Act 1: Beating Heart
Segment 4: Breakup
Chapter 4-5: Last Call for Summer
Ryuta looked over the bookshelf. At this point, the shelf was used for completed models more than books, but that didn't bother him. It worked. He set the now-complete MetalGarurumon model next to the finished WarGreymon model. Rhodramon leaned its body on his shoulders and remarked, "That's a lot of models."
"It's not like I have much else going on right now." There were over ten by now. It was one of the few things he bothered to spend money on. It kept his hands busy, at least, and he had been needing something to fill that need a lot so far.
"Did you see the big ones in the store? The ones in the big clear boxes?"
"Oh, those? Those are pre-built. They're more for looks than anything else." Rhodramon's hands were clutched around his chest. He had noticed the other Digimon seemed generally hands-off of their Tamers, but not this one. This one loved to get physical. It always had. Ryuta looked up and reached up. "Hey, does this visor come off?" he wondered as he poked gently at the visor Rhodramon was wearing. It was a partial helmet; it only covered its forehead, eyes, snout, and chin. The mouth was open, and so was the rear of the head, from which its horns protruded. It still had a snout horn, of course, as so many Dramon did.
"It does, just takes a bit of effort." Rhodramon lifted its hands to the sides of its head and fiddled with the latches, then unlatched the visor. The chin guard unhinged and dangled freely to allow it to lift the whole guard off its snout. The whole thing pulled away. "See?" It was just a blue-and-white-scaled dragon underneath.
"I…"
"You don't know what you expected."
"It should have been this, really."
Rhodramon snorted with amusement and threaded its snout horn through the hole in the snout guard, then clicked it back into place. "Fair question, I guess."
"What about the rest of your armour?"
"Even more tedious to take off, that's why I don't."
"But what if you devolved when you weren't wearing it?"
"It would disappear. It's technically a part of me. Just like how WarGreymon's armour is just a part of it."
"Right."
Rhodramon peered down at Ryuta, who was looking up at it. Ryuta reached up and rubbed its neck. It growled softly and its tongue rolled out. Even in this large form, it was still prone to doing that. "You've been engrossed by my armour lately," it remarked.
A voice broke their private moment. "Ryuta, are you ready to go?" Kanae yelled from outside his bedroom. Osaka had ended up too expensive for his father's taste. Hiroshima it was instead.
"Yep!" he replied. "Ah, Rhodramon… I wish you could travel out in the train with us like this."
"Me too. Don't forgot to show me around, eh?" It had picked up his Canadianism after living with him for so long. Lomamon had done it too. Oops. "I want to see everything."
"Of course." Rhodramon reverted down to Amedramon. Ryuta grabbed the luggage and rolled it out to the foyer. Haru was fussing with her shirt. "God, it's getting real warm again." The air conditioning had been turned off, but as the sun was coming up, it had just gotten muggier and more sweltering. It didn't help that July was coming up literally tomorrow. If only they were in Canada. Then Ryuta would have been able to show Amedramon the Canada Day festivities. Oh well. They could do it next year.
Haru finally quit her annoyance with the shirt buttons – too high up her neck, she complained. It wasn't even that Kanae had done it up; their mother had just given up on the idea. It was left partially done. "Summer's around the corner, mom. It might be better for her if we just left it that way," he remarked.
"What if she gets hit with too much sun?"
"That's what sunscreen is for."
"She didn't want to do that either," Kanae replied.
"We'll be indoors most of today, it's fine," said Hideaki. Ryuta still found it odd his father was taking a June-July vacation. He hadn't ever recalled him doing that before. "Are we ready to go?"
"Yes." "Yep." "Dad," asked Haru, "What about Amedramon?"
"Amedramon will have to travel privately," her father replied. "Sorry, Amedramon."
"No, I expected it. Maybe one day."
"Well, in that case, let's go." Amedramon disappeared in a flash of light into Ryuta's phone. The four of them filed out of the apartment, ensuring all the lights and appliances were off, into the late morning sun. The storm from last night had passed, but the heat had stayed even with some of the moisture taken away. It was only going to get worse from there. Ryuta was pretty sure he was already sweating, or maybe it was just the air. Hideaki locked the door and the four continued down.
"Are we taking the train to Ueno station or a taxi?" Kanae asked.
