared at Ebony. All sound seemed to fade away as the Tamer began shaking with rage. The English girl realised she had gone too far and fear flashed across her face as she took a step back.
The next few seconds seemed to pass in slow motion for both girls as the redhead drew back her left arm. With a sickening crack, Rika's fist slammed into Ebony's face, breaking her nose in a dramatic spray of blood and sending her slamming into the wall. Rika didn't stop there, pinning her tormentor against the wall by the throat and throttling her two-handed. Kate and Ruby began screaming for help as their friend was slowly strangled to death. As the dark-haired girl's face began to turn purple, she struggled in vain against her "victim's" iron grip, desperate for just one lungful of sweet, life-giving air…
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? STOP!" a male voice roared from behind Rika, and the girl felt two pairs of strong hands trying to remove her own from around Ebony's neck. As the death-grip around her neck was finally released, Ebony toppled forwards, smearing blood from her mangled face down Rika's pristine white shirt as she fell to the floor.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" the furious girl shrieked and writhed in the grip of the two grown men struggling to restrain her. As she slowly realised that her efforts were in vain, Rika's fury died down to embers and she ceased her struggles, contenting herself with shooting her Number One Death Glare at the blood-soaked, sobbing form of the girl who had sparked the inferno.
"Oh, Rika…" Rumiko sighed as the limousine came to a stop and she reached out to put a comforting hand on her daughter's arm. "I know what that girl said was horrible, but you have to learn to control your temper. Why did you let it get to you so much?"
"Because it's the truth!" the girl spat as she shrugged off her mother's arm and leapt out of the car, running for the safety of her room as fast as her legs could carry her.
Seiko walked out of the kitchen and headed for the stairs, leaving the sobbing form of her daughter in Miranda's capable hands. The pair had spent half an hour trying to calm Rumiko down without success before the older woman decided to try a different tactic.
"Rika?" Seiko called softly as she knocked on her granddaughter's bedroom door. When no answer came, she felt a sudden flash of fear. Memories of The Incident began playing in her mind as she reached out, sliding the door open…
…To reveal a perfectly healthy Rika laid on her futon staring at the ceiling. She had cleaned herself up and changed back into her traditional "Broken Heart" shirt and jeans. Sat next to her on the bed was a Viximon stuffed doll - the only feminine or childish item that Rika owned. Breathing a sigh of relief, Seiko closed the door behind her and sat down next to the futon.
"I spoke to your mother," the older woman began, watching closely for any sign of a reaction from the preteen girl. "She told me what those girls said to you…" The redhead tensed visibly and blinked, waiting for her grandmother to get to the point. "…and what you said to her."
Rika rolled over onto her right side, turning away from Seiko's sad gaze. The brown-haired woman would not be deterred, however.
"Did you really believe what you said? Do you really think that your mother doesn't love you? That I don't love you?"
"I was…an accident," the girl replied, her tone cold.
"You were…unexpected, yes. But that doesn't mean that you were unwanted. We don't love you any less because of it."
"Dad did."
Seiko flinched at the pain in Rika's voice. "I am not James, and neither is your mother!" she said, her voice firm but not unkind. "Both of us love you more than anything else in this world or the next."
"Then why isn't she up here with you?" Rika yelled, sitting up and meeting her grandmother's gaze for the first time since she entered the room. Seiko hesitated as images of her distraught daughter flashed through her mind.
"The state she's in right now, she wouldn't be much use!" the redhead looked away again, trying to repress the rising tide of guilt she felt. "What you said hurt her badly. I think it's high time the two of you sat down and just talked to each other."
Rika sat there for over a minute, staring at the floor, before she nodded slowly and stood up. As her grandmother led her out of the room and down the stairs, the Viximon doll blinked suddenly and let out a loud sneeze. Pausing for a second to make sure she hadn't been heard, the fox-like Digimon retrieved the real Viximon doll from the closet, placed it on the futon and leapt out of the window, a white glow suffusing her body.
By the Sovereigns, that woman moves quietly!
