Act 1: Beating Heart

Segment 3: A Glorious Arms Race

Chapter 3-13: Dragon Boy

Kazuhiko and Satsuki had split from Asuka and Ryuta – both of whom said they needed to return home as soon as possible. Only one of the two seemed happy about it. Asuka was adamant she needed to make sure Hawkmon didn't have any lasting injuries despite its own protests that it would be okay. They had asked Ryuta if he needed someone to go with him, but he was insistent he would be okay on his own. Kazuhiko's shoulders rose and fell as they watched him walk away. Even though he was not nearly as closed off as he had used to be several months ago, sometimes, even Kazuhiko wondered what was up with him and his family. Yuuka knew, Satsuki had said, but she kept these kinds of things under tight wraps, even to her.

They shrugged and turned away. Kazuhiko stretched. "Monodramon, you hungry?"

"Heck yes I am!" it replied from his phone. "Are we stopping somewhere for food?"

Kazuhiko glanced at Satsuki with a half smile. She sighed. "What are you looking at me for?"

"I figured you could give some recommendations."

She snorted. "If you have budget to blow."

"Hmm… maybe I do." He raised his eyebrows.

She nodded and stared into the distance. "You do realize there's a good reason my parents do a lot of work with open flame, right?"

"Uh… is that a threat?"

She stared at Kazuhiko as menacingly as she could. "Yes." She snorted. That wasn't the case at all. Her parents were very easygoing people in truth. She just liked watching Kazuhiko squirm. It was highly amusing.

"A-alright then." He breathed deeply. "Where do they have locations?"

"They're both in Ginza."

"G-ginza?!" Kazuhiko panicked.

Satsuki laughed. "Kazu, this shouldn't surprise you!"

He backed down. "Okay, so maybe this isn't such a good idea." He also wasn't exactly a fan of what might happen if either of her parents saw her with him. They didn't know him at all.

"Suit yourself," she said, continuing to walk. "They'll be closing up by the time we get there, anyway." Kazuhiko glanced at his phone again. It really was late. She continued, "I'm not even sure they're in the restaurants at this point. They usually don't stay until closing time anymore."

"Wait, does that mean-"

"If you come to my place, they'll be there? Probably." She smirked. "Do you want to get grilled?"

He gulped. It was far too early for that. "Nah. Not yet." He jogged a bit to keep up with her. "Also, maybe we shouldn't be bothering your parents for that at this hour."

She yawned. She was getting tired herself. She didn't want to bother her parents either – Etsuko and Gaku were working extra hard to get her what she wanted and had taken on loans to make that possible. They told her not to worry too much about it, but given that Makoto was himself studying at a pretty high tier university, they didn't have much left.

She figured she'd have to make sure they were well-cared for when they retired.

"Yeah, I agree." At this point, the only thing that might be open would be some ramen or other noodle shops, as well as izakayas, and if they were going to make sure Gabumon and Monodramon were happy, they might not be able to be in a public place at this hour – especially not when it was a Friday night. "Let's just stop by Yuuka's family shop, I guess. We're also kind of gross."

"Oh, yeah, good idea." It was a short walk anyway – no more than ten minutes.

As they headed north, Gabumon commented, "I hope that's it then."

"Makoto didn't see any other potential locations on that diagram, so I guess that should be it," replied Satsuki.

Gabumon sighed. "Thank the four gods for that."

Satsuki peered at her phone. "You guys keep mentioning these four gods. Kazuhiko," she asked, "are those the four you were showing me last week?"

"Uh, Qinglongmon, Baihumon, Xuanwumon, and Zhuqiaomon? Is that right, Monodramon?"

"I think so?" Monodramon replied.

"Y-you think so? How little attention did you pay in school?" Kazuhiko was incredulous.

"Uhh… heh heh, not much at all."

Satsuki snickered. Gabumon replied, "Monodramon… how did you survive in the Digital World?"

"I fought my way through! Someone needs help, I go and punch some baddies, and they pay me for helping out!" Satsuki was pretty sure she could hear Gabumon facepalm in her phone.