"We live close enough, we can take the trains. It should also be past the morning rush." Hideaki had always been a good planner. These kinds of plans were where he excelled. It was only when they arrived at a destination that this planning instinct got a bit ahead of itself. Sometimes it rubbed Ryuta the wrong way. He would try his best not to let that happen this time.
They boarded an Asakusa line train – a rapid-limited express to Haneda, which made Ryuta's head spin. The last time he had brought up the service pattern weirdness, his father had just laughed and said there was no feasible way to serve a city this big with just one or two service patterns. Despite the Express in the name, they still stopped nine times before the train suddenly announced it was changing lines.
"What's going on?" Ryuta asked his father, who just stifled a laugh.
"Son, you haven't used these enough."
"I know, I try to avoid it as much as I can."
"You shouldn't, they're great. The train is just changing lines. We'll be fine." Ryuta gave his father a quizzical look but shut his mouth and watched as the signboards suddenly changed the vehicle's service to Keikyu Main Line. The terminus did not change. So that was what his father had meant. They took the train one more stop to Shinagawa, where they alighted and made the quick walk to the express trains.
"Man, that was unusual," he remarked. They made their way to the Shinkansen platforms, where the high-speed rail trains waited with their elongated noses. Ryuta whipped out his phone. He had to. "Amedramon-"
"What are those?!"
"Super high speed trains."
"They really do look like it!"
"You know, despite how fast this train is, it will still take, what, four hours to get to Hiroshima?" Hideaki nodded. "We could have flown. It might have been cheaper."
His father replied, "And you've never taken a Shinkansen. You should, before you leave, just for the experience." His father had multiple times for business and apparently adored them.
Despite it being a Sunday morning, the train platform was still busy, and so was the train itself. This must have been the most popular route, especially because passed through all the major cities in the way: Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, with a halt in Okayama as well. If someone had just drawn up city names by memory, they would have gotten most of them right.
They settled into their seats near the middle of the train. Hideaki and Kanae sat together, and Haru and Ryuta sat in front of them. Ryuta waved his phone around as people boarded. It was filling up, but there were no standing passengers, of course. Not in this car at least.
As the train rolled away from Ueno, service carts rolled through the aisle, handing out food boxes. His father had told him these were worth the trip. They were certainly neatly packed, for sure. Ryuta wished Amedramon could be out and about to see this – even share it with it – but the train wasn't quite roomy enough for that. Besides, there were plenty of people on board.
Haru had excitedly untied hers open. "Ryuta, this looks so good!" she exclaimed.
"It sure does." He checked over his shoulder.
His father was grinning. "You see what I mean now?"
"Yeah."
The train eventually pulled into Hiroshima. By then, it was mid-afternoon or so. If they had flown, it might have been a few hours less, but he had to admit, not having to deal with turbulence was nice. The train was a much smoother ride than he had expected.
Amedramon had told him once that on its travels, it had come across trains in the Digital World – Trailmons, of course. It had never ridden one; it never had the funds to bother. Perhaps they could do that one day. It was a long shot, if they needed to somehow pay for it, but… anything was possible.
His parents rose first to fetch their bags as Ryuta helped keep Haru from running off in a hurry. She was even more impatient than he was. "Ryuta, I want to see the station!"
"Give us all a second to get the bags, okay?"
"Buuuutttt-"
She was really impatient now. All that sitting didn't fit a fourth-grader. She tried to wriggle out of his hand, but his grip was firm.
"Got all the bags?" he asked. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep Haru from running off.
"Yes. I see your hands are full, too."
He was wearing his own bag, with Haru in one hand and her bag in the other. "It's a bit difficult, but I'm making it work."
"Ryuta, let's go!" Haru yelled. That got a few heads to turn. They smirked as they realized it was just a fourth-grader. Ryuta wasn't a fan of the attention, but it couldn't be helped.
"Okay, okay, we're going." The Koyamas filed off the train, greeted by the crew as they left, and stepped onto the busy platform. He continued to hold her hand as they made their way out to street level and headed to their hotel – after all, they had timed it right to be able to do that and still get the most out of the remainder of the day.
