Chapter 13

As Rika watched Takato wave the "Digimon Tamers" flag her mind wandered. It was hard to piece together the recent events that just happened. It started out normal enough with her hanging out with Tai. Next thing she knew the fabric of the universe was ripping and she was racing off to save reality from an evil Digimon. An evil Digimon, mind you, that beat up the Digimon of her two friends and her own. Could they have even won that fight if Tai wasn't there? Growlmon did evolve, but she didn't want to think of the possibility. Then there was that woman, Jun. Who was she and why did she know about Digimon? She spoke with them only briefly and said she would like to spend more time with all of them. She seemed to express interest in Takato specifically. Whatever her goals were the young boy seemed quite taken in by her and agreed to meet with her later that same weekend.

"Rika, are you listening?" Takato asked, shaking the girl from her thoughts.

"Oh, yeah," She lied as she regarded the flag once more. "I was just thinking how I couldn't believe you actually made something like that. Also, why do I look so mad?"

"Huh, well that's how you always look, isn't it?" A small laugh rang from Henry and Terriermon at that candid reply. The young girl merely rolled her eyes at this as she focused on something more important.

"Takato, can I ask you question?"

"Sure. Guilmon, what are you doing?" Takato chided as the Digimon as a sudden gust of wind caught the flag causing him to fall over with it.

"Just," Rika hesitated for a moment, unsure how to phrase her question. "What was it like to fight him?" A pregnant pause fell over the small group as they awaited the young boy's reply.

"Let's be honest first. It was scary. There was so much anger and so much power. There is no other way for me to describe it other than scary. It's like when you're playing a video game and you meet the final boss for the first time. You do everything right and you try your best, but you still lose. No matter what you do you still lose, but you don't have the choice of not fighting them. It's kind of like that."

"So you knew you couldn't beat him?" Henry asked as he took into consideration Takato's words.

"Well for a brief second there I honestly thought we could win."

"His punches really hurt, more than any other Digimon that I've fought," Guilmon added.

"Hey Henry, let's make sure we never have to fight him. I don't like the idea of being punched really hard," Terriermon tagged in at the end of the conversation earning a small laugh from everyone. With nothing else to truly say about the day at this time they all agreed to call it a night and head home. Rika waited till Henry and Terriermon left before she spoke once more to Takato who was busy fixing the flag.

"Hey Takato, can you do me a favor?" She asked as she looked away feigning disinterest.

"Sure." He put the flag down and turned his full attention to the young girl.

"Can you not hate him?" A moment of confusion passed Takato's face as he was unsure what she was talking about.

"Tai I mean. What he did was wrong and I'm sorry about that, but he really is a nice guy," She turned to face him. "So if possible, please don't hate him. He comes off as a jerk too, but he means well."

"You don't have to worry yourself about that. I'm a bit more… stunned if anything. I mean he certainly has the power of a Legendary Hero, I just wish it wasn't used on me. Still, I think I can understand where he's coming from. I don't agree with it, but I think I understand."

"None the less, I see to having him give you a proper apology."

"You can do that?"

"Of course I can," She screamed in indignation. "

"Wow, color me impressed."

"Are you mocking me?"

"No, just seems you two really get a long is all. Have you even seen the anime?"

"I binge watched the first season and I've already scheduled time for the second. Why?"

"Just," He looked at the ground as he tried to find the right words before just spiting them out, "doesn't it bother you that he's almost nothing like the show?"

"A bit at first, but I can assure you everything that makes him a Legend is still there. You just have to dig a little deeper to get past all those pesky problems that come with being a human."

"Wow, I think you just impressed me again. Thanks, I'll keep that mind the next time I see him."

"No problem." She turned to walk off before she stopped. "Oh and by the way, I won't lose to you. Just remember that I'm going to be the one who beats him first."

"What are you talking about this time?"

"Haven't you noticed? He doesn't take Renamon and me seriously. He doesn't take anyone seriously, but he did with you. Honestly, it kind of pisses me off."

"I think he was just mad."

"Maybe or maybe I'm just thinking too deeply about it. Still, he sees something in you which he doesn't see in me and that annoys me."