"Of course you would," groaned Gabumon. What did it really expect from a Monodramon? At least they were generally virtuous Digimon.

They continued to walk in quiet after a few curious eyes followed them as they were talking to their phones. Kazuhiko looked around to make sure the coast was clear again. He stretched, bending to the left, then to the right. "I think Asuka was right."

"Oh?"

He rubbed his lower back. "It's tightening up. Ugh, this is going to suck tomorrow morning."

"You could always get Monodramon to massage you out," Satsuki suggested with a grin.

Kazuhiko was not a fan of that idea. "I don't think it should."

"Why not, Kazuhiko?" asked Monodramon. "I've got real big, strong knuckles. I could work out every single one of your-"

"I'll pass."

"Fiiiine," Monodramon complained as they reached the konbini. The doors slid open. As usual, everything seemed well-stocked – even the ready-to-go bento meals were still stacked up.

"Hello!" greeted the cashier.

"Good evening," replied Satsuki. She looked around. "I suppose the Ishida family retreated upstairs." The cashier nodded.

Kazuhiko immediately went to fetch some apples and karaage – both of which were Monodramon's favourite. He looked around and grabbed an ebi curry for himself. Satsuki picked up a box of beef curry for Gabumon, and for herself, selected an omurice. As she made her way back to the cashier, she passed by an aisle of snacks.

Oh, no. It was those again.

Kazuhiko checked out and looked over. "Two bags of curry chips, huh? I had no idea you liked them that much."

"I have to admit, it's a bit of a problem."

"But two?" Satsuki pointed to her phone. "Right."

As the two of them were about to leave, a voice called out. "Hey, Kazuhiko, Satsuki!" It was Yuuka. She hurried over. She seemed a bit agitated.

"Yuuka? I thought you'd be headed to bed by now," asked Satsuki.

"You never texted back!"

The couple stared at her, and Yuuka stared back. Satsuki burst out laughing. "Our bad! We must have been so tired, we all forgot. Oops!"

"I was so worried!" Yuuka embraced her and Kazuhiko. "How did it go?"

"It was alright. Though, Kazuhiko… Maybe we should go somewhere else first." The three of them walked over to the bakery area. Yuuka flicked the light on as Satsuki and Kazuhiko took the chairs off a table and sat along with Gabumon and Monodramon. Yuuka shut the gate door.

"Worked up an appetite after that?"

Kazuhiko squeezed his eyes shut. "A lot of running. Again."

Monodramon replied between crunching of an apple, "At least you were running toward the danger!"

"Monodramon, running toward danger isn't always a good thing."

"It was this time!" Monodramon stared at Kazuhiko with its bright golden eyes. He stared back, then cracked up laughing.

Yuuka glanced at her phone.

• • • • • • •

Sumida Tamers

Ishida Yuuka
Hey, you all okay?
22:30

Nagatomo Asuka
im good
gone straight to bed wwww
23:10

• • • • • • •

At least Asuka was fine. That meant only Ryuta hadn't responded. "Guys, Ryuta was fine, right?"

Satsuki nodded. "Took a good hit to the shoulder though."

"What? Why?"

Satsuki finished a bite of rice. "He had to shove Asuka out of the way and got punched." Yuuka sighed and slumped back in her chair, a hand over her eyes. Satsuki giggled. "You know the guy well enough."

She shook her head. "I do. Please tell me he didn't go wailing on some Plasmids again."

"Not this time."

"Thank goodness. I would have punched him if he did." She glanced at her phone again. Still nothing. Maybe he was just going to be quiet all night, but he hadn't responded earlier to a personal text. Knowing his parents, though…

She got up. "I'm going to go find out if he returned home."

"Yuuka, it's kind of late," replied Kazuhiko.

As she opened the gate between the bakery and the shop, she said, "I know, but I'm worried about him." She walked away and shut the gate before anyone could say anything.

Kazuhiko blinked at Satsuki. She shrugged. He asked, "Is something up with his family?"

"You haven't noticed? I'm surprised it's taken you this long." Kazuhiko fell silent. Monodramon noisily crunched on the rest of its apple, then went for the fried chicken. Gabumon slurped on a soft drink. "In fairness," she continued, "Yuuka doesn't like to talk about it either."