The room was basic, but still comfortable and clean. His parents had always had a knack for that. It would suffice. After dropping off their bags in their room, they re-emerged to go explore Hiroshima. His father had built an itinerary, of course. He loved to tick off his to-do lists, after all – he was quite the high achiever that way.
The first order of business, of course, was nearby Hijiyama Park. Getting there was a struggle, especially for Haru, who complained the whole way up. It was understandable; the way up was hilly and not at all the nicest climb on a warm day like this, but their father insisted. Ryuta, for one, didn't care. It was good exercise. Haru might understand in time.
As they continued to wander the shaded path, they passed the manga library. He stopped suddenly. "Ryuta? Something the matter?" Kanae asked.
He stared at the side of the building for a while, then rubbed his eyes. "Nothing. Just my eyesight playing tricks on me, again."
It wasn't the first time. Hardly the first time. Kanae gave Hideaki a concerned look. Whatever Yuuka had shown them, back in March… it had seriously affected him. They had asked the other parents about it as well. All of them had noticed their kids were noticeably unsettled after then, though Takaharu, Asuka, Satsuki, and Yuuka had eventually recovered. Only he and Kazuhiko were on edge still.
He shook his head. "Amedramon, there's nothing there, right?"
"No. Ryuta, it's been over three months-"
He huffed. "I know. It's just… I don't think we finished the job."
"What keeps giving you that impression?"
"I told you," he said into his phone, "I'm not sure. I just… I don't feel good about it."
Hideaki put an arm around him and gently pushed him along. "Amedramon is right. It's been three months. There's nothing to worry about now, is there? Even the Digimon are saying that, right?"
"Yeah, but…" he protested. His shoulders slumped. Perhaps he was too uptight about it. This was supposed to be his opportunity to mend his relationship with his parents, after all.
Haru wasn't focusing. Kanae had given her a tablet to fiddle with, and she was busy playing some kind of board game on it. The rest of the family was still sat around the restaurant table after finishing dinner. The long and hilly walk had taken away their desire to talk until now.
"Ryuta," Kanae said while cupping the mug of water, "can I ask you something about Yuuka?" He blinked in response. "Are you dating her?"
He squeezed his eyes shut. "Yes." He stared back in response.
"I see." Kanae took a sip.
"You don't want me to, do you."
She shook her head. "No, it's fine."
Ryuta raised an eyebrow. "I thought you said I should be thinking about this after university is over."
"I… I did, but…" she trailed off. Ryuta had to hide a smirk. She wasn't going to apologize so easily. She would hide it behind something else. "She seems like a very special person." He was right, again.
"I know."
"Ah, it's a shame the two of you are going to be physically apart for so long." She took another sip. "I'm sure she would have liked for you to be here."
"Mom, I know this. We've come to terms with it." He shrugged. "I made my choice." So she still wasn't willing to let it go. He sat back and his chair and glanced over at Haru. She was still gleefully poking around.
Kanae sighed. "You know we still have some family and friends over there. If you get an opportunity to, could you visit them on our behalf?"
"I'll try."
The table fell quiet again. It was hard for them to get something cohesive going. After all, they rarely spoke at length together. Meals like this had been rare, at home or outside, when all four of them were available at the same time.
Hideaki spoke up next. "Ryuta, about your choice of program…"
"What about it?"
He smiled. "I hope you don't have to work the same kinds of hours I do." His father was in a software-tangential field at a bank. The systems were so old and clunky that it commanded his attention all the time. That was the reason for the often-late hours. However, nobody had the appetite to meaningfully change it. It worked well enough, at the expense of worker hours.
"I'll try to avoid the banks, then." There were plenty more options out there anyway.
"Also, Ryuta, did your mother ever tell you why we named you the way we did?"
He shook his head. "I thought you just liked it."
Kanae picked up for him. "Did I tell you I miscarried before you were born?"
Ryuta flinched. "No, you didn't."
"I did. I was so nervous when I was carrying you that I started having nightmares about it." She sipped her water again. "I'd dream that I'd lose you over and over. You would slip out of my hands and run away and I'd never find you again." She paused then, staring over Ryuta's shoulder at a painting hung on the wall. "And then I would return home, and your room would be empty. Then, I started hearing this voice when I would search for you, telling me that you were safely at home, but when I would return home in those dreams, I would see a dragon standing there, in front of the house, and it was the one that was speaking to me. So we picked the name Ryuta."