"Rika…"

"Or maybe I'm just a selfish girl and want him to look only at me? Whatever, nothing makes sense after you spend so much time with. That even sounded like something he would say. Next thing you know I'm going to be quoting The Odyssey or something?" She had recalled him quoting several lines from that work in their earlier talks.

"The Odyssey?"

"For Fate has wove the thread of life with pain, And twins ev'n from the birth are Misery and Man!" She quoted in English.

Takato gave an embarrassed laugh. "I'm not very good with English. What does that mean?"

She looked back at him with a strangely accepting smile on her face. "I honestly have no idea."

Rika was up and dressed fairly early the following day. True there was no school, but she had promised her Grandmother that she would spend the day with her and their first stop was going to be theater house to watch a traditional Japanese play. Takato had just called her a few moments ago wanting to go on "Patrol". Tai never had anything good to say about his patrols, so Rika wasn't too keen on having to go on her own and she was secretly glad she had a legitimate reason to decline.

"Are you ready to leave?" Her Grandmother, dressed in her traditional yukata, asked as she had just hung up her cell phone.

"Yeah, let's…" the sound of a text message being received interrupted her sentence. She frowned as she quickly checked her phone.

"Rika, I'm hungry. Bring me something to eat, will you?"

"Who does he think he is?" She replied out loud as she texted an answer.

"I'm busy. Get it yourself."

"But I'm tired and I don't want take out for once."

"Don't be so selfish. I can't just magic myself there with food for you, now can I?"

"You should move in with me. That way you don't have to worry about the distance."

Rika blushed profusely at reading that line.

"Are you drunk?"

"Just half asleep and hungry, but that's almost as bad."

Rika's Grandmother let out a small giggle. "My, my, I can't recall a time when I've seen you so spirited when texting with your friends, Rika. In fact, I can't recall a time I've seen you text your friends."

"I'm so sorry, Grandmother," Rika apologized and she bowed. "It's just my stupid friend. He's bugging me because he's hungry and…"

"Oh, so it's a boy. Is it the same one you cooked breakfast for yesterday?"

Rika mentally slapped herself for letting that slip. "Well yes, but he's just being a big baby right now so it's ok with I ignore him for the time."

"You should invite him over sometime. We hardly ever get the chance to meet your friends and I'm sure your mom would love to meet this young man who's caught your attention so."

"Grandmother," she hissed in annoyance as loudly as she respectably could.

"I'm sorry about the teasing, dear. Let's be off," the elderly woman said in between bouts of giggles.

Takato had been rather upset when his two friends, Henry and Rika, turned up down on his offer to go on patrol. That didn't last long as pretty much on his friends from school decided to give him a surprise visit that morning. Now, any worries he had before were completely washed away by the games they all played together with Guilmon.

"I'm not bothering any of you, am I?" A young woman asked as she stepped out of the foliage and approached them. She wore what appeared to be a white summer dress as if she had stepped right out of a painting.

"Jun-Oneechan," Takato exclaimed as he and the others stopped their games for a moment to regard their new guest.

"You sound surprised to see me. Did you forget about me already?"

The young boy nervously scratched the back of his head, "Of course not."

"You 'Goggle-Boys' are all alike, so quick to forget about a pretty girl and such bad liars too.

"Well it's just I was playing with my friends and…"

"Bark!" Jeri's puppet cried out, startling Takato as it had sometimes in the past. "Takato, who's the pretty neechan?"

"Jeri, this is Jun. Jun… huh?"

"Motomiya," Jun finished for him as she drew closer to the two children. "Sorry for interrupting your games. How about you two finish up and we can talk afterwards, OK? Just don't make a girl wait too long." Takato nodded before he turned around and left, Jeri at his heel.

"Takato, doesn't that girl look a bit like the Jun from the anime?" Jeri asked.

Takato looked back at his friend, "What Jun?"

"Davis's older sister, remember?"

Takato barely remember that character as he turned back and regarded the older girl. Her name, her style, her hair especially and then it clicked. Everything came together. She even mistook him for Davis when they first met.

"What, she's THAT Jun Motomiya?" He shouted. He was still wrapping his head around the first season of the anime being real, but the second as well. "You're that Jun Motomiya!" he more or less accused the young woman with a point of his finger.