Rika's talk with her mother was as awkward as Seiko had expected. The pair had sat there in an awkward silence for several minutes before Rumiko opened with an awkward joke. They conversation was punctuated by several more awkward silences, and ended with the pair exchanging awkward apologies and an awkward hug before scurrying away awkwardly to do their own thing. The only non-awkward part of the conversation was the way in which both of them had completely avoided talking about what had happened, dodging the issue as ably as any politician.
Some things never change… Seiko sighed mentally as she headed for the kitchen to make a start on dinner.
Kirkfield Park, 3pm
"And we're BACK IN BUSINESS! ALRIGHT!" Takato whooped and cheered as Guilmon uploaded the data of the DemiDevimon who had bio-emerged deep in the forest at the heart of Kirkfield Park.
This had been the duo's first battle in over a week, despite there having been two bio-emergence alerts since their fight with Airdramon. Both times, Takato, Henry and their partners had arrived to find the Digital Field dissipating with no Digimon in sight. The first time, the boys had begun a search of the area, worried that the Digimon could have fully emerged from the field before they arrived. Their worries were proven to be in vain when Terriermon discovered the words "Too slow, amateurs" carved in Japanese into a nearby tree trunk, signed by "The Digimon Queen". While most people would simply have been glad for the opportunity to fight, Takato couldn't help but look the gift horse in the mouth. I wonder why she didn't show up…I hope she's okay.
"Hey, Takato! Guilmon!" a voice called from behind Takato, and the brown-haired Tamer turned to see Henry rushing towards him, Terriermon perched on his head.
"Henry, Terriermon! What kept ya?" he replied with a grin. To his surprise, Terriermon shuddered and a look of sheer terror passed across his face as he mumbled something about pants.
"Suzie got hold of him again," The dog-bunny's tamer explained, noticing his friend's confused look. "So, what's the story?"
"Once upon a time there was an evil DemiDevimon. He was very mean, and shot poison darts at people, and-"
"He didn't mean it literally, boy!" Takato laughed, interrupting Guilmon's rambling. "Long story short - pun not intended - we kicked his ass!"
"WHAT? The ONE TIME that psycho fox and her tamer don't show up and I MISS THE FIGHT because of Damien Devil Child? No fair!"
"Terriermon…"
"Momentai!"
"Anyway…I wonder why they didn't show up to this one…" Takato said, scratching his chin thoughtfully.
"Maybe they're just late?" Guilmon suggested cheerfully before being distracted by a passing squirrel.
"Pretty hard to be late when you can teleport…" Terriermon pointed out as the red dinosaur began chasing the animal.
"Maybe they were a long way away, or maybe the girl couldn't get away from whatever she was doing for some reason. Remember that Digimon that bio-emerged in the middle of your shift at the bakery?" Henry said, trying not to laugh as the goggle-wearing boy began chasing after his partner. Terriermon began humming the "Benny Hill" theme tune as boy, Digimon and animal wove their way between the tightly-packed tree trunks, only to burst out laughing as Guilmon stopped suddenly, sending his Tamer running straight into his back and knocking the boy to the ground. The dog-bunny quickly stopped laughing as he noticed the dinosaur sniffing the air cautiously.
"Guilmon? What is it boy?" Takato asked, looking around cautiously as he pulled himself to his feet.
"I thought I smelled…something…" he replied before shaking his head and opening his mouth in a toothy smile. "Ah, well! Now, where did Mr Squirrel go…?"
The animal in question had wisely decided to climb the nearest tree and hide from the overly-playful Digimon. Why didn't it do that earlier? Takato wondered idly, before dismissing the thought with a shake of his head. Glancing at his watch, the boy nearly had a heart attack when he saw the time.
"Oh, no…mum wanted me back fifteen minutes ago so I could fill in for dad while he was out at the supermarket. We'd better get you back to the hideout, boy. See you guys later!"
