A.N – Just something I feel like I should say before hand. Unless the event is mentioned in the story all other events are assumed to have occurred naturally according to the canon. This is important as I don't actually want to write a chapter for every episode. I'll do my best to provide insight and important information so everything makes sense, but don't be expecting a full retelling of the series episode by episode. If you need additional information or would just like a basic recap please visit the digimon wiki for a synopsis of the episodes. If you would like a link to where you can find the episodes online or similar please contact me via PM and I would be happy to share it with you.

I want to be a Hero, just One Last Time

Written by: Juggalomalice

Chapter 8

Shinjuku Oogado Crossing

Henry tried his best to ignore the number of stares he was getting from people as he crossed the overwalk bridge. Apparently the sight of a middle school boy with his cute, fluffy digimon toy was just too much to not notice by most people.

"You know," Henry began, "This is the reason why I didn't want to bring you with me, Terriermon."

"But if I say home 'this and that'" The rabbit like digimon assured his partner.

"I know, but it's still embarrassing."

"Hey, what's with this fog?" A nearby citizen asked. Already a small number of people on the bridge had gathered in notice of the peculiar weather activity.

"A digimon is coming." Henry frowned at hearing this as he distained the thought of having to see his friend fight. Though he was willing to help protect his friends in a fight, the idea of Terriermon becoming some battle hungry monster wasn't one he enjoyed entertaining.

Already the thick fog of a digital field was setting in the lower roadway. "Come on Henry. We have to get down there and stop that digimon before it hurts someone." Terriermon stated as he hopped off Henry's head and dashed down the stairs.

"Terriermon wait!" The young boy shouted as he gave chase before finally catching Terriermon by one of his long ears.

"What are you doing Henery?" the small digimon whined.

"We're not fighting. We're going home."

"But Henry, we have to do something."

"No we don't. It's not our problem."

"But I want to fight," The rabbit digimon said in final defiance.

"Well I don't want you to fight," Henry argued as the fog suddenly dissipated. "Huh, the field cleared itself?"

"It would appear that way to some." A voice said from behind the boy and his digimon, causing both to whip back behind them. Standing just a few steps above stood a young man with a blue hood pulled over his head. At his side was a much shorter figure dressed in a similar style jacket.

"T-Tai?" Henry asked with some mild hesitation. Though he had seen the college student act in immature ways, he couldn't help but admit that when he had his hood up like that, there was just something… foreboding about him.

"That's the third field I've tracked this week that just happened to clear itself," Tai continued, not missing a beat. "But D-fields don't clear themselves. Someone is tampering with the network."

"The Network?" Henry asked in confusion.

"It's just a generic term I use to refer to the means that digimon use to transverse the portals that connect our worlds. However digimon manage it, something, or someone to be more specific," Tai's voice darkened a bit when he said that, "Is stopping them before they can 'realize' inside our world."

Henry glanced back at the crowded crosswalk where the fog had been just a moment ago. Now that it was cleared people were acting like it never happened.

"Then what's going to happen? Will we have to keep fighting?"

"What's going too happen? The same thing the digital world always does when a new variable enters the equation. It's going to gather data, adapted, and evolve," Tai answered as he took several steps down before leaning down a bit so that his face was side by side with Henry's, "and when that happens the portals will open up again and we're going to have a lot of pissed of digimon waiting for us on the other side."

"Isn't there anything we can do to stop it?" Henry asked.

"Nope, not from this side at least. For now the only thing we can do is fight and hold them at bay."

"Is fighting the only way?"

"Hmm, well I understand your concern kid—"

"Henry." The young boy corrected automatically.

"Well Henry, I understand your concern. It's much safer to not fight and in all honestly if you don't want to fight you don't have too."

"I don't?"

"Nope, you have a choice, but friendly word of advice from an old man," Tai said and he descended the stairs past Henry, "If you don't want to fight, don't get in the way of those who do." The thought that one day he might be nothing more than an obstacle to his friends caused Henry to flinch.

"Wait," He called out to the two figures that were now directly beneath him, "How did… How did you make the choice that you wanted to fight?" Tai stopped once more and he looked up a Henry. The shadowy grin on his face sending a shiver up the youngster's back for reasons he couldn't understand.

"That's cute Kid, you actually think we had the same opportunities you do. Of the seven children who made up the original Digi-Destined none of them were asked if they wanted to fight. In fact, none of them were even given the choice to begin with."

"Sometimes he comes off as really scary." Terriermon commented as the older pair walked off.

"You picked up on that too, huh?" Henry asked as he forced a smile on his face. "Come one, let's go home."

"Henry?" Terriermon asked after a short distance of silence.

"What is it?"

