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 Thirteen: Reunion

Thursday 14th October - 3:47pm

Digital Field outside Redcliff Mount High School's Old Science Block

"Pipuhpi?"

Steph opened her eyes slowly, and felt her fear evaporate into confusion as she was greeted by the sight of a six-inch tall pink fairy with a red loveheart on his chest. The creature had a sad expression on his face, and his eyes were wet with unshed tears.

"Pipi…" it mumbled dejectedly and looked down, then suddenly looked back up with a much happier expression. "Pipipi!"

The girl flinched as a small pink loveheart flew at her from the Digimon's mouth, striking her right between the eyes. The last vestiges of her fear disappeared immediately as she felt a wave of positive emotions wash over her.

"Cam…" she whispered and looked at the boy, sighing as she realized he still had his eyes closed. "You can open your eyes now."

"Is it gone?"

"No, it's still here, but…HE'S SO CUTE!"

Steph's reaction to Guilmon was nothing compared to her reaction to the fairy Digimon. She grabbed him in both hands and hugged him tight against her chest, babbling nonsensical baby talk as she did so. After about a minute, the girl was woken from her cuteness overdose by a small cough.

"Uh, konichiwa?" a boy's voice said, and both Steph and Cam turned to see a Japanese boy stood at the centre of the Digital Field.

The boy was even shorter than Rika, and had a mop of dark greenish hair. He was wearing a pair of square, wire-rimmed glasses, a beige shirt over a yellow T-shirt and a pair of cargo shorts.

"Konichi…oh, crap - he's Japanese!" Cam moaned. "Why did I never listen to Takato when he was trying to teach us Japanese?"

"Because you're a moron?" Steph suggested and shook her head, turning to the mystery boy. "Konichiwa! My name is Stephanie Rare. Stephanie Rare," she said slowly, pointing to herself. "Cam Ridings," she said and pointed to Cam, then to the boy. "And you?"

"Kitagawa Kenta. MarineAngemon," the mystery boy replied, pointing to himself, then to his partner.

Steph smiled and bowed to the boy, then began trying to form a coherent sentence out of her limited knowledge of Japanese. She was quickly interrupted by Cam, who came up with one of his rare good ideas.

"Look, why don't we just go find Takato or Rika? They know how to spea-"

"Rika?" Kenta interrupted with a frown. "Nonaka Rika?"

"Nonaka…oh, right the names are back to…yes, erm hai, Nonaka Rika!" Cam replied, and was shocked by the new arrivals' reactions.

MarineAngemon let out an ear-piercing scream, dove into his Tamer's shirt pocket and began quivering like a ball of jelly. Kenta, meanwhile, kept his reaction slightly less dramatic as a look of sheer terror passed across his face.

"Buso…"

Nonaka Residence - 3:52pm

Rika groaned and cursed mentally as her iPhone rang loudly in her pocket, waking her from the short nap she had been taking. She checked the caller ID, seeing that it was a mobile number and answered the phone, assuming it was one of her fellow Tamers. She had given both Takato and Henry her number a week ago under the condition that it was for use only in an emergency.

"Hello?" the girl sighed irritatedly, wincing as the caller replied.

["Rika, is that you?"] a boy's voice asked, erupting from the phone's speaker at incredible volume.

"Yow! STOP SHOUTING! Is this Gogglehead?"

["Uh, no it's Cam. Listen, w-"]

"Why do you have my number?" the redhead growled menacingly, interrupting the black-haired boy.

["That's not important!"]

"Like hell it isn't! Where did yo-"

["Rika, we have an emergency,"] a voice which Rika recognized as belonging to Steph interrupted. ["We need you to meet us in the park, at Gorilla Clearing. There's something you have to see."]

"I…alright, I'll be there in a few minutes. If this is just some stupid prank…"

["It's not, trust us!"] Cam butted in.

"Yeah, right…"

Guilmon's Den - 4pm

"Alright, Goldilocks - this had better be good!" Rika growled as she stormed towards the clearing.

"Oh, it's …well, 'good' isn't the word I'd use, bu-"

"Just tell me what's going on," the redhead sighed, interrupting the blonde girl's rambling.

"Right, sorry! Anyway, me and Cam had a detention, and as we were leaving this Digital Field popped up around us. I was…we thought we were going to die. Anyway, this really bright light appears and when I open my eyes…I mean I'd closed them because I was so scared and…ANYWAY! I turned around and there was this kid with a Digimon stood there!"

"What? Where is he now?"

"Um, hey Rika!" a voice called out nervously in Japanese from behind the redhead.

Wait a second…I recognize that voice… the girl thought as she turned around, a look of shock on her face.

"Kenta? What are you doing here?" she exclaimed in surprise.