Ryuta blinked and shook his head. "So then… does Amedramon look like it?"
"No, but Rhodramon is close."
"Then what did it look like?"
She shook her head. "I can't recall. It's been a long time since the last one."
Ryuta stared at both of his parents, one after the other, then snorted with mild amusement and gulped down the rest of his water. All of it based on a recurring dream. "So then if you miscarried once… I guess that's why you had to go to the hospital multiple times then." He was recalling, now, the many times Hideaki had rushed back home to drive her to the hospital in Burnaby. "It wasn't just once."
Kanae shook her head silently. Ryuta ran his tongue behind his teeth. Did he cause one of those? Multiple? Was it the stress of having to work full-time while also caring for him and take care of the house?
Hideaki broke the silence again. "By the way, Ryuta, you know that you can't keep your dual citizenship forever, right?"
"I can't?"
"The Japanese government won't allow it. You need to decide before your twenty-second birthday."
He groaned and rubbed his nose bridge with pinched fingers. "That's annoying. Why … never mind."
"It's just the way it is. That's why we only picked up residency." Ryuta nodded. He might have to do the same then.
Hideaki flicked his wrist to align the watch face up. "We should go, it's getting late. Haru, let's go." The four of them stood up and pushed their chairs in.
As Hideaki was paying, Kanae murmured, "Let's get ice cream."
"Wh-" Ryuta started, knowing full well Hideaki had no clue this was happening.
"He can deal with it later." Kanae walked out of the restaurant first and waited for Hideaki to catch up. "Hideaki, we're going to get ice cream."
"What, why?" he asked, completely confused. "I thought we were going back to the hotel."
"Because we are." Kanae walked off with Haru. Hideaki turned to Ryuta, who shrugged and followed his mother. Hideaki walked alongside his son.
The sun was starting to set on Hiroshima and the lights of the shopping street were taking over for the natural light from above. Haru hurried ahead, and Kanae went after her to get her to calm down a bit. Ryuta and Hideaki maintained their pace.
"You know, about the Tamers…"
"What of them?"
Hideaki looked around carefully. He was fully aware that nobody else in the world should know what they knew. "You haven't run into more, have you?"
"Not that we're aware of, no. Amedramon has never sensed another Digimon other than those five. What got you interested in this all of a sudden?" Ryuta asked his father. This was an unusual subject for him to broach. He never had, after April started.
"Ah, just curiosity." It did not seem like curiosity. "I suppose they're doing fine then, the Digimon. Amedramon seems alright."
Ryuta stared at his father. "Are you trying to say something?"
"No! No, nothing at all." Ryuta continued to stare. Hideaki thought better of it. "Ryuta, what else do you know about the things you all found in March?"
"Very little. Almost nothing at all. Why?"
Hideaki stared into the distance, in the direction of Kanae, who had managed to get a hold on Haru and stop her from running off excitedly. "Just… please stay safe. And leave this to the others. You don't need to feel like you need to fly back if something happens-"
"If something happens, there will only be Lomamon, Hawkmon, and Falcomon. Three is not enough. If something happens, I'm going to fly back as soon as possible, even if it means missing classes."
"Ryuta, I know you feel like you have to be responsible for everything, but… couldn't it be someone else instead?" Hideaki insisted. "I…" he waved his hands in the air. "Kanae would be distraught. That's all. You heard her today."
Ryuta looked away to the street and watched the cars and trams roll past. Hideaki continued, "You know that she cares about you. She's just not good at saying it sometimes. I'm not good at saying it sometimes."
• • • • • • •
Sumida Tamers
Shimizu Kazuhiko
Takaharu You coming home today?
09:19
Segawa Takaharu
Hell yea! I'm on the train right now w
Got on the 9:38 train, be there in … several minutes? wwww
10:25
Shimizu Kazuhiko
LET'S GOOOOO
[photo: deck of cards]
TIME TO DUEL
10:27
Koyama Ryuta
So that's why I bumped into you in Akihabara
10:28
Shimizu Kazuhiko
Obviously I had to keep it a secret wwww
10:28
Koyama Ryuta
Are you saying I can't keep secrets? Do you not know me?