"Well I'm a Jun Motomiya. I'm not sure what you mean by that though."

"From the Digimon anime?"

"Oh, geez that's embarrassing. That cartoon went out of its way to make me look annoying and self-centered. I'm really nowhere near that bad," She assured the two children.

"Oh, just look at you all having fun," the voice of Impmon mocked them from above. "I bet you haven't even noticed that your friends are fighting a Digimon just under your feet?" Guilmon began sniffing the ground around him, before he looked up at Takato.

"Takato-mon, there are Digimon underground."

"That's right. While you've been out here showing off your friends have been desperately fighting."

"Are there really other Digimon around?" One of the school children asked.

"Can we come?"

"Yeah, let's go!"

"No, you can't!" Takato shouted, silencing all his excited friends. "This isn't a game so we have to go on our own." He pulled out a card and slashed it across his digivice. "Digi-Modify: Steel Drill"

Guilmon's claws morphed into a pair of steel drills which he used to begin digging a tunnel downwards.

Elsewhere, Tai and Agumon slowly descended a flight of stairs into an abandoned subway station. Tai was focused on his digivice which periodically gave off a beeping sound.

"Combined with the intel we got from Kaiser, our new guest should be passing through this station shortly. Remember, we have two goals. We have to keep the target from reaching the surface level where bystanders can get hurt and to keep the target from leaving this area and thus giving it a chance to get lost in the tram network."

Agumon flexed a bit to loosen his muscles. "So I just unload a few fireballs to get his attention and then we delete it. That sounds simple enough. Anything else?"

"It's a blind contact for the most part, so just do what you always do." Agumon nodded as he readied himself by facing the tunnel he knew the wild Digimon would come out off while Tai stayed back by the stairs so he could maintain eyesight of the whole area.

The beeping of Tai's digivice slowly sped up to symbolize the closing distance. Soon they could hear a loud hissing noise as Agumon spotted a large pair of glowing eyes speeding towards him from the darkness of the subway tunnel. It was only a short moment longer before a huge white snake burst out of the tunnel.

"Spitfire" Agumon shouted as the barrage of fireballs shot out and collided with the serpent.

The giant snake quickly slithered around one of the subway columns, bypassing Agumon, before it struck with near lighting speed at Tai. Tai calmly regarded the giant snake and took no action to dodge. He didn't need to. In raw speed Agumon was faster and before the giant snake maw was anywhere near Tai Agumon had already placed himself in between the two. The digital dinosaur had taken a standard Aikido stance, before he stepped into the attack.

Agumon easily caught the huge, unhinged jaw and with practiced footwork and a fluid spin of his arms he redirected the snakes attack momentum and slammed the serpent into the ground in the same way as one would redirect and throw any charging opponent. The white snakes head was slammed into to ground cracking the concrete around it.

"What's your verdict?" Tai asked as the snake slowly lifted its massive head from the crater and tried to shake some sense back into itself. Agumon stared at the massive opponent before he dropped his guard with a disappointed expression.

"Upsettingly weak, larger size and unusual body shape makes using traditional throws require a bit more work, but the strength behind the attacks are well… lacking. I honestly feel like this would be a waste of our time."

"I was afraid of that. Let's just make this fast. Go for quick sensory removal to disable it (eyes, ears, tongue stuff) before finishing it off. Data level will be brought to 40% in order to grant edge."

"That's vicious, Tai. Wouldn't it be faster to just digivolve and delete it?"

"Don't be ridiculous. With the extra size and power you would get from digivolving there's a good chance you could bring the whole station down with collateral damage. Let's keep you small and precise."

The huge snake suddenly hissed loudly as the back of its head was engulfed in blue fire.

"Rika, is that you back there?" Tai called out.

"Tai, what are you doing here?" Rika's called back, the top of her pointing hair barely standing out from behind the snake's massive body. Nearby stood Kyuubimon and Galgamon, both ready for battle.

"My job, but Agumon and I were thinking you guys could handle this one. So we're just going to tag out for now."

"Hey, you can't just leave in the middle of a battle," She shouted back.

"But there's like three of you. You'll all be fine."