"Well, me, Kazu Ryo and Jeri went to the Digital World to resc-"

"I know that part - Yamaki told me about your little quest. Great rescuing, by the way - Calumon Bio-emerged yesterday not far from here."

"Oh, right…um, yeah, so we got attacked by five of the Devas and we got sepa-"

"Wait a second - what the hell is a 'Deva'?"

"Pipipuhpipipipah," MarineAngemon squeaked from his Tamer's shirt pocket, poking his head out for a second and grinning in a manner that was (according to Steph) 'SO CUTE'.

"Yeah, that about covers it," Kenta nodded, translating the fairy's words. "They're a bunch of Digimon who work for one of the Digimon Sovereigns - Zhuqiaomon. They're all based on animals of the Zodiac - like a dragon, a monkey, a dog, a roo-"

"Wait, the monkey and the dog - Calumon mentioned them. He said they were the ones who kidnapped him!"

"Yeah, they were."

"Why would a Sovereign want to kidnap Calumon and attack you? I thought they were meant to be the good guys!"

"Not Zhuqiaomon," the green-haired boy sighed and shook his head. "Rumour has it that he's gone mad. He's obsessed with destroying humans and sees Tamers as an insult to Digimon."

"One of the most powerful Digimon in all existence is out for our heads? That's not good."

"You're telling me? He's been sending a few of the Devas on missions to Tokyo to do some really weird stuff. One time it was an all-out attack by the pig-Deva Vikaralomon that turned out to be just a distraction so they could kidnap Calumon - that one levelled a pretty big chunk of Shinjuku. Another time Caturamon - the dog Deva - just turned up at a house and murdered a whole family - even the two kids!"

"That's…gods that's horrible…" Rika mumbled, shocked by the horrific news. "Why would he want to kill little kids? He's…"

"A monster?" Kenta finished for the redhead. "Like I said, Zhuqs is a nutjob. He makes the Devs worship him as a god and they're completely brainwashed. There are rumours that he's trying to create an army to lead against the other Sovereigns."

"That's pretty screwed up…" the girl muttered thoughtfully. "None of that explains how you got here, though."

"Oh, yeah. Well, we were attacked by like, five of the Devas and we had to retreat. We got separated by Data Streams - they're these bi-"

"Calumon told me about them, what happened next?"

"Well, me and MarineAngemon ended up stuck in the Forest Level when we got ambushed by a pack of Tyrannomon. We were running away when the ground just opened up beneath us and threw us out at that school. I ran into your, um…friends and they brought me here."

"Okay…do you have any way of getting back to the Digital World? From what you said, it sounds like the others are in pretty big trouble."

"Um, no…and I don't think the two of us would be much use against a screwball uber-Mega like Zhuqs anyway. I mean, even Cyberdramon had trouble taking down just one Deva."

"Damn it!" Rika cursed and looked thoughtful for a few seconds. "Man, this is screwed up…"

"You're not the one stuck on the wrong side of the planet! At least you speak the language here!"

"Damn, that's right, you're stuck here…look, if you want, you can stay at my place for a while. Turns out my grandma knew about Renamon months ago, so we can just tell her the truth instead of…why are you looking at me like that?"

Kenta flinched in fear as the girl glared at him. He had been giving her a confused and slightly suspicious look for several seconds.

"Well, don't take this the wrong way, but…who are you and what have you done with Rika?"

"Is there a right way to take that?"

"No, I guess not…" the boy chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head. "The thing is…you've never been nice to me before. I always got the impression you kinda hated me."

"I don't hate you - I hate your moron friend Kazu. And besides, when you're around him you do act like a bit of a dick. You should just grow a spine and act like yourself."

"Um…I'm not sure whether to be insulted or not."

"I'd go with insulted - it's usually a safe bet!" a familiar, high-pitched voice squeaked from nearby.

Oh, no… Rika groaned mentally as she turned to see Terriermon stood on his Tamer's head. The redhead frowned as she noticed some large, red marks around the rabbit's neck.

"Rabbitmon…what happened to your neck?"

"Uh, well…"

"He walked in on my sister when she was naked. She got a little…upset," Henry chuckled, rapping his partner on the head with his knuckles.

"Heh, that's nothing," Kenta laughed. "One time, MarineAngemon managed to find his way into the girls' locker room at school and for some reason, they blamed it on me! I got chased around school and got the crap beaten out of me by a couple of Jeri's crazy friends."

"Ouch…" Henry laughed sympathetically.

"Wait a second - you can understand him?" Steph gasped in confusion.

"Uh, yeah, why?"

"Henry, what language am I speaking now?" Rika asked in Japanese.

"Um, English…"

"What? She's speaking Japanese!" Kenta exclaimed in confusion.