10:29
Shimizu Kazuhiko
(°ー°〃)
I swear I'm not implying you blab or anything
10:30
Nagatomo Asuka
srs tho kazu do u know him ww
10:30
Tokuda Satsuki
Dragon boy
You have my permission to bite Kazu
10:30
Segawa Takaharu
hahahaha
10:31
Koyama Ryuta
In what way
10:31
Tokuda Satsuki
Any way you like~
10:31
Nagatomo Asuka
oh my
10:31
Shimizu Kazuhiko
Please don't…
10:32
Ishida Yuuka
Do it~
10:32
Shimizu Kazuhiko
(￣ ￣|| ) Not you too
10:32
Koyama Ryuta
I might just
10:33
• • • • • • •
Yuuka put her phone down excitedly. Now that August was here, they would have all six of them back. Takaharu would be returning in perhaps an hour and a half, while Asuka had been given a bit of time off between training for a few weeks. She would have to go back to Chiba in a few weeks, but that was a problem for future them.
They had arranged to meet in Tokyo Solamachi. Takaharu had to drop off his stuff, after all, and since he lived up in Honjo, it was easier for all of them to go north a bit and meet up there for lunch and then figure out something later.
She decided, though, to make a stop along the way. They hadn't had much time to see each other since he and his family were doing a lot of their own vacationing, and she had been busy with work and with college. But at least Ryuta lived in Narihira, so it would be on the way, somewhat. She honestly felt a little jealous. He was right next to Oshiage and rarely took advantage of it, by his own admission. At least he was stopping by Akihabara sometimes.
The walk from her house to his apartment was only a few minutes. The late morning August sun, though, baked. She was already wearing as light clothes as she possibly could. It was still uncomfortably hot, and the cars rolling by only blew hot wind around. She escaped into the indoors of their apartment; the air conditioning in the lobby was sweet relief. The security guard knew her well enough by now to just buzz her in after getting a quick approval from them.
By the time she ascended to their floor, he was waiting in the doorway. "Ryuta! You haven't changed out of your morning clothes yet?"
"I woke up late." His fauxhawk was, indeed, flat and ungelled.
"That's uncharacteristic of you." It seemed the rest of his family was out today – it was a Monday, after all, the first of August – so Hideaki would have been out. "Where's your mom and sister?"
"Haru is attending some other kids' party and Kanae is watching her."
"Oh. How is your family? Better than before, I hope?"
He smiled. "They all are. Thank you for speaking up."
"It's what I do." Rhodramon stepped out of Ryuta's bedroom. "Rhodramon? You stay in Ultimate form all the time?"
"As much as I can," it purred. It reached into the fridge and cracked open a can of black coffee, then took a sip. "It helps build up endurance for later."
She gave it a worried look. "Do you think we'll see another one?"
"Another Junction, another heart, some other enemy… it barely matters." Another sip. "What matters more is that we could face anything in the future, at any time. It's best to be prepared. Right, Ryuta?"
Yuuka flicked her head back to him. He was trying not to laugh. "Ryuta, Amedramon wasn't like this before."
"No. We've been rubbing off on each other."
"I… see." She snorted, then started giggling.
"What?"
"Nothing." She wandered into his bedroom. "Ryuta, where did all of these come from?"
"The models?"
"Yeah! There are, I don't know, six more than when I last came in here in May!"
He put his hands out. "They keep buying them for me!" he pleaded.
Her gaze fell on the giant Strike Freedom Gundam model sitting on his desk, partially completed. "And you have this big one too!"
"I told you, they keep buying them for me!" He paced back into his room. "Now give me a moment to change clothes, unless you want to see me mostly naked." An impish grin crossed her face. "Oi!"
"That's not how you flirt, Ryuta."
"But you're right here, why would I need to flirt more?"
Her eyebrows went up as she lowered her head. "Ryuta?" She pressed her palm against his forehead. "You're as clueless as Takaharu."
He blinked. Was he? Oh. Oh. "Yuuka…"
"Your blushing is giving you away."
He flinched. "Also, what would we do if Rhodramon walked in-"
"If Rhodramon walks in then we just explain what humans do and why." She turned heel and marched out, closing the door behind her.
Rhodramon blinked at her from the kitchen. "What about me walking in?" It finished the can of coffee and rinsed it out before placing it with other recyclables.