Kazuhiko grimaced. "Nothing we can do about it, though." Satsuki shook her head. Kazuhiko looked to change the subject. "So about your parents' restaurants… they're going to hand it off to someone else when they retire?"

"Probably." She wiped her mouth and stared across the table at the now empty chair. "Though in truth, Etsuko was a bit sad that I wasn't taking up the craft."

"Really?"

"She felt I had the chops for it. I wasn't so sure. I liked practicing at home with their help, but liking it and doing it professionally are two different things."

Kazuhiko stared at her. "That's a familiar feeling," he admitted.

Satsuki looked up at him. "I had no idea," she replied. "What do your parents do?"

"Interior design. They really wanted me to keep the business running after they retired, but I guess they figured architecture was good enough. But they were adamant about it." Kazuhiko smiled. "Just like you, they said I had the skills for it, so I went for it. But honestly, I really wanted to do professional photography."

Satsuki let out a soft "huh".

"Maybe you'll like the professional culinary world more than you know. I bet," Kazuhiko added, "your parents can give you some guidance as well. More than they already have, I mean."

Satsuki tapped her bottle of water. "Maybe."

"But you already got into chemistry at UCLA?" She nodded. Kazuhiko continued, "Perhaps it's best you try it out for a year and see how you like it. If not, you can always change course."

Satsuki nodded, but she didn't seem on board. "I guess I could, but… I feel kind of bad about it if I did. They've already sacrificed a lot just to get me into UCLA. I don't want to waste that."

"And if you turn out to dislike university and studying, what then?"

Satsuki thought about it for a moment. Perhaps she should reconsider, when she had the opportunity. Her father had trained in France, and her mother here at home, in Japan. Both of them had said that they had always wanted to see what America had to offer.

"Then I'll see what they have to say."

Ryuta had sunk into an armchair and curled up as much as he could. Amedramon watched him from the floor. The yelling had started just a minute ago, but already Amedramon was about done with it.

"You cannot go out with these people anymore!" thundered Hideaki. "Look at yourself, Ryuta. This is the second time you've been beat up like this!"

"We're not getting in gang fights, I swear!" he replied, equally as loud.

"Then explain this bruise, son!"

"I already said that it's better for you not to know!"

Hideaki put his hands on the armrests of the chair and pressed his face right up to Ryuta's. Amedramon wanted so badly to get up there and push him away. Its claws kneaded the carpet. "Either you tell us what you're doing, or Amedramon gets kicked out of here!"

"You – piss off!" Ryuta shoved his father away. Hideaki stumbled backward and landed on his rear, stunned that his son would do that. "Leave Amedramon out of this!"

Hideaki got back up to his feet and wagged his finger at Ryuta. "Now you're asking for it, kid."

Haru had been peeking from behind her bedroom's doorway the whole time and watching tearfully. "Please, father, don't make Amedramon go away-"

"Haru, go back to bed!"

"But-"

"Now!"

Instead of retreating, she burst out crying. Kanae ran over to her and guided her back inside, then closed the bedroom door. It only muffled it so much. Hideaki turned back to Ryuta. "Unlock your phone."

"No," he flatly replied.

"Do it!" Hideaki held out his hand. "Do you want to fly in September or not?!"

Ryuta rolled his eyes and unlocked his phone, then handed it over. Hideaki poked around and looked in Ryuta's contact list. There it was, the "Sumida Tamers", or whatever they called themselves. "What a bunch of immature children," Hideaki muttered as he copied over the contact details. "I'm going to message these people tomorrow and – what's this?" His brows furrowed. "Segawa Takaharu?" Hideaki sighed and handed Ryuta his phone back, which Ryuta hurriedly scanned over to make sure his father hadn't done anything to it. "I'm going to ask Aki and Shunpei tomorrow what the ever loving hell is going on with you people."

Ryuta was about to respond, but Hideaki pointed down at Amedramon. "And as for this thing, Ryuta, I don't want to see it! You can keep it in your room, or in your phone, however that works, but not in front of me! Do you understand?"