"Takato's not here, though."

At that moment the hole in the ceiling was drilled out as Guilmon and Takato came tumbling out of. Their painful fall down was broken by the snake digimon's head, allowing them to quickly pick themselves up with little to no injury.

"Hey guys, sorry we're late," Takato apologized as he slashed an evolution card through is digivice.

"See, no problem," Tai assured her as he pulled out two candy bars from his pocket and gave one to Agumon.

"So, are we on standby or something?" Agumon asked as he unwrapped his candy bar.

"Something like that. Sorry, if you're bored."

"It's cool. I was the one who said I didn't want to waste my time fighting this guy."

"Still, sitting and watching isn't exactly fun either and it's not like we can leave until we are sure the threat is neutralized." Tai took a seat on the stairs as he unwrapped his own candy bar and watched the fight play out in front of him. "At least their team work is improving. Still rubbish, but it's not like we knew what we were doing the first few times."

"Tai, speaking of that past WE, can I be honest with you about something?" Agumon asked as he took a seat next to his longtime friend and partner.

"Shoot."

"Well I know we've talked about it in passing, but I'm honestly getting lonely. I miss our old friends. Hell, I even miss your mom's cooking. Do you think…" Agumon trailed off as he turned and looked up at Tai, "Do you think we can see them again soon?"

Tai smiled as he gave the small rookie a playful punch on the shoulder. "Stop being a baby. Of course we'll see them soon. I mean things are already changing. I'm sure one day soon things will be just like the sappy ending of that cartoon that was based off us."

"Contrived, but well meaning."

"Yeah," He absent-mindedly agreed as he watched the three champion Digimon and their Tamers finally take down the large snake. "And boom goes the dynamite."

"Great job Rookies, now let's see if we can get anything of use of him," Agumon cried out as he stood up and approached them. "Hey, stupid, dying snake can you hear me? Who are you?"

A low guttural voice rumbled from the snake, "I am one of twelve servants… sent here to show you the power of our god."

"Yeah, yeah, we know. A Deva, one of twelve holy generals that protects the Bhaiṣajyaguru in Buddhist mythology or in this case one of the four Digital Sovereigns. Yeah, can you can it with the mythological angle already, because your whole hierarchy is based on human mythos. It really doesn't make you seem more mysterious or anything. At least if you called yourself the great Gob of Gobsmack or something we could at least ask you what a Gob is," Tai said in perhaps the most jaded of tones one could ever imagine.

"Tai, as much as I would love to go into discussion with you about the similarities of Human and Digimon theology now is not the time," Agumon hissed.

"You are the Asura are you not?"

"That's right," Tai answered.

"You know much about us, but that won't help you. We're coming. Be prepared." With those final words the snake burst into data.

"We didn't get much out of him, did we?"

"On the contrary. He called us Asura which means he knew about our last fight. That means they have some way of communicating information that we don't understand yet or more than likely we have a spy who is relaying information back. Either way, it's more than we had before."

"Hey I hate to interrupt the discussion going on, but the police are coming and we need to go, like now!" Takato exclaimed as he gestured towards the hole in the ceiling.

Agumon looked up at the hole as the larger Digimon easily made the jump with their partners. "How the hell does he…"

"You two need a lift?" Rika asked from on top of Kyuubimon.

"That would be helpful," The college student replied as he and Agumon climbed on top of the large fox. "So I just wrap my arms around here or what?"

Rika gave a small shriek of surprise as Tai wrapped his arms around her tiny waist. "Knock that off, I don't want my friends to see."

"Oh, so it would be fine so long as they couldn't see?"

"Yeah, maybe," She whispered back as Kyuubimon leapt into the air and began ascending the tunnel.

After a short moment they burst into fresh air and sunlight in the middle of the park. A group of school children eagerly awaiting their return, mesmerized by the appearance of more Digimon. Tai gave a quick head gesture to Agumon. A few steps back and a quick run and they could easily sneak out of this crowd while everyone was awestricken by the larger Champions. Sadly for him, Rika had already started to figure out how his mind worked a bit as she quickly grabbed him by the sleeve.