That was close… Renamon thought as she phased back into existence on the roof just above Rika's window. She had arrived just in time to see the goggle-wearing boy's partner uploading the DemiDevimon's data. She had stuck around for a while, amused by the dinosaur's foolish antics, before being forced to Kohenkyo away when he caught her scent. It is odd…I do not recognize his species. The others called him "Guilmon" but I've never heard the name before. I shall have to ask Rika about it…
The kitsune reached out with her mind, sensing that her partner was back in her room, reading at the desk next to the window. The Digimon swung gracefully in through the open window, landing on the hard wooden floor behind the redhead without a sound.
"How did it go?" the girl asked telepathically, not looking up from her book.
"The goggle-wearing Tamer, Takato, had already resolved the situation by the time I arrived. His partner 'Guilmon' managed to defeat his opponent with little difficulty"
"Really? What were they up against?" Rika was surprised that the idiots had managed not to get themselves killed.
"A DemiDevimon."
"That explains it…wait, what did you say Gogglehead's partner was called?"
"Guilmon. I am unfamiliar with the species."
"Huh, I've never heard of it either. Maybe it got created specifically for the European version of the card game or something."
"Possibly. By the way, they noticed our absence. They actually seemed slightly…worried about us. You in particular," Renamon said with a mental chuckle.
"Idiots. I really needed to blow off some steam, too. Grandma's timing sucks…"
Seiko had knocked on Rika's bedroom door just as Renamon was about to climb out of the window carrying the girl. The kitsune had been forced to de-digivolve and resort to her worst-case contingency plan of impersonating Rika's Viximon doll while the woman had her talk with her granddaughter. The partners had spoken telepathically during the long silence at the end of the conversation and decided that Renamon would check out the bio-emergence signal while Rika spoke to her mother.
"If she had arrived five seconds later, your mother would currently be busy filing a 'Missing Persons' report with the local police…"
Rika "humphed" and closed her book, knowing that her partner was right. Her mother had a tendency to over-react to everything, especially if it involved her "precious little baby" (Rika still didn't have any idea who this person was!). It was one of the many reasons that Rika had not yet told her about Renamon.
Thank the gods grandma never told her about…that… she thought to herself, subconsciously rubbing her left wrist through her red sweatband.
Thursday, 2nd September 2010 - 12:30pm
Nonaka Residence
Rumiko sighed as she walked into the luxurious living room, slumped onto the massive leather couch and poured herself a glass of sake from the crystal decanter marked "FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY" on the table. She had just returned from a meeting with Mr Arnold, the headmaster of the local state high school: Redcliff Mount. The woman had decided to walk to and from the school, and her feet were killing her. The school was actually less than three hundred metres from the end of the Nonaka's driveway, but Rumiko's choice of footwear had made it seem like miles.
How did it come to this? My little angel going to some filthy…state school! She could get beaten up, or raped, or stabbed or… The woman took a deep breath and had a large sip of the rice wine in an attempt to calm herself down.
Rumiko had spent the whole morning calling every private school in the area trying to get Rika a place, but to no avail. Every single one of them turned her down. Most of them had the common decency to at least pretend to check and see if there was anything they could do, but more than one secretary simply hung up the phone as soon as she gave her name. It seemed that her earlier prediction was correct - every private school in the county had gotten word of Rika's expulsion from Howden-Smythe. After the fifteenth rejection, the blonde-haired woman had given up. With a sigh of defeat, she had dialled the number for Redcliff Mount and set up a meeting with Mr Arnold. After arranging a suitable donation to the school's charity fund, the irritating little man was more than willing to offer Rika a place at Redcliff as a Year 8 student.
As she finished her sake, Rumiko let out yet another sigh. She stood up, making her way dejectedly towards her daughter's bedroom to give her the bad news…
"YES!" Rika yelled triumphantly in a rare display of pure glee as soon as her mother was out of earshot. "No more stuffy all-girls private school! No more stuck-up aristocratic bitches looking down on me! No more ridiculous uniforms!"
At that point the Viximon doll on Rika's desk coughed politely and said "Actually, in England all schools have uniforms - not just the private ones. The skirts are usually optional, however."
"Ah, damn it…but the other points still stand!"
"Rika, who are you talking to?"
Shit, grandma! Think fast… "Uh, I'm talking to Jeri on the webcam. She just got a new one and she wanted to try it out."
