10) The Betrayal
"Then it's decided", Icedevimon announced. "I am your partner, and you are my Tamer".
Ruki's digivice glowed, encased in a white light, though it was still hooked to her belt. The color scheme changed to icy white with a silver ring around the LCD screen.
"How could you?", Jen called after her.
"Shall we get better acquainted?", Icedevimon asked, as Ruki slipped her hand into his. As they walked off, the digital field dissipated, then disappeared, leaving them on the still to be constructed floor.
Renamon got up, saying nothing.
"Renamon?", Takato asked.
"What're you doing?", Jen asked, as she climbed the chain link fence surrounding the construction site. He could only watch as the anthrovixen leaped into the night, disappearing from sight. "Renamon?"
"That little bitch!", Takato declared. "I knew she was no damn good from the get-go!"
Jen sadly shook his head. "I'm inclined to agree with you... I hoped she was coming around, I mean, after Dikugumon, that she was beginning to understand that digimon aren't just objects for her own personal amusement".
"What do we do now?", Takato cast a worried glance at Guilmon. "With Icedevimon...", he looked back to Jen. "If they attack Guilmon, or Terriermon, what will we do?"
"I don't know. I'm hoping that now, she might at least be content to not attack Guilmon. After all, she wanted Renamon to be able to digivolve. Still, I'd keep an eye out for her. Avoid her the best you can".
"Moumentai!", Terriermon called out. "Now that I can evolve, I'll protect us. I'm sure Growlmon will do the same".
"I was hoping to avoid that", Jen pointed out.
0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Renamon didn't care where she landed. Some rooftop, some place she felt safe. She dropped to her knees and wept.
"How could she do that to me?", she asked the night. The tears poured and the sobs shook her entire frame. It was as if the entire Material World had come crashing down on her, threatening to disencorporate her into shards of data. She couldn't be that fortunate.
She wasn't unnoticed. Inside, below her, eighteen year old Koichi Lonnegan heard. "What the fuck?", he asked himself, as he slid open the window of the gable and stepped onto the slanting roof. He headed towards the sound.
Some crazy broad was crouched at the edge of the roof. "How in the hell did she get up here?", he asked himself. In the rising moonlight, details began to stand out. Yellow... fur? Long, bushy, fox-like... tail? His heart quickened, as he began to feel as though he'd hit the lottery. More than once. Could it be? Did they really exist, after all? Here: in the Land of the Rising Sun and sci-fi monsters?
Koichi was almost beside her by the time Renamon knew she wasn't alone. She looked up, then jumped up. The look in those sapphire eyes spoke of immense pain. Koichi said nothing, simply holding the strange figure in a hug. Renamon should have fought; at the least, she should have disappeared. However, it felt so good, having a warm body next to hers, she did none of these things. She wept on his shoulder until he felt her strength begin to fail her. He didn't let her fall, instead, taking her under the knees and arms, and carried her back to his bedroom in the loft.
Koichi laid her on his bed, then settled into a chair, pulled up an ottoman. Oh well, he wasn't going to get much sleep tonight...
The sunlight awakened Renamon. Had it all been some horrible nightmare? Upon opening her eyes, she knew it was not. She found herself in some unfamiliar place. A boy's bedroom from the look of it, but much neater than she figured, from what she could gather about boys.
"So, you're awake?".
Renamon started, but realized there was no threat here.
"Where am I?", she asked.
"My bedroom...", he answered in English, a language she didn't understand.
"I don't..."
He switched to passable Japanese: "I said, you're in my bedroom. I guess you had a rough night? You sort of passed out, and I couldn't leave you stuck on the roof all night long... If you don't want to talk about it, I'll understand... It's just that I didn't know...", he wondered how to put it, and decided the straight forward approach was best. He could apologize later. "I didn't know Furries were for real", he said. "By the way, I'm Koichi. Koichi Lonnegan".
Renamon had never heard that term before: "I am a digimon, a renamon, to be precise".
Renamon was obviously female. Her only fashion accessories were the elbow length, fingerless gloves she wore, each bearing the Yin-Yang symbol over the backs of the three fingered, clawed, hand-paws. There were purple zig-zags under each sapphire eye, and another symbol of the same colour decorating the upper thighs, another stylized yin-yang symbol. That did not look the least bit like any sort of natural markings. She made no attempt to cover her fuzzy white labs, and only her mane covered her breasts. Her nicely shaped furry buttocks partially concealed by the fluffy, fox-like tail. Renamon also stood a bit over six feet tall, tall for a woman, and definitely tall for Japan.
"What's a 'digimon'?" - a term he had not heard yet, as he tried to focus on her eyes
"We come from the Digital World - a world of form without substance that consists of pure data. That's how we all lived up until we discovered we could enter the Material World as physical beings...".