Ryuta glared back at him. Amedramon glanced between Ryuta and Hideaki. It pleaded silently for Ryuta to not say something stupid. He was always good for one of those moments. "I'm going to let Amedramon go wherever it wants!"

That wasn't it. Amedramon whined fearfully.

Hideaki suddenly got down and picked up Amedramon by the chest. It wailed and clawed at the air as Hideaki marched over to the door and opened it. Ryuta followed him. "Dad, put it down!" he yelled.

"I'll put it down outside, and you can choose to go outside along with it!" Hideaki threw Amedramon as best he could out the door and into the hall, then put his arms out, as if to be a signpost: one hand, stay, the other hand, leave.

Ryuta chose to leave. He shot his father a death glare, which his father returned easily. As Ryuta exited the apartment, Hideaki spat back, "I do not want to see that dragon in this apartment again! And until I find out what you're up to, I do not want to see you with Takaharu or these other people!" The door slammed shut behind Ryuta and locked.

Ryuta had the key, but he wasn't going to be welcome back inside any time soon.

"Ryuta," whined Amedramon, "why did you have to say that?" He didn't respond. He only started walking away, towards the staircase. "Ryuta!" Amedramon followed after him. "Answer me!"

He continued downstairs instead of upstairs. This wasn't a sulk-in-the-garden kind of night, more of a sulk-in-a-park kind of night. Not that it made much of a difference. "I'm going to Yuuka's place." Never mind.

"You're not going home tonight?!" They reached the bottom of the stairs. Amedramon followed him out to the street. The security guard was distracted with something.

"Amedramon, you're in plain sight."

"Whatever! Ryuta, you can't keep doing this to yourself-"

"This isn't my fault!" he yelled back. He spun around and continued walking south.

Amedramon followed him. At least it was late enough that most people were already at home. "It's not your fault, Ryuta, but you keep saying and doing things that get you deeper in trouble."

Ryuta waved it off. "Oh, sure, it's my problem. My problem for protecting Asuka. My problem for protecting you. My problem for doing what it goddamn takes to keep this world safe!"

"Nobody's questioning your commitment!" Amedramon bounded in front of him to stop him from walking any further. It climbed up on his chest. At this height, it could put itself eye-to-eye with him. "Ryuta, I know just as well as all the other Tamers what you do for us." He looked away. "Look at me!" He didn't. Amedramon grabbed his face and turned it for him. "But you have to recognize when and when not to push your case. They know nothing!"

"And we should keep it that way."

"Ryuta, they react like that because they know nothing!"

"Then maybe you should go tell them!"

Amedramon snorted angrily. "They don't even want to see me!" Ryuta had no response. He simply stared intently at the violet eyes. Amedramon's head whipped back. "Someone's coming." It hopped back down to put all fours on the pavement. It didn't care that it could be seen. If it had to scare away this person, it would. Fortunately, that wasn't necessary.

Yuuka seemed to catch sight of them, then broke into a run. "Ryuta! Amedramon, what are you doing out in the open?" She slowed as she reached them. "Seriously, why are you two still out here? You didn't respond to my messages!" Ryuta didn't make a single sound. "Amedramon, why are you both out here?"

It replied sullenly, "We got thrown out."

Yuuka collapsed into a squat, head nearly touching her knees. She shook her head. Had it really come to this? She stayed there for a while. Amedramon nosed her and asked, "Why are you out here yourself?"

Still squatting, she replied, "I wanted to check on you. Ryuta never replied. I wanted to make sure he was safe." She got back up, but she was close to tears. "Why, Ryuta? Why would they do this?"

He snorted and laughed, then stared at the ground. "They finally decided they got sick and tired of Amedramon."

It yelled back, "That wasn't the reason!"

"Ryuta," warned Yuuka, "be truthful with me."

He sighed. "They thought I got this bruise from getting in a gang fight. I wasn't going to tell them what's been happening. I didn't think that would be any better than a gang fight, honestly, so they don't know anything." He pinched his nose bridge. "Maybe I got a bit too hotheaded then."