"Where do you think you're going Mister 'I Owe an Apology to My Biggest Fan'? We have a lot to talk about." Tai gave a pleading look towards his partner who simply shrugged. They really had no choice at the moment, but to just roll with the punches.

A nearby phone range as Henry answered it. The sound of a rather irate older woman could be heard over the speaker. Rika smiled to herself as she took a hold of the phone and answered, calming the woman, who happened to be her Grandmother, down. A few laughs were exchanged before Takato suggested they all move somewhere less conspicuous in order to hide.

"My Tai, aren't you just a magnet for trouble," Jun teased the young man after having spotted him crawling out of the hole with the others.

He laughed as he absently scratched the back of his head. "You know me. If there's Digimon involved I won't be far off."

"I had thought you were just living a normal life with a Digimon. Now I don't think that's the case anymore."

"Oh come off it, Jun. This is entirely normal. Nothing strange going on here." Sometimes if you played stupid and acted cute people would end up ignoring your presence when they catch you places you shouldn't be. Sadly, Tai was pretty sure that tactic wasn't working on Jun. The bad thing about meeting people from your past is they tended to ask more questions than normal people and Tai could tell just by looking at her that she had questions. Once chance encounter isn't too bad. You're blinded by the meeting so questions are generally superficial, but the second time you met. They've already had plenty of time to think of questions to ask the second time around. Tai needed something to break the path of this conversation.

"Hey you two," An angry Rika shouted at them, "Unless you like being questioned by the police now isn't the time to flirt."

"We're coming!" Tai shouted back, quickly using the situation to escape and run ahead. Score one for the jealous 10 year old.

The new location was a bit deeper into the forested regions of the park and beyond the walking trails. The many children entertained themselves by climbing onto of Growlmon. Tai and Agumon's aloofness earned them admiration and stares, but made them unapproachable for the standard grade scholar.

Tai was lucky. He wasn't going to deny it. There was always something working in his favor, especially when it came to people. Just as he was afraid he was going to get the third degree from Jun she spotted the scrapped knee Takato had gotten from his fall. It was a small injury. One that any grade schooler would easily dismiss, but it was enough to send Jun into big sister mode. So long as she could be distracted he was safe.

After bandaging Takato up she took to dotting on him in ways that would embarrass any boy if it wasn't a beautiful girl doing it. The young boy was powerless as he was seated in between her legs, his goggles removed, as Jun slowly brushed his hair. His unruly mop, long the challenge to his parents and barber alike, easily fell to Jun's gentle, yet firm strokes. She smiled and hummed as she ran the brush through his locks with a motion that was so practiced, so ingrained in her, that even now, years since it was last used, she performed it flawlessly. Not once did the brush pull or rip a hair on his small head and Takato couldn't tell if the blush on his face was from being embarrassed or from the warmth of Jun's touch as it flowed into him.

"Jun-Oneechan, you're the same Jun from the anime, right?" Takato asked.

"Well yes and no. I'm much cuter," She playfully answered.

"So you knew all the original Digidestined?"

"Well yes, but it wasn't till after the events that I really became friends with them."

"But you knew Davis first hand, right? I mean he was your brother."

Jun froze for just the smallest of seconds before she continued brushing his hair, a smile ever present on her face. "That's right. I had the honor of being the big sister to one of the biggest twerps in history."

"So what was he like? I mean, Tai says that not everything was the way the cartoon painted it."

"Well some things are truer than others. Davis was very much like the cartoon would have you think. He was a big haired, dork just like his idol Tai."

"Hey!" Tai shouted. Jun stuck her tongue out at him.

"He's not your hero too is he Takato? You can't tell from the anime, but he's really cranky and a bad role model." A laugh spread out among all the Tamers as they listened. Even Agumon couldn't help, but get a few giggles in on his partner's behalf. "He would talk about Tai non-stop sometimes so you can imagine how happy he was when he found himself being part of the whole Digimon thing, just like said hero. Yeah, Davis was a dork. He was a snorer, his feet stunk, and he would always eat the last cookie and even though he was so dense he could never figure out I left the last cookie there for him on purpose he was a good kid. Brave and big hearted to a fault he wanted nothing more than to make a world where humans and Digimon could live together," She finished as she placed the brush down and put Takato's goggles back on.