Renamon explained everything: about the slow deterioration of the Digital World that was sending more and more digimon as refugees into the Material World, that for some reason digimon had lost the ability to digivolve in the Digital World. They could evolve here in the Material World, but only with the help of humans she called "Tamers" who had special devices, called "digivices" that allowed them to evolve their partner digimon.
Not all digimon came with good intentions. Some were feral, who acted like wild animals because they didn't know any better. Some came as trouble-makers who made life difficult for those who came only to seek a better life, or to escape the destruction, or who didn't trust the rulers of the Digital World: the Holy Beasts.
Koichi explained about Furries: anthropomorphic animal people who could talk and think as humans with human-level intelligence. Renamon explained that description fit a good many digimon, but not all of them.
"What say we get on downstairs for breakfast?", Koichi invited.
"You aren't going to hide me?", Renamon asked, genuinely surprised.
"Surely you didn't think I would make you live up here? The folks'll be surprised, but trust me on this: they'll get used to you, especially Gran. C'mon, you'll see", he said as he took her paw in his hand. "There's nothing to be afraid of", he reassured.
"Dad, Gran...", he announced.
"What the HELL have you done this time?!", his father challenged. He figured his son had suborned one of the neighborhood kids into dressing up in an animal costume. This Furry obsession was one thing, but going this far...
"It's not what you think", Koichi told him.
His father looked closer. As much as he wanted to believe otherwise, it was all too obvious this was no fursuit. Not even the professional one Koichi wanted to spend $2,500 on back home could look that realistic.
"What... are you?", he finally asked.
"I am a digimon", Renamon explained again. "We come..."
"That can wait", Koichi's grandmother interrupted, "I'm serving... I'll set another place", she said.
They expected her to join them? Renamon sat uneasily at the kitchen table. The grandmother (her name was Victoria, she would later learn) set before her a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon, two slices of toast and butter, and a tumbler full of orange juice.
Renamon just sat there.
"What were you expecting?", Koichi joked, "we'd make you eat on the back porch?".
The look on Renamon's face told him that that was precisely what she was expecting.
"If it isn't to your liking, or doesn't agree with you, I'll make whatever you like", Victoria offered.
"That won't be necessary", Renamon said. "Thank you for the meal".
After breakfast, Renamon told them all about what happened.
"And then...", she swallowed hard, "and then..."
"Renamon, if you have to let it out, just let it out", Victoria said.
"I wasn't allowed to show emotion... Ruki expected me to be a digimon warrior", she explained.
"Warriors have feelings, too, yannow", Koichi told her. "The more I learn of this Ruki Makino, the less I like. It's too bad about the divorce; someone needs to strip her naked and belt whip her bare ass until she can't sit down for a week", he said.
Renamon was again crying on Koichi's shoulder: "Let it out, just let it out".
"Spit swear", Koichi announced, once Renamon had regained her composure. Renamon didn't know what that was. Koichi spat saliva into the palm of his hand. Renamon imitated what she'd seen him do. He offered his hand, and she took it:
"I swear that I will never betray you, not now, not ever, not for any reason".
He saw something out of the corner of his eye, he looked up. Near the ceiling was a small ball of white light. It began slowly descending, dropping into his hand. It suddenly burst apart, leaving behind something... it was white with dark blue trim, and a clip-on lanyard.
"What..."
"A digivice", Renamon explained. "We are partners; you are my Tamer".
"As your Tamer, there's just one rule you need to follow without fail", he told her.
"Wh... what would that be?", she asked, anxiously.
"Just be yourself... Uhhhh... What does a digivice do?", he asked.
"It allows you to identify any strange digimon you might happen to meet; it will alert you if there's a near-by incursion. It has a direction finder, in case we're separated. It also works with the game cards to add new powers temporarily... I've lost you, haven't I?"
"Yeah, I'm afraid so".
"There are some people I think you should meet".
Victoria took her aside, "I think I might be able to come up with something to fit you".
"Thank you, but no: I have all the fashion accessories I need", Renamon declined. "I understand your need for covering, but as you can see, I already have covering. You could say my 'clothing' (finger quotes') is built-in..."
"That's not what I meant... it doesn't bother you?"
Renamon was sitting on the sofa, and as soon as she sat down, she let her legs flop open. It quickly became obvious that the concept of "lady-like" behaviour was a completely foreign concept.
"Ahhhh... yes: Outworld modesty. I've encountered it before. You have to understand that sex is an attribute of bio-forms. In the Digital World, there is no such thing. Gender is by personality and disposition only, as we exist there as data – one's and zero's – that is all form without substance. I can't feel the same as you about this new bio-form. No digimon do. We wear fashion accessories, but any sort of clothing is strictly functional.