"What did you do?!"

"I pushed Hideaki, and he fell backwards."

Yuuka never more wanted to slap him in the face. "You fucking idiot!" Ryuta snapped to attention. He'd never seen Yuuka quite this angry with anyone this before. "What made you think that would have made the situation better?!"

"He was going to kick out Amedramon if I didn't tell him-"

"So you chose to shove him instead?!" Ryuta leaned against a wall. Yuuka was right. He fucked up. "Dragon boy, hey, look at me!" She stood right in front of him and pinned him to the wall. "I'm going to give you one more chance. I'm going up there with you. And we're going to explain everything we've been doing the last week. And if your parents decide still that you shouldn't be seen with us, and that Amedramon shouldn't be around, then move out! It's only, what, five more months? Go somewhere else!" Her eyes were filled with tears, and so were his. "Fuck it, move in with us! I want to care about you, Ryuta, but you make it so hard sometimes!" she yelled as she shook him by the shoulders.

"Why would you want to do that?" he flatly asked back.

"Where else are you going to stay where you can be with Amedramon?!" Yuuka knew full well that dragon meant a lot to him – maybe even more than her. But she didn't care about that right now. If he lost Amedramon, he might actually go insane.

Ryuta stared at her while he processed what she had said, then gripped her in a tight, wordless embrace. She hugged him back with tears coming down, then after they had let go, she reached down and hugged Amedramon as well. "I care about both of you, okay? I know how much you want to be together." She stood back upright and started walking back to Ryuta's apartment. "Let's go up."

The security guard was once again distracted. He mumbled back something, apparently trying to fix something behind the desk, while Ryuta walked past with Amedramon and Yuuka. As they got in the elevator, Amedramon asked, "Should I be seen?"

Before Ryuta could say anything, Yuuka replied, "Please hide for now."

"Okay." It beamed into Ryuta's phone.

"And Ryuta? Keep your mouth shut."

"Fine." The elevator announced his apartment's floor. They stepped out of the elevator and toward the door. Yuuka inhaled, then exhaled. She tapped a quick message to her parents saying that she was with Ryuta and that they might be very late. Apparently Nagisa was still up, and swiftly replied with an OK and a cheeky grin. He had no idea what was going on; he only knew the two of them were seeing each other. He probably thought it was something else.

Yuuka wished desperately it was.

She rang the doorbell. There was a muffled cursing behind the door and a wondering of how ungodly an hour it was for there to be an unannounced visitor, and how they could have possibly gotten up there without being notified, and then the door opened. Hideaki's visage immediately went from anger to shock, then a horrified smile. "Oh! Yuuka! Ah… Ryuta is behind you. I see. That's how you got up here. Please, come in." He watched them enter the doorway, quickly shooting Ryuta an angry look. He didn't want visitors so late at night, but Yuuka was nice enough that he could make an exception for her.

"What brings you here so late, Yuuka?" asked Kanae. She had emerged from the primary bedroom in nightclothes. Hideaki motioned to the sofa.

"I was worried about Ryuta, honestly," she said as she sat. She tugged Ryuta down to sit next to her, which he did. He stared at the floor.

"Worried about our son? Yuuka, I'm sure there are less burdensome things to have to think about at this time," Hideaki replied with a faint smirk. "But we appreciate your concern nevertheless."

"He was about to go wandering on the streets again," she remarked.

"Well, he is known to do that from time to time," Kanae assured her.

Yuuka already knew better. "And he only does that when he's bothered by something. Mr. and Mrs. Koyama, this isn't the first time this has happened. I've been taking note for months now."

"He has a lot to think about! University is difficult after all, and he'll be going abroad too," Kanae replied, hoping that this would get Yuuka off their case. Yuuka stared back at them. She wasn't about to disappear so quickly. "Yuuka, perhaps it's best we all give Ryuta the time and space he wants. Let him wander. It's what he likes to do." Kanae sat across from them and placed down a mug of hot water for Yuuka. She didn't even look at it.

