Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, nor do I own When the World's Not Ending, by Smartalec121 or any of their associated works.
Off the Beaten Path
Chapter: 35/ You'll Never be Alone
Rika hurled her battered clothes across the room as she went about changing. Doumon, watching her carefully, followed after them, picking up each article wordlessly. Rika whispered an angry thanks to her. Blinking back tears, she forced on her shirt. She muttered curses at it and every other part of her outfit she put on, damning their threads and the factory that produced them as each tug refused to simply allow her to just slip them on. Finally, a toenail snagged at a sock and she gave an anguished cry. There came a loud thump as she kicked her table. No new curses followed here. Instead, she sank to the floor, clutching her now angry foot, throbbing with pain.
Rika cried.
She always hated crying and rarely did so. She didn't need her alternate self to tell her that crying didn't solve anything, but right now, when there was nothing she could do, her sobs tore themselves loose from her throat with a vengeance.
Grandma… Grandma! She pressed her fists against her eyes, trying to shut out the image of her grandmother's face, caked with blood. Please, please, please be alright!
A shadow fell over her and a pair of arms, cloaked in long sleeves, gently wrapped about her lithe form. Rika instinctively pressed herself against Doumon and let out a muffled scream. She did this repeatedly, allowing her sobs to completely overtake her now. The battle played itself on a loop in her mind, seeming to mock her and her inability to affect its outcome.
I should have done better! I should have done better! If I was stronger… If I was as strong as her none of this would have happened!
That only made things worse. After all, her grandmother was safe and sound with her granddaughter at the top of her game. Because Rika herself wasn't as strong as her counterpart, her grandmother paid the price.
I wasn't meant to be a Tamer in the first place! If I didn't go to that world, none of this would have happened!
Around and around her thoughts went, and all the while she clung tightly to Doumon like a life preserver. The Ultimate gave her no words of comfort, but instead continued holding her. In many ways, she found herself grateful for that. Her silence told Rika that she would never lie to her just to spare her feelings.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Rika's crying began to wind down and she went slack in Doumon's grasp. The shaman slowly disentangled herself from the girl, but continued to hold her up until she was certain Rika could support herself.
"Thanks," Rika sniffed. A second later, she blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry for making a mess of your outfit."
"There is no need to concern yourself about that," Doumon said.
"Oh please. I look like an idiot."
"You are upset. I do not believe the two conditions are related."
"I mean I look like… You know what? Never mind." Rika wiped an arm across her face. "So, this is how Takato feels."
Doumon said nothing. The mention of Takato's name didn't help Rika's mood. Both the boy and the dinosaur were hurt – Guilmon less so than his partner – and she didn't know what the end result of their injuries would be.
Blood. She clenched her eyes shut against the crimson that stained Takato's clothes. So much blood. How can someone have that much blood in them?!
With an effort, she forced out such thoughts. She still had to finish getting dressed.
###
Rika's thoughts were a perpetual storm of emotion in which every time lightning flashed, memories she wished she didn't have were illuminated. Her grandmother, lying on the ground, blood pooling beneath her. Gallantmon in a similar situation, his armor a wreck. Takato, his chest a stain of crimson. She had thought she would get used to them, but they refused to leave her alone. With each passing moment, her grip about her digivice grew tight and her teeth clenched hard against one another until her jaw hurt. On the nearby wall, a ticking clock sat, and the seconds stretched longer and longer the more she glared at it. The urge to throw something welled up in her and just when she thought she couldn't take it anymore, she felt the touch of her mother upon her, brushing her hands, her hair, her cheek. The gentle whisperings that everything would be alright.
It's not going to be alright, Mama! she wanted to say, but one look at her mother told her to bite her tongue. Her mother looked frightened enough without her adding to it.
Her father sat across from them, hands folded together, looking as though he desired to be next to either one of them, helping comfort them. It stood as a testament to the state of his relationship with Rumiko that he sat on the other side, keeping his distance so as to not stir a potential hornet's nest. Rika knew if she weren't there, he would be there next to her, doing as she did now. He was an uncommonly open man when it came to showing how much he cared for others. He didn't blubber or anything of the sort where he lost total control of himself, but he was more at home with his feelings and expressed them when appropriate, privately or publicly. In some ways, he reminded her of Takato, and she could see how much it hurt him when he had to hold back.
Takato. Grandma.
Her hand clenched again about her digivice and a red haze fell over her vision. Absently, she saw her father's hands twitch, aching to reach out to her. They fell still as Rumiko massaged her shoulder. It didn't help. Rika was in the grip of the storm now. All she saw in her mind was the fight with IceBeelzemon and an absolute desire to stomp his face in. She had been completely unable to affect the outcome of the battle. Hadn't been able to put her own plan into motion! No. She instead found herself watching helplessly, reduced to a bystander while IceBeelzemon tore into Gallantmon and then nearly killed her family. Her grandmother.
Grandma!
She clenched her eyes to shut in the tears that threatened to spill out. It worked a little bit. The storm remained stuck inside her. When she opened her eyes again, she was prepared to let out a shaky breath to release the tension.
Then she saw Himiko approaching and once again fury kindled within her.
"What are you doing here?!" she shouted, catching everyone in the waiting room by surprise. Heads turned and Himiko raised an eyebrow.
"Rika!" Rumiko gasped next to her, but Rika didn't hear her as she got to her feet.
"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be hunting that frozen freak with your stupid little program? Why aren't you doing your job?!"