"Oh, tell her I said hello. And watch your language!"
Damn, she heard the "stuck-up bitches" part… "Sorry grandma!"
"It is fortunate that the infamous 'Hata Hearing' appears to have skipped a generation with your mother…" Viximon smirked.
"Yeah, no kidding…Actually, that reminds me - I haven't spoken to Jeri since I got here. Might as well see if she's online, see how things are going back home…"
Jeri Katou and her partner Leomon were the only people in the world (family not included) that Rika thought of as friends. The eternally cheerful girl was also the only Tamer out of the four currently present in Japan that Rika didn't want to kill slowly and painfully.
Rika grabbed her sleek black laptop and pressed the "on" switch, walking to the living room while it fired up so that she could sit somewhere a little more comfortable. She typed in her Windows password and logged into the instant messaging program Jeri had forced her to install. The redhead cringed as she saw the girl's latest screen name - NyaoNyaoKatou8991 - before starting up a conversation.
"Jeri? You there?" she typed, a response arriving in seconds.
"Rika! How you doing?"
"I'm fine, you?"
"I'm good. What's England like?"
"Rainy. Boring. Same as Shinjuku really," the redhead typed with a small chuckle. "Any Digimon activity recently?"
"Not much, just a Bakemon and a Hagurumon."
"What? Even the idiot twins could have handled them!"
"Lol they did handle them - they got there before me. And don't be mean!"
"Whatever."
"So how are you handling life without Digimon? Apart from Renamon I mean."
"I'm not."
"That bad?"
"No," Rika typed with another chuckle, imagining her friend's shocked look with a sense of satisfaction as she pressed the 'SEND MESSAGE' button. "I mean I've dealt with three bio-emergences since I got here."
"What? Seriously?
"Yeah, turns out we get the same crap here that you do."
"Whoa, I always thought Digimon attacks were a Tokyo thing. Are there any Tamers over there?"
"Yeah, two of them that I know of."
"What are they like?"
"They'd get along well with the dimwit duo…"
"What did I say about being mean? Besides Kenta isn't THAT bad…at least when he's not with Kazu…"
"You would say that…"
"So, anything else interesting happen?" the brunette replied, a smirk crossing Rika's face as the message appeared on screen.
"That was a pretty obvious attempt at changing the subject."
"Your attempt wasn't much better. Normally you'd just let that slide. So…what happened?"
"I got kicked out of school on the first day for beating the crap out of somebody."
"WHAT?"
"I know - it's great! Now none of the private schools will take me so I get to go to a normal school."
"Ummm…why did you beat this person up?"
"They tried to use me to score bitch points."
"Ouch. What did they say?" Jeri asked, typing another message when Rika failed to answer. "Don't wanna talk about it?"
"Nope."
"Okay, then tell me this - on a scale from 'Kazu just walked into the room' to 'Ryo just insulted Renamon' how mad did it make you?"
"You couldn't just use a '1 to 10' scale could you?"
"Nope"
"Is there a choice above 'Ryo just insulted Renamon'?"
"That bad?"
"Yeah."
"Sorry…" the brunette replied along with a 'sad face' emoticon.
"Why? You didn't say it."
"You know what I mean. Awww…got to go, stepmum's telling me to go to bed."
"Damn, I forgot about the time difference," Rika typed with a quiet curse. "Talk to you later."
"Bye xxxxxx."
Rika closed the IM program as the message "NyaoNyaoKatou8991 has logged out" appeared onscreen and scrolled through the list of games installed on her laptop, looking for something that caught her eye. Deciding on a mindless killing spree, the redhead soon lost herself in the therapeutic orgy of bloodshed that is "Prototype". Mum would have a fit if she knew I had this…
2pm
"Rika?"
The girl blinked and looked at the clock on her computer, woken from her slaughter fest by her grandmother's voice. She'd been playing for over an hour. Time flies when you're munching Americans…
"Rika? Hello?"
"I'm in here grandma."
The brown-haired woman walked into the living room and sat down in the leather armchair opposite Rika. "I was wondering if you could head down to the bakery and pick up a couple of things for me. I just realized I forgot to eat lunch earlier."