Hideaki and Kanae stared back at Yuuka. Ryuta snorted and started laughing. Yuuka swatted his knee, which got him to shut up. "Mr. and Mrs. Koyama, I'm certain you've seen this," she said, pointing to Ryuta's bruised shoulder.

"Of course! How could we not!" remarked Hideaki. A hint of that anger was creeping back into his face. Even with his generally cheerful-by-nature appearance, he was definitely reddening again. "Ryuta's been up to no good as of late, I'm sure, and we felt it was appropriate to remind him that he's supposed to be a mature adult now, and we don't want Haru to learn any bad habits from him."

Yuuka inhaled. "Have you heard of our friend group? The one him and I are in?"

"I saw it today," Hideaki replied. "The Sumida Tamers. I'm not sure why you call yourselves that, but I suppose I don't understand the youth anymore now."

She steeled herself. "Have you seen the headlines that came out during the spring holiday? About Yamada Denki?"

"Of course we did. We were so concerned!" said Kanae. "And so glad that you were unhurt."

"It was because of the Digimon that we were fine, Mrs. Koyama."

"It was? Then what about Ryuta?" Kanae asked.

Yuuka snorted and nodded slightly and repeatedly. How to phrase this? "Actually, that time, Ryuta was protecting Amedramon."

His parents turned to him. He was busy rubbing his shoulder to try to get some of the latent sting out. "Son, what were you up to that weekend?" demanded Kanae.

"Yuuka said it," he replied.

Hideaki was outraged. "So that dragon was just good for noth-"

"It covered my ass today!"

"And you still got struck in the shoulder, again!"

"I already said I was protecting Asuka!"

"Then if Falcomon can protect Yuuka, why can't Amedramon look after you?"

Yuuka shot straight up and put her hands out. "Please, let me explain further!" The two men looked up at her and fell silent. She sat back down, and noticed that Haru was peeking out of her bedroom door again. It didn't matter. Hopefully, Haru wouldn't remember this as she got older. "It's not so simple, what happened that day in Yamada Denki. In fact, you might remember the day after that, we were in Waseda." Hideaki and Kanae nodded. Yuuka started to say something, but paused. So Ryuta was right. It was hard to say it. But she had to. "Both of those days, and today, we've been busy trying to keep this world safe."

Hideaki snorted suddenly. The laughing intensified. "F-forgive me for laughing," he wheezed, "but this is unbelievable." He continued to laugh. "Keeping this world safe… what a statement. Oh my," he muttered as he held his gut. "Unbelievable. Ludicrous. Preposterous!"

Yuuka pressed her lips together. At least now she knew where Ryuta had gotten that pattern of speech from. "I understand this seems ridiculous, Mr. Koyama, but it's true." She pulled out her phone. Kazuhiko had taken pictures from that time in Yamada Denki, sure, but somehow this kid managed to snap photos at all the weirdest times. He had photographed the inside of the data centre – the humanoid Plasmids, the UPS room, Rhodramon, the giant heart, Tomonobu, Strikedramon, Asuka hugging Aquilamon. How was he able to do this? Yuuka figured she could ask later. She swiped over to a photo of the data centre's corrupted interior and the translucent pods inside. She laid her phone on the table. "This is what we've been fighting against. All twelve of us."

"Twelve?" asked Hideaki.

"Six Tamers, six Digimon."

Kanae suddenly screamed as she looked at the photo and grabbed Hideaki. Hideaki looked down at Yuuka's phone. "What is the meaning of this, Yuuka?"

"The meaning of this is that these things have been appearing in Tokyo lately, and we've been putting an end to them. They form in these strange and corrupt spaces, like these. We go in there and destroy the things keeping them open, and then return. This is why there were customers knocked out in Yamada Denki. If we had left the one in the university to sit, it could have spilled out. The one in the data centre did spill out. You may have seen the headline from earlier today. This is what we found in there." She swiped to the next photo of Tomonobu. "And this man was trapped in there. We rescued him."

"Who…?" wondered Kanae.

"Ryuta? Who was this?" asked Yuuka. She hadn't been told.

He replied, "A detective of cybercrime. Isono Tomonobu."