"Don't worry about it." She sat on an armchair, one leg folded over the other, as she waited patiently for Ryuta to finish changing. Private moments like these were hard to come by, and she was starting to get those butterflies when she met him in situations like these. Of course, he did too; it was written all over his face, after all. It was just unfortunate that they were a bit too young now to be buying the necessary items without raising some eyebrows.
Oh well. The waiting would just make it sweeter. He emerged from his bedroom in a plain red vee-neck and white shorts. "Very Canadian of you," she remarked.
"Hm?" He looked down at himself. "Oh, oops." She let out an involuntary laugh.
"Let's go, then. We can grab coffee or tea first before the others arrive." Rhodramon devolved and jumped into Ryuta's phone.
"So, how has Falcomon been?" he asked as they descended the elevator. "It's with you, right?"
"I'm right here!" it said. Yuuka brought her phone out. Falcomon waved from inside, the little pixels on the display barely able to make out its wings waving. "I've been fine! The Ishida businesses keep me busy."
"Oh… right, I keep forgetting to tell you all, I updated the app to be able to do better rendering." Ryuta took out his own phone. It wasn't great detail, but Amedramon was more than just a bunch of pixels now. Its wings were more clearly defined, as were its horns and tail. "Didn't you get a new phone recently?"
"I did, dad got it for me."
"Okay, then I guess we'll see how much battery it drains."
As they waited for the pedestrian lights to turn at the Asakusa-Yotsume Avenues intersection, Yuuka asked, "Hey, just out of curiosity… what happens if our phones break while the Digimon are inside?"
"They get shoved out. It's just very rude and awkward."
"That's a relief. Wait, how do you know this?"
He snickered. "Haru broke my phone when Amedramon was in it."
"Oh no!"
"It's just a phone, it's fine. I got an upgrade as well out of it, so it's not all bad." They crossed over the Kitajukken River. Solamachi was just up ahead.
"Who paid?"
"My parents." He sighed. "I guess they feel bad about the last several months, but they're not very good with their words."
"So, this is their way of communicating how much they care."
"It feels weird, but yes." He shrugged. "It's better than nothing." They made their way to the café where they would be meeting. Nobody was there yet. They both ordered a black coffee. It wasn't exactly time for lunch, and this wasn't the place, presumably. The café, though, was still relatively busy – mainly because it being August meant all the school kids were off. At least they had some seats left available up here.
"How is the business?" Ryuta asked.
Yuuka cupped her coffee. "It's like it usually is, busy all the time. People are starting to take notice of the new products though."
"You mean, your products."
"Well… mom helps."
"But you design, right?" Yuuka nodded. "And the folding machine?"
"It came last week. We've been trying out fold temperatures and strategies. It's a work in progress still."
He sipped his coffee. "Do you look up stuff on the Internet?"
"For guidance? Of course. I keep getting sucked into this French guy's videos. He made his own dough rolling machine, it's incredible."
Ryuta squinted. "What?"
Yuuka gestured a vague platform and a box. "He made this whole belt and latch system to roll the dough out with a power drill."
Ryuta shook his head. "The French truly are obsessed."
Yuuka sipped her coffee and nodded. "It's not just French stuff on his channel, though, it's a lot of things."
Ryuta looked around. The crowds walking by were not letting up. Lunch hour was coming, too. The cafés at ground level were probably still overflowing. "Asuka's coming," he remarked, taking another sip of coffee. Yuuka turned around and waved. Asuka waved back, wearing some green Chiba United training gear. She wasn't letting it go.
"Hey! Did you miss me?"
"Of course!" Yuuka embraced her from her chair. "How is Hawkmon?"
"Hawkmon's been helping me stay sane, oh man." She pulled out a chair and sat down. The red streak of hair seemed to have faded a bit. Yuuka supposed she didn't have much time or energy to redye it, or she was growing it out. It was a shame. They never knew her without it.
"Is training that bad?" Ryuta asked, cup to mouth.
Asuka slid down her chair and groaned. "Boy, is it! So many drills, over and over and over, it makes me want to scream." She waved her hand. "I know it's for my own good, but ahh, I just want to play a game in front of people! Even just sit on the bench on game day, I don't know."
"You seem to like it then," Satsuki remarked. Yuuka jumped. "Did I scare you?"