Rika rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Wow, and here I thought mum was the model…"
"Very funny. And besides, if I was starving myself, I wouldn't be eating a late lunch, now would I?"
The redhead let out an exaggerated sigh. "Okay, I'll go get it now. What do you want?"
"A char grilled chicken sandwich for me and whatever you want to buy for yourself with the change, thank you." Seiko opened her purse and retrieved a five pound note, handing it to Rika.
"Thanks, grandma. Back soon!"
Matsuki Family Bakery
Takato struggled to pull the white apron over his blue hoody as he stumbled over to the till. As soon as he had finished wrestling with the piece of fabric, the boy groaned and banged his head against the counter, leaving it resting on the hard wooden surface. Just my luck… he thought miserably, closing his eyes and groaning again. The first fight I have in a week and I get pulled in for extra shifts for coming home late….and it wasn't even a good fight! Why does that stupid Renamon have to insta-pop everything before we get there?
The thought of the golden-furred kitsune sent Takato's thoughts spiralling towards her Tamer - the so-called "Digimon Queen". It's weird, I could have sworn she was the same girl from that freaky dream I had…then again I only got a quick glimpse of her…
"Um, hello?"
"GAH!"
As Rika stepped into the bakery, her nostrils were assaulted with overwhelming force by the heavenly scent of baking bread and pastry. She stood there for a moment savouring the delicious aroma before making her way over to the counter. The redhead frowned as she realized that the boy who was meant to be manning the till was slumped over the counter, half-asleep.
"Um, hello?" she called warily, wondering how anyone could fall asleep in such a noisy place.
"GAH!" he yelped and leapt to his feet so fast that he overbalanced and fell over backwards, his head ricocheting off a shelf with a loud 'BANG'.
"TAKATO!" a female called in an annoyed tone.
Takato? Wasn't that the name of…?
"Sorry mum!" the boy replied as he stood up, rubbing the back of his head bashfully and grinning like an idiot.
It IS him! Rika thought, trying to keep the surprise and annoyance from her face. This has got to be some kind of a joke. How can this clumsy idiot be a Tamer? Even the moron twins weren't as bad as this - well, Kenta at least…his first aid skills sure came in handy…
"Hehe, sorry about that - must've dozed off. Anyway, what can I get you?" Suddenly the boy blinked and took a step back, a confused look on his face. "Hey, I know you - you're the girl from my…from my battle with Airdramon!"
Damn it! I didn't think he'd gotten that good a look at me… "Quiet you moron! Do you want your parents to hear?" she hissed.
"Ah, they'll just think I'm on about an Xbox game or something. They usually just tune me out when I'm in here anyway unless I break something. Hey, why didn't you show up to the bio-emergence yesterday? We thought something might have happened to you."
"Mind your own business!" the redhead snapped, causing Takato to recoil in surprise.
"Uh, sorry. Oh, I never got the chance to thank you for-"
"Save it, Gogglehead," she interrupted, the confused look returning to the scruffy Tamer's face. "It didn't mean anything. What the hell were you thinking, rushing in like that? Were those goggles cutting off circulation to your brain or something?"
"Uh…I…"
"Ugh, never mind! Just get me a char grilled chicken sandwich and…two sausage rolls."
"Coming right up!" Takato exclaimed, grateful for the sudden shift of the conversation back into comfortable territory. "That'll be three pounds eighty please!"
Rika handed over the five pound note, pocketing the change and taking the brown paper bag. As she turned and headed for the door, Takato's voice called out one last time.
"Oh, I almost forgot! What was that modify thing you did during the fight with Airdramon? That was so cool!"
The redhead turned and gave her fellow Tamer a look of open-mouthed shock, before pinching the bridge of her nose in exasperation.
"You have got to be kidding me…" she muttered and walked out, leaving behind a very confused Takato.
What was her problem? the boy wondered. Damn, I didn't even get her name… Eventually he got tired of thinking and, with a shrug, laid his head back on the counter, dozing off within minutes.