"Ryuta, I want his contact information," said Hideaki.

"He didn't give us any."

"Then I will find it and call him tomorrow." Ryuta flinched. That may not go so well. Hideaki continued, "Yuuka, I'm not sure I can believe you."

"Oh, you can't?" she flicked to the next photo, one of the UPS room. It so happened that Kazuhiko had gotten a shot of Asuka while she was unaware, and Ryuta was rushing toward her.

Kanae and Hideaki stared at it, then up at Ryuta. He was still looking away – directly at Haru, in fact. Neither of them had moved. Yuuka continued, "This is where that bruise came from. He shoved Asuka out of the way and was hit in the process. Amedramon and Hawkmon were powerless to stop it, because they didn't have enough space in there to evolve push these things away. So he did it himself." Kanae made a noise somewhere between a gasp and a sob.

Yuuka continued anyway. "Ryuta truly deeply cares about our wellbeing. He cares about a lot of people. I'm sure you've seen him pour his heart out for Haru, well, he does for all of us." Hideaki was, just like Ryuta, staring away – in his case, out the window and to the night outside. Like father, like son, Yuuka figured. Of course they would naturally conflict so much.

Kanae got over her shock and replied, "Yuuka, we had no idea. Ryuta told us nothing."

"Honestly, I'm not surprised," Yuuka replied boldly. If it stung, she meant it. "Maybe he didn't tell you because he didn't know how to say it, or maybe he just didn't want you to worry about him. He has his reasons, Mr. and Mrs. Koyama."

"Ryuta." Hideaki had snapped back to the conversation. Ryuta didn't respond. "Hey. I'm sorry for what I said earlier." Hideaki shook his head and looked down with regret. "I didn't know. When I said you were being immature… if I had known, I wouldn't have said that at all."

"I don't care what you said about me," Ryuta remarked. "I've heard it already. I've heard it over and over."

Yuuka slapped his leg again. Would he ever learn?

He was undeterred. "All I want to know is if you're going to walk back what you said about Amedramon."

"I will."

"That's all I wanted to hear." Ryuta sat back in the sofa with arms crossed.

Kanae wasn't done asking questions. "What are these things coming from, Yuuka?"

She flicked to the next photo. Kanae got one look and then turned away. "Oh, goodness… this is like one of my nightmares." Yuuka switched away. It was uncomfortable for her to look at as well. Hideaki stared at the photo. "Is this… Amedramon?" He shook his head. "It doesn't look like it."

"Mr. Koyama, did Ryuta explain to you what Digimon are capable of?" Yuuka asked. He shook his head. "Under the right circumstances, they can learn to take on more powerful forms. It so happens that Amedramon's next form was too large to fit in that tiny room, but the one after that was this one, and it did."

Kanae's head flicked over to a flitter of activity. Amedramon was out and about and had run over to Haru to comfort her. She giggled and nuzzled Amedramon's snout. It whispered something to Haru, who nodded and went back to her room and closed the door. Amedramon returned. "It's true," it said. "My Champion form is too large – too large to fit in this apartment, of course – but this is just about large enough to fit this."

The four humans averted their gaze briefly as it turned bright white. By the time they could look directly at it, its head was just about touching the ceiling, but it was enough space. It stared down at them. "I achieved this form because of Ryuta's sacrifice. He looks out for us. I look out for him," it murmured as it knelt on the floor next to Ryuta.

His parents stared in awe at it. There it was – the same Digimon, much larger and more impressive, just like in the photo. "I wish it didn't take him getting injured for this to have happened," Rhodramon added, "but it seems our states of mind are interlinked, somehow. I had sensed his burning desire to keep the others safe. I was compelled to respond in kind."

"Rhodramon," Ryuta retorted, "you have nothing to apologize for."

Hideaki leaned back in the other sofa. "And all this time I had thought you were just a cute pet."

"Far from it," Rhodramon murmured. "All of us Digimon are fully aware beings. It pains us, sometimes, to exist here, constantly hiding from the public. But we sacrifice that freedom while we are here, not only because we don't yet know how to return to our world, but because, at least for me, I want to be here."