"How do you keep doing this?"
"I practiced my skills on Makoto when I was a kid. You should get Falcomon to train you to look out for ninjas." She pulled out a chair for herself. "So, who gets here first – Kazuhiko or Takaharu?"
"Takaharu," they agreed. They chatted for several minutes as they waited for one of the two remaining men to arrive.
"So, Gabumon used to deliver post?" remarked Asuka. "Neat, so did Hawkmon."
Satsuki nodded. "It told me, though, it was rare to have to deliver anything out of its Sector. I guess the Digital World isn't very well connected."
"It's not," replied Hawkmon, from Asuka's phone.
"Aah! Shh, people will hear you!" Asuka hissed.
"They'll just think you're on speaker phone with me, it's fine!"
"That barely worked last time!" The other Tamers stifled their laughter. So it wasn't just Takaharu having a hard time keeping a lid on it.
Satsuki stretched and tapped her fingers on the table. "I guess this is going to be the rest of us in a few months time. It was hard enough keeping them hidden here. Imagine doing it elsewhere."
Asuka turned to Yuuka. "So, what did Falcomon do before coming here?"
Yuuka shrugged. "It said it wasn't actually too far away from what it's doing now."
"Accounting?"
"I guess. I have no idea what that would look like."
Asuka turned her attention to the only male at the table. "Ryuta?"
"Amedramon, what did you do? Wander?" he asked into his phone.
"I just travelled, heh. I didn't like working," it admitted. "I just got by in the wilderness."
Asuka leaned forward. "Wilderness? How wild can the Digital World be? Hawkmon said there were towns and cities everywhere."
"I would not know otherwise," it admitted. "I never left." Asuka shushed it again. "Sorry!"
"Asuka, Ryuta's not shushing Amedramon," remarked Satsuki. "Isn't that a bit rude to your Partner?"
Before Asuka could reply, Kazuhiko jogged over. "Oh, thank goodness I'm not the last one." He sat in a chair. "Monodramon made a mess of the paint bottles. Thank god they were all water wash-"
"Aah! By seconds!" Takaharu showed up and squeezed Kazuhiko's shoulders, who winced. "I can't believe it. Ryuta, what happened to your hair?"
"This is what it normally looks like," he replied.
"Huh. It's… not that bad. You should keep it this way. It would save you some time."
"You think so? I thought it looked silly."
Takaharu looked around. "Hey! We're all here, let's go!"
Satsuki gave Takaharu a look of amusement. "Exactly where are we going? We never figured that out yet."
"Uh…"
"That's what I thought." She brushed her bangs back.
"Hey, I have an idea. What does Ryuta look like when he's trying not to miss a beat?"
Ryuta finished his coffee. "I've literally never played a dance game."
"That's why it would be funny!" Ryuta glared back at Takaharu. "Okay, fine, just stop staring at me like that."
Satsuki elbowed Ryuta. "By the way, aren't you forgetting to do something?"
"Hm? Am I?" She blinked back at him. "I have no idea what you're talking about," Ryuta replied.
"Alright, then. Takaharu, I guess you wanted to check out an arcade somewhere."
He nodded. "I did, but I also need to look for some cards. I figured Akihabara would be best."
Kazuhiko threw his hands up. "Hey, I built a whole deck around yours!"
"Give me a chance to upgrade, too!"
Kazuhiko grumbled. "Fine." Having agreed on something, they got up and escaped the incoming lunch crowds. The escalators were so packed that they escaped into the elevators instead.
The six of them slipped into one. Nobody else happened to get on. Ryuta flicked his eyes around. Nobody was suspecting it, and Kazuhiko was standing right in front of him. He opened his mouth and put it right on his left deltoid, and bit gently.
"Aaahhh!" Kazuhiko screamed. "Oww – Ryuta!" Ryuta unclenched his mouth and returned to a standing position as the doors opened. The elevator occupants erupted in laughter. "Fuck! Why are your teeth so sharp?"
"It's in the name." He motioned to Kazuhiko to exit as the others filed out, still laughing. "What did you expect?"
Kazuhiko glared back at him. Ryuta gently pushed him out to make room for the next occupants.