"Wow, you must really love him. You were probably a great big sister."

Jun wrapped her arms around Takato and hugged him tightly. "No, I wasn't. I was a terrible sister. The worst. You know the last time I saw him we had a fight and I told him I hate him."

"Jun-Oneechan, it's OK," Takato assured as he placed his hand over the older girl's. "I don't have siblings, but I'm sure if you apologize he'll forgive you. Right, Henry?"

"Right," the Chinese boy agreed. "I mean, I fight with my siblings all the time." Jun's embrace around Takato tightened as the young boy felt a warm liquid fall on the back of his neck.

"I can't."

"Why?"

"Because my little brother is dead. He's dead and the last thing I told him was that I hated him. See Takato, I'm a terrible big sister." Several moments passed as Jun cried. Even the Takato's classmates, content to merely just play before, had been drawn closer by the cries of the young woman. All were curious about the mention of death, but none said anything. Everyone there knew they had no power, no place in this world Jun had created. The only one she was allowing in right now was Takato and it took the young boy, stunted by the turn of events, several long second for him to realize his responsibility. Yes, that's what it was, a responsibility. He had to ask her. As much pain as it would bring, as much sadness as it would fill her with she needed to say it out loud, but she wasn't going to say it if he didn't have the courage to ask.

"How?" Jun paused her crying as she tightened her grip on Takato. It was slowly starting to get painful, but he said nothing against it.

"He was killed… by bad men who hated Digimon!" There it was. The shocking reveal that Tai had hinted at, but never said. None of the Tamers knew what was worse. That fact that they could die or the fact that it was humans, not Digimon, that killed Davis. Takato felt numb, but that numbness soon became pain. Jun was tightening her grip again and he couldn't deny her anymore.

"Jun-Oneechan, could you please let go? I know you're sad, but it's starting to get hard to breath." There was no reply. She couldn't hear the poor boy as her mind was overtaken by grief.

"Jun, let the poor kid go. You're hurting him," Tai shouted as he pulled the girl to her feet and off of Takato. Jun froze for a bit as if she didn't know where she was as she regarded Tai. She looked at him for a moment as if she didn't know who he was and as clarity came upon her, her sadness turned to anger.

"It's your fault! You and your damn Digimon," She cried as her fists and hands collided with his face and chest. "If he didn't have a Digimon, none of this would have happened. It's your fault Tai, I know it is. If you didn't have one, he wouldn't have wanted one and… and…"

"I know!" Tai finally shouted after it started to tire herself out. I know it's my fault. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Jun continued to cry into his chest as she pounded it. "Tell me why? Tell me why they had to kid my little brother?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out. I promise."

"Tai, we can't talk about that out loud," Agumon protested as Tai was now clearly violating their mission peramtors.

"Now's not the time for secrets, Agumon. Jun, I swear I'm going to find out who did this to Davis and I promise you I'm going to bring them to justice. You have my word."

"How many?" She whispered into his chest.

"What?"

She pulled her tear stained face away and looked up at him. "You can't tell me Davis was the only one. How many are there like him?"

Tai let out a sigh in defeat. "In Japan alone there are 14 confirmed dead, 41 who are missing."

Jun's hand went to her month in shock. "14, 41? That's 55 children! How could someone kill 55 children and that's just in Japan. How many, Tai? How many have they killed in the world?"

"I don't know. The estimates can reach as high as 500."

"Tai, that's way too much info for this crowd," Agumon pleaded with his partner as he took notice of the shocked and horrified faces around him.

"500 children killed and all because they had Digimon?" Tai gave a solemn nod. "That's terrible. You have to do something. Promise me you'll do something."

"I promise that I'll find those who killed Davis and bring them to justice."

"NO!" She cried as she pounded his chest. "Not just Davis, all of them. You have to help all of them."

"Jun, I'm not sure I can."

"You have to, dammit! It's your fault. Don't you see," she screamed as she cried into his shoulder. "It's your fault."

"Yeah, I know, Jun. I know."

End chapter 13

Well shit that felt cathartic. This has been on my mind for some time and it's done. I hope you all enjoyed it half as much as I enjoyed writing it.