Hideaki squinted. "Why stay? Why stay in a place that you don't belong?"

"Because there are people here who need me. Your son."

Kanae put a hand on Hideaki's shoulder. "I told you," she whispered. "There's a good reason he's been much happier ever since it appeared." Hideaki nodded.

"Yuuka, I know it's late, but thank you for coming and explaining all this. It's still hard to believe, but… well, I think I'll hear it from the Segawa family tomorrow evening. I'll ask them about it. They return from Nagoya tomorrow morning anyway." Hideaki got up. "Ryuta, please forgive us for today." He grunted in response. He was too busy examining Rhodramon's greaves and helmet.

"Mr. and Mrs. Koyama, I suppose I should leave now," said Yuuka, standing up herself. The mug of water was untouched. She walked back to the apartment door. "Ryuta, can you learn not to say stupid things?"

"Sure." He didn't seem committed.

"Goodnight!" Yuuka escaped out the door before Hideaki and Kanae could say anything else. When she was in the elevator, she leaned against the wall. "Falcomon, why do I do this?"

"Didn't you say yourself that you wanted to try living with him for a while?"

"I didn't realize he was this boneheaded."

"So you're not going to?"

Yuuka considered it. Did she trust him to fix his relationship with his family? Not really. Did that matter? She bit her lip. It was more important that he learned not to say dumb things around people, but… it seemed he reserved that only for people he disliked a lot. So maybe it didn't matter either. "I'll give him a chance."

"You keep saying this, Yuuka."

"I know! I know!" She walked out of the elevator and past the security guard, who bade her a good night. The street air was refreshing after being in that stuffy place again. "I have a hard time letting him go, that's all."

Falcomon did not seem impressed. "You said you weren't going to fix him, Yuuka, but that's all you seem to be doing."

"He… just needs to be shown the way, I guess." She sighed. "Perhaps a year off on his own will help him clear his mind a bit."

"You're not going to stay evolved like this all night, right, Rhodramon?" asked Ryuta. Hideaki and Kanae were still watching.

"No, it takes too much energy. Maybe if I were older and more experienced, but not yet." It reverted back down to its Rookie form and hopped up onto the sofa. "You haven't even showered yet, Ryuta." It sniffed. "I can smell it."

"Am I disgusting?"

"If you don't shower tonight, you will be," it replied.

"I'll go do that then." He walked away to undress and shower. Hideaki and Kanae watched it retreat to his room, where it stared at them with its purple eyes. "Something more to say?" it asked.

"N-no," Hideaki stammered. It still unnerved him, and he didn't enjoy the sight of something not human living in the apartment, but it was clearly far more intelligent than he thought at first. If not that, then definitely much stronger, and far more intimidating. He wasn't about to mess with that. "Sorry for lifting you up and throwing you around earlier."

"It's nothing. I've had worse happen to me." It curled up on his bed.

Hideaki nodded and returned to the primary bedroom along with Kanae. "Hideaki," Kanae whispered behind a closed door, "it's going to be five months until Ryuta flies to Canada."

"I'm aware," he replied. Kanae slipped into one half of the double bed. "I don't want to spend the money on all of us flying there, Kanae. I don't have the vacation time, either." He sighed. "At best, I can help him pay for a return flight. How does that sound?"

"That sounds perfectly reasonable," she replied. "But we need to help him feel more comfortable talking to us. He didn't tell us anything."

"This is our problem?" Hideaki asked.

"Yes! Hideaki, we've pushed him to be academically successful and to be a model brother for Haru, but we've never made sure he was socially successful as well." Hideaki leaned against a wall and didn't respond. Kanae continued, "He was right, when he said that we needed to make sure Haru was making friends in school. We never did that for him."

"And he can do that for Haru."

"Not in five months, he can't!" Hideaki rubbed his face as he realized his mistake. "That job falls on me – and you!"

Hideaki stared out the window. And him? That would be tough. Incredibly tough. Work did not allow much time off. Still… Haru was only eight. He wanted her to remember him kindly. He nodded. "You're right. It does."