"Kenta, what language am I speaking now?"

"Still Japanese. Rika what the hell is…" the Japanese boy trailed off and frowned. "Oh, I get it…Babel 2.0…"

"What's Babel 2.0?" the blue-haired boy asked.

"It's a program that lets a D-Arc translate anything a person says into a language the user understands, as long as whoever is talking also has a D-Arc. Don't ask me how it works - it's something to do with complicated data scanning and transfer and perception altering and stuff."

"Cool…the name's Henry Wong, by the way and this is Terriermon," the boy said, holding out his right hand.

"Kenta Kitagawa, and this is MarineAngemon," Kenta replied, shaking Henry's hand uncertainly. "Whoa, cool! Just like in those American movies!"

"Moron…" Rika and Terriermon muttered at the same time.

"Hey, Henry wait a minute…your last name's Wong, right? You know a guy called Janyuu Wong?" the green-haired boy asked.

"Yeah, he's my dad, and yes, he is Tao. He's already got in contact with HYPNOS and everything," the half-Chinese Tamer explained.

"Huh, cool. Anyway, Rika, am I still OK to crash at your place?"

"Yeah, whatever," she muttered, noticing the odd look Henry and Terriermon were giving her. "What?"

"Whoa, Rika being nice…" the rabbit-dog mumbled, receiving a knuckle-rap to the head for his efforts.

"Terriermon…and Rika, how are you gonna explain that to your mum and grandma?" Henry asked.

"I just found out that my grandma already knows about Renamon and everything. Kenta can easily hide from my mum - she probably wouldn't even notice him unless he put on a bright pink dress…"

"I'm pretty sure Suzie could arrange that!" the blue-haired boy laughed as his partner shifted his feet uncomfortably.

After quickly explaining the situation to Cam and Steph (and forcing Cam to delete her mobile number), Rika took Kenta back to her house to talk to her grandmother. Seiko was very understanding about the boy's situation, generously offering him a room for as long as he needed it, on the condition that he remain hidden from Rumiko. Mere seconds after the words of thanks left his mouth, the massive house's front door swung open and a woman's voice called out in Japanese, causing both Rika and Seiko to leap to their feet, panic and usher the boy outside to find a suitable hiding place.

Nonaka Residence - 4:25pm

"Mother, Rika - I'm home!" Rumiko's voice called out cheerfully and the woman walked into the living room just as Seiko and Rika leapt back onto the seats.

"Hello dear. Either I'm going senile or you're home a day early," the older woman said evenly, casting a wary glance at her daughter and granddaughter.

The two had still not had a real talk about what had happened the previous week, dodging expertly around the subject in their daily telephone conversations. Rika was refusing to look at her mother, staring intently at the coffee table. The blonde-haired model was pretending that she hadn't noticed, hiding her feelings badly.

"Hello Rika," Rumiko ventured, hoping to attract the girl's attention.

"Hey," the redhead replied, glancing quickly towards the door and wondering whether she would be able to make it to her room if she made a run for it.

"Oh, for the love of…would you just talk to each other?" Seiko growled after an uncomfortable silence over a minute long. "This isn't going to just go away if you sweep it under the rug! Now, I'm going to stand outside the door, and you two are not leaving this room until you have sorted this out."

"But gra-"

"No buts, young lady!" the brown-haired woman interrupted and leapt out of the door, closing it behind her with a soft 'THUD'.

The pair sat there in silence for several more minutes, neither willing to make the opening move. Eventually, Rumiko sighed and sat down on the opposite end of the sofa to her daughter.

"Rika, I…I'm sorry," she sighed, looking at the floor. "I should never have…hit you. I just got so angry and I…I just snapped. I should have thought about what I was doing, thought about how much it would…especially after what happened with…"

"You can say his name," the girl replied coldly. "It's not like I'm gonna break down or anything just because you say it."

"I know, it's just…what Yamato did to you was so…and I just…oh, GOD why is this so bloody difficult? Why can't I even apologize to you properly?" the woman cried out, clenching her fists angrily. "What kind of mother am I?"

"You hitting me wasn't the thing that…it wasn't what got to me the most," Rika half-whispered, dodging the semi-rhetorical question and fighting to control her own anger and sadness. "What you…said before that…"

Rumiko's eyes widened in horror as she remembered her own ill-considered words. "It's times like this I wish I'd never even had a child!"

"Rika, I-"

"Do you know what that feels like?" the girl interrupted, her voice barely audible. "Do you know what it's like to have someone say that to you? What it's like to feel like nobody loves you? What thinking that made me…feel…" she finished weakly and rubbed at her wrists, barely stopping herself from revealing her darkest secret.