"You know in the Digi-World digimon fought all the time?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean you have to fight here, in the real world. Even Tai said it. We can choose not to fight if we don't want to."

"Yeah, but what if a time comes when we're the only ones who can fight? Would it be right of us to choose not to?" the small digimon innocently asked.

"I…" Henry stopped as he trailed off in thought, "I'm not sure."

Shinjuku Oogado Crossing, the next afternoon

Tia didn't have college classes every day and his life mostly revolved around four things only. When arranged by the amount of time they consumed in his life they were school, digimon, sleep, and food. In fact, as his digimon workload increased he had actually taken steps to lighten his school schedule so he could devote more time to patrolling the city for wild digimon.

"Tai," Agumon began as he kept watch over a D-Field that had manifested in the same place as yesterday from nearby crossing bridge, "I've been thinking."

"Does it have anything to do with why you insisted that we stay here on the bridge to keep watch instead of fighting?"

"Well, I just don't think those four need our help." Already they had watched Takato and Guilmon rush into the field followed by Henry and Terriermon shortly afterwards, who had entered in order to stop a little girl who had chased her balloon onto the field."

"I swear this whole city just has shitty parents." Tai thought as he watched the little girl just waltz into danger and not a single adult witnessed it.

"Well you can't blame me for worrying." Tai finally spoke out after several painfully silent seconds. "You've seen it yourself. They don't even know if this is the kind of life they want. We can't have them going into this sort of thing if they're half-hearted and at the same time I don't want them to feel like they have no choice in the matter."

"Well I guess that's a mature way to approach it, but what about us? What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Is this the life you want?"

A small twitch appeared in Tai's eye, "Agumon, this isn't the time to be talking about this sort of thing. Also, don't you think they've been in there to long?"

"Just believe in them Tai." Agumon pleaded.

Tai agreed, but it went against his better judgment. He felt useless standing up here away from the action, but finally after several more minutes something amazing happened. The D-Field broke down on it's own as four figures dashed away from it. They even managed to rescue the little girl and bring her back to her mother without even being seen.

"Tai did you see that? They did it and all on their own."

"Yeah, they really did. I'm impressed."

"This actually has to do with what I've been thinking about. Hear me out Tai. Those Tamer kids beat us to just about ever portal we go to and you must have noticed it too, but digimon attacks and damages are at an all time low. We've had a lot more free time now than we've had before."

"Still not enough if you ask me and that may have to do with me lightening up my class schedule." Tai countered.

Agumon was not deterred from his argument though, "But even if they have some reservations I have no doubts that those children have what it takes to be great Tamers. We've already seen them accomplish so much. For crying out load, I think we've seen enough to prove that they don't need our help."

"So what are you getting at Agumon?"

"Well, don't you think it's time for us to retire?"

"Retire?" Tai choked out in shock as he turned away from the excitement. "That's crazy talk Agumon."

"But think about it. It would be great. I'm not saying abandon the good fight. I'm just saying, maybe we should take a back seat and let those kids have their spotlight. Just imagine. No more late night patrols."

"No more chasing digimon through the night." Tai added as he began to imagine the future.

"I can stay home all day and watch wrestling and catch up on anime." Agumon continued, growing ever more excited.

"And I can finally focused on school and bring my grades up."

"Well, it's not like you're failing."

"Yeah, better grades won't hurt. Who knows, maybe I can finally take Izzy up on that offer to help him set up that tech business he wanted to start."

"And then you could get a girlfriend."

"And visit Kari again."

"And the rest of your family for that matter." Agumon giddily added.

"Yeah, you're right!" Tai said with new found determination. "Let the kids worry about the fighting."

"Yeah, a peaceful life without fighting digimon—" Agumon began.

"Sound great!" Tai finished as the two friends burst into laughing.

Just around the corner two young women were in the process of saying goodbye after being reunited for the first time in almost a year. The shorter one had short light brown hair and wore glasses. Her cloths, and figure, seemed dull when compared to her taller friend who wore a plaid mini-skirt and long sleeve blouse in reminiscent of the school girl fashion, but it was plain to tell by her hips and impressive bust that she was no school girl anymore. Her most prominent feature was her red hair, which was so big and spiky that many who didn't know better would consider her Tai's sister.

"Oh I missed you so much, Chizuru." The big haired girl said as they exchanged a farewell hug.

"You too, Jun. How long will you be in town?" The glasses girl name Chizuru asked.

"Till next Monday just to visit family."

"That's great. How about I call Momoe up and all three of us can spend some time together, just like the old days."

"That would be great, thanks Chizuru."

"No problem." Chizuru said as the two friends exchanged and updated their contact information before saying their final goodbyes.