Akihabara was hammered. The arcades were all hammered. The Tamers had split up into two groups – men and women – to get more time in. Yuuka was busy trying to maneuver a claw. She had spotted a cute slime plush and she wanted it bad.
"Oh!" Asuka exclaimed as it gripped. The claw wiggled and jerked. It was one of those moments, huh? Yuuka bit her lip. The plush slipped out of the claw's grip and bounced off the rim of the exit chute, knocked against the glass, and sat there, staring at her, with its goofy ass smile. They stared disappointedly at it.
"Aaah, I can't believe this!" she moaned. She slapped the claw button. Of course it did nothing, the credit was already used up. The plush wobbled side to side, and then fell down into the chute. They burst out laughing. That was certainly one way of doing it. They headed upstairs to see how the guys were doing. Kazuhiko and Takaharu were standing to the sides of a pinball table, watching over Ryuta's shoulder. He stood there motionless for a while, then burst into a flurry of activity.
Yuuka looked up. "Wow, is that a record?"
"It will be when he's done. He's on the second round," replied Takaharu. He shook his head. "You've played this table before?"
Ryuta focused and bit his lip as the ball circled back onto the table. There was another flurry of bounces. "I've been practicing it for a while." Just as he said that, the ball slammed right down the middle and between the flippers. He made a grunt of frustration.
"Whoops. Better practice more then."
Asuka looked over and tugged Takaharu over to a soccer table that had just freed up. "Hey, you wanna get on this?"
"Sure!" He set down his backpack, which had his decks and new cards in it, and put it between his legs. As they were playing, a few people crowded around. Asuka passed the ball around two of her players, then flicked. Takaharu was too slow to react. She was more relieved than anything; she was the one wearing the soccer training jacket, after all.
Ryuta's game had wrapped up. It was a record, just not quite the record he was hoping for. It only made it to fourth place. There were some legendary scores above him – four times higher, for the highest one. He figured that one was probably someone who had been here much longer than he had. He tried to get a look at the soccer game table, but there were a lot of people around there.
Asuka and Takaharu wrapped up, then looked around. "Whoa, where did all you come from?" he asked.
One of them piped up. "Is that an authentic training jacket?"
"Yes, it is!" Asuka beamed.
"Hey! Aren't you in the Chiba squad?" one of the women in the crowd asked.
"I am!"
"Whoa! Good luck with the season!"
Asuka bobbed her head. "Thank you!" The crowd dispersed, apparently only wanting to have made sure of that. Ryuta, Kazuhiko, Satsuki, and Yuuka managed to get in.
"We should be getting food, the lunch rush should be wrapping up," Kazuhiko said. "Plus, Monodramon is complaining, heh."
They managed to escape from the busy arcade. It was only getting busier as more people got onto the street. The lunch rush may have been over, but the area around Akihabara was still incredibly busy, and with a party of six, it wasn't exactly easy to find space. Plus, they needed to make sure they could keep their Digimon relatively hidden. "So, where to? We need a lot of seating," remarked Asuka.
"What if we sat outside? It's less seating worries that way," suggested Satsuki.
"Yeah, if it weren't pushing thirty-five degrees today," Kazuhiko protested. "It's super uncomfortable. Plus, the parks are blown out too. It's just crowded everywhere."
"Then we can always just get takeout and go to somebody's place. Whose, though? The bakery is still open to customers, so we can't go there. Is anyone's place big enough?" Takaharu asked. "Kazuhiko?"
"Parents are working from home today," he replied. "I don't want to bother them."
Takaharu went around the group. "And Yuuka's place is too small for that. Satsuki?"
"It'll be tight. Very tight."
Ryuta suggested, "I don't think Kanae and Haru will be back in a few hours, so I think ours is fine. It might feel a bit crowded, but it should be okay."
"Sure. And I can check out your model collection too! So where are we picking up food from?"
"I live in Narihira. We can get something from Yuuka's family shop or somewhere else along the way."
As they walked back to Akihabara station, Kazuhiko checked over his shoulder. Ryuta was standing right behind him. "Don't you dare!"
"Dare what?" he grinned.
"You know what I mean."
Ryuta licked his lips. "Kazuhiko, I'm getting hungry."
"No! Not my shoulder!"
"Then I'll have a neck." He craned his head down and opened his mouth. Kazuhiko skittered away while the others laughed.