"Rika…I'm so, so sorry. I didn't think and I…" the woman broke off as she burst into tears. "I didn't mean a word of it! I love you and I'm lucky to have you. I wouldn't give you up for anything!"

The redhead looked down to the ground, uncomfortable with her mother's crying. "I know, it's just…everything…"

"I know, and I'm sorry…everything you've been through and I…what I said…I just made it worse…" Rumiko sobbed, missing the point entirely.

"I meant the fact that you're never here!" Rika wanted to scream. "The fact that you sod off and leave me at every opportunity! The fact that you treat me like a Barbie doll! The fact that you don't care about anyone but yourself!"

As a telepathic wave of soothing thoughts washed over the girl, she realized that she had been broadcasting her thoughts to Renamon. Got to keep control…don't want to say that stuff yet…can't face the consequences yet…can't tell her about that yet…

"Rika…can you forgive me?" Rumiko whispered, and the redhead realized that they had been sat there in silence for several minutes.

Not trusting herself to speak, she merely nodded slowly and allowed herself to be pulled into a bone-crushing hug by her mother. The woman's crying immediately intensified as Rika fought to hold back her own tears. Noticing the increased volume of her daughter's sobbing, Seiko poked her head through the door and watched the mostly one-sided embrace with mixed feelings.

Eventually, Rika managed to pry herself free from the hug and the girl stood up, glancing uncomfortably towards the door again. Rumiko nodded towards the door with a sad smile and the girl practically flew out of the room, only to be collared by her grandmother.

"I sent your friend upstairs while you were talking," the brunette whispered. "He's in your bedroom with your kitsune partner."

Rika nodded her thanks and suppressed the flash of panic in her mind. Sound tended to carry from the living room up to the girl's bedroom thanks to a quirk in the house's design, meaning that Kenta may have heard snippets of her conversation. The girl hadn't told her grandmother about the acoustic oddity, as it meant that the redhead could listen in on the 'private' conversations which Seiko and Rumiko occasionally had about her.

Her fears were immediately dispelled as the Tamer entered her bedroom to see Kenta sat on the floor, Renamon stood behind him with her paws covering his ears. With a dry chuckle, Rika sent a telepathic message to her partner telling her to release the boy.

"Finally! Was that really necessary?" the boy complained quietly, MarineAngemon agreeing with a series of 'pi's and 'puh's from his pocket.

"Yes," the kitsune replied with a nearly-invisible smirk before disappearing into thin air.

"Sorry about that," Rika sighed and slumped onto her futon. "My mum wasn't supposed to get back until tomorrow evening. This makes things a lot harder…"

"I know," Kenta replied with a frown. "I mean, what are the odds she's not gonna notice me? It's not like there's a secret room or anything you can hide me in."

"No…but I do have the next best thing!" the redhead exclaimed excitedly, pulling out her iPhone and typing a quick text message to her grandmother.

[Get mum out of the house for 10 mins. Need to find somewhere to hide Kenta. Thanks]

A minute later, Seiko's voice called up to the girl's bedroom. "Rika, your mother and I will be in the garden if you need us."

"Okay," she replied and waited until she heard the door thud closed. "Right, follow me."

The redhead led Kenta out of her room and down the stairs, then headed towards a small wooden door built into the staircase. She opened it, revealing a concrete staircase leading down to another, much larger and thicker door and walked down the stairs carefully and quietly. She opened the second door, leading the boy into a large cellar filled with boxes, with a punchbag in one corner and a guitar case and set of amps in the other.

"This is where you'll be sleeping," Rika informed her fellow Tamer and pointed towards a small futon buried under a pile of boxes. "There's a futon there and the room's practically soundproof, so don't worry about talking too loud. There's a toilet and sink in the other room and just ask my grandma if you need food. My mum will probably insist on driving me to school tomorrow, so I'd stock up on stuff before she gets back at about 8:30."

"Got it. Thanks again for giving me a place to stay - I really owe you one," Kenta said with a smile.

"Actually, you owe me about seven for saving your ass so many times."

"Yeah, but if we deduct the number of times you tried to kill us…"

"I already did."

"Oh yeah, heh…could have sworn it was more than that. Then again, you did tend to go after Kazu a lot."

"Can you blame me?" Rika replied with a chuckle. "Right, I gotta get back upstairs. You can move the boxes off of the futon, but other than that don't touch anything - especially not my guitar. Or else…"

"Yes, ma'am…" the boy gulped with a mock salute, then looked around in confusion as the girl began walking towards the door. "Um…what am I supposed to do down here?"

"I don't know, have a game of cards or something. You always seem to have a deck with you," she replied dismissively as she slammed the door closed.

"Well, buddy…" Kenta sighed and produced a pack of playing cards from his back pocket. "Blackjack?"

"Pi!"