Jun Motomiya was super happy. Finally visiting her home town and being reunited with old friends and family. There was no way this day could get any better she thought as she turned the corner to see a young man around her age talking joyfully with a midget in a hooded jacket.

"Sound great!" Tai finished as the two friends burst into laughing.

Jun froze in her tracks. There was no way this could be true. After so many years.

"Tai?" She asked as the young man turned towards her and stared at her in confusion.

"Jun?"

"And Agumon too?" She questioned as she stared at the poorly disguised orange digimon.

Tai had nothing against Jun personally. It's just that past events made him feel awkward around her. Unfortunately for Tai, Jun's shock resided faster than the young man's flight instinct could kick in and he soon found himself in a tight hug. Tai wasn't just shocked. He was petrified. Powerless to stop this young woman from clinging onto him like he was some close personal friend, yet he couldn't push her away. She not only looked nice, she smelled nice. She felt nice. THIS FELT NICE. It had been so long since he had ever been hugged that Tai couldn't help but lower his guard at this strange sense of reassurance. Before he knew it, he was hugging her back. There was only one other time in his life where he had ever hugged this girl like this, but now wasn't the time to remember that.

The next hour or so was a blur to Tai as he and Agumon were dragged to a nearby open-air coffee shop. The two were forced to accept Jun's treat as they played catch up. The two young adults talked cheerfully about the pains of being a student and swapping humorous stories from past jobs. It didn't matter if they weren't that close in the past. What mattered was this feeling. This wonderful assurance that comes when you see a familiar face in the strange land that is "Adulthood". It was an amazing feeling. One Tai hadn't felt in so long.

"You know, at first I didn't eve recognize you Jun. I was all like, why does this beautiful girl know my name?" Tai said.

"Oh, so you think I'm beautiful." The slightly older girl playfully teased.

"Well I'd be lying if I said you weren't"

"Well aren't you in luck. I'm single right now and I'll be in town for the week. If you want to ask me out now is the perfect time." She offered before the two of them burst out laughing. Was she serious? Who knows and who cares? The point is that they were having fun just being themselves and that's all that mattered.

Damn the world and damn the wild digimon. It was a great change of pace and as Agumon stuffed his face with the second helping of scones Tai, for the first in a long time, felt normal. He felt so normal… and so wrong. This wasn't right and in his heart he knew it. He hated what he had to do. He hated that he would have to ruin this moment. To destroy this beautiful woman's laughing face. He hated that he had to wreck everything in his life.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" He finally asked as her Jun's laughter began to die down.

"What?" She asked; her and Agumon easily catching on to the sudden change in Tai's demeanor.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" He asked once more in a louder voice as he suddenly stood up and turned away from her. "You should hate me."

Jun stood up as well, her voice pleading with the young man, "Why would I hate you, Tai?"

"Because it's my fault! He never would have left it wasn't for me."

"Tai, stop blaming yourself. It was a motorcycle accident and you know it!"

"It wasn't an accident! He was m—"

"Tai stop!" Jun cried out as she clung to him from behind. Already he could feel the hot wetness of her tears as they began to stain his back. "Please, just stop. It's easier. It's easier for me if I believe it was an accident."

It was perhaps another 10 minutes before Jun had calmed down and starting looking much like her original self. The two said their goodbyes and Tai and Agumon silently watched as Jun disappeared from their sight down the subway tunnel.

"Did you hear that Agumon? It's easier to believe the lie. It's always easier to believe the lie." Tai said, though it seemed like he was talking more to himself than Agumon.

"Yeah." Agumon nodded as he looked up at the semi-blank expression on his partner's face. "Tai, we can't stop fighting can we?"

Tai gently petted Agumon's head as he simply said, "I'm sorry."

Agumon didn't know if Tai was apologizing to him or to someone else who wasn't there, but it didn't matter. The digimon understood. With those two words, Agumon understood everything Tai wanted to say.

End Chapter 7

More Author Notes
It's sort of a talking head chapter. Bugs me a bit and I decided to rewrite it three times so you may notice a rough transition. So this chapter is high on revision list and there is a possibility of actual changes and not just corrections going on here. I really liked Jun from D2, but that's a minority opinion. I think it's established that Tai has some emotional and metal issues, minor as they may be. Though I think he's been a little to brooding recently, but no worries. This will be depressing Tai's last planned appearance for awhile. I also believe the back story I created is actually pretty dark so I look forward to reveling that to everyone bit by bit. I actually have the story planed out already to about chapter 10 which covers the first appearance of Metal-Growlmon. I've actually already started on chapter 8 so look forward to that soon. Later and thank you everyone who reviewed. I really do love and value your support.