"Rika…" Her father's voice rose up against her fury like a lighthouse on the shore of her rampaging emotions, sending a beam of light out over the crash of waves. He didn't yell, but the firmness behind his tone checked her. Rika clenched her teeth again.
Himiko paused in her approach for the briefest of moments before continuing. Drawing up, she nodded to Rika's parents.
"I'm sorry for what happened to Seiko," she said calmly, and then, to Rika and Rumiko's surprise, gave them a deep bow. "There is no excuse adequate enough to explain our failure. No apology we can give to make up for it. I can only promise that we will get justice."
When she stood back up, she fixed Rika with a hard look. "We're organizing a meeting to deal with the situation. We need you and your partner."
Rika seethed. A part of her wanted to tell Himiko to stuff it. The words beat at her lips to be let out and her mouth trembled violently.
You got Yamaki killed. You nearly killed Takato and Guilmon. Grandma…
"Rika," Doumon said through their link. "We cannot take on IceBeelzemon on our own. We need their help."
"We-We can message you once we hear something," her mother said. Her hand clasped about Rika's, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Please, come home safe."
Rika held her mother's gaze for a moment before turning to her father. The man nodded.
"Go," he said. "Your grandmother would want this."
Closing her eyes, Rika allowed a single tear to slip past her defenses before storming past Himiko. The woman bowed again to her parents before following. Upon exiting the hospital, she spoke up.
"I don't think I need to explain to you that the reason why I'm here instead of doing my job is because you weren't with the others. I understand why, but you delayed things."
"Way to rub it in."
Himiko whirled about. Grabbing Rika by the arm, she jerked her around so that they were eye to eye. "You do not get to take that tone with me," she hissed angrily. "You may be a minor and Rumiko's daughter, but you have a responsibility and you shirked it! Let me warn you loud and clear so it sticks: you do not get any special treatment from me just because of your grandmother! Is that clear?"
"I never got any special treatment from you or anyone in your family," Rika seethed, tugging against Himiko's grip. "And I don't want it!"
Grating her teeth, Himiko tightened her grip around Rika's arm. Rika winced, but did not relent in her glare.
Doumon then materialized between the two. Her massive hand fell upon Himiko's wrist and gave it a warning squeeze. Her red eyes gleamed.
"Let her go," she said with quiet threat. Himiko, to her credit, held Doumon's gaze without flinching. Nevertheless, she released the younger girl. With an effort, she adjusted the coat to her suit, and took in a deep breath to calm herself.
"I am not unsympathetic," she said once she felt certain she had collected herself. "But you're a Tamer now. As much as I wish you – any of you – weren't, that's the role you have to play and this city needs you. The other Tamers need you. Don't you ever forget that. Like me, you live for others now. Not just yourself." Not bothering to see what Rika's reaction was, she then turned toward Doumon. "Kitagawa told me what you evolved into," she continued. "I did some digging on the form on my way here. It has some abilities that can help make up for our current lack of power if that wild digimon shows up again."
"Do you think it will?" Rika asked.
"Onodera seems to think so. She's been tracking something that's been absorbing wild digimon for days now. She's building a case that suggests it's been around for quite a while, so it coming around for round two isn't out of the picture."
Rika clenched her fists as she narrowed her eyes. With her grandmother's face in her mind, she said, "Good."
###
Rumiko did her best to keep from breaking down while Rika walked away with Himiko. Once she was out of sight, she pressed her face into her hands and began to sob.
She felt a gentle hand come to rest upon her back. Knowing it to be her husbands, she looked up from her palms and gazed into his eyes. For the first time, she saw the lines in his face and the many unspoken things that lay on his mind. More, she saw the ghost of the young man she fell in love with and who fell in love with her. Who still loved her in spite of everything that lay between them.
Yet, Rumiko knew it wasn't the same as when they were young. It wasn't the burning, all-encompassing love that first devoured their thoughts and hearts, and it wasn't the well-tended garden that her mother had with her father before he died. It was an ember, gleaming in ashes. She remembered her daughter's words to her
Rumiko looked away, feeling ashamed.
"I'm sorry," she said softly.
"For what?"
Rumiko glanced back at him, seeing the confused look on his face. She couldn't quite say herself what she was apologizing for, but she felt she had to.
"Everything," she said tentatively, striving to find the answer. Before she knew it, understanding almost seemed to blossom in her mind. The issues she had with her daughter were nearly the same as with her husband after all. "I haven't been a very good wife or a good mother. I'm always running around, paying attention to what I wanted and always working. I wanted what was best for us. I thought I was doing that. I'm starting to realize I had no idea what I was doing at all. For you. For Mom. For Rika."
She trailed off for a moment before continuing. "I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to leave."
She felt his hand against her back tense up with anger. She flinched in response. Yet, when he spoke, it was with surprising tenderness.
"I never thought of you as the type of person to just give up like that."
"I-What?" Rumiko sat up, blinking in surprise. Shifting his arm, he brought his hand to rest against her shoulder, massaging it gently. It was an old, familiar gesture, long lost to the chill that formed between them. For a moment, Rumiko was pulled back in time. They were teenagers again, sitting together on her porch in the chill of winter, a blanket around them and his arms about her, forming a barrier of warmth against the cold.
"I'm not going to leave you," he said. "Not now. Especially not now. Look, it hasn't been easy. I think both of us just weren't really ready for what we jumped into, but I wouldn't be a good father or a good husband if I took that offer to leave." Looking at her, he gave her a smile. Rumiko felt a blush rise in her cheeks at the sight. It was so familiar to her, but it had been so long since she last saw it.
"You've always been a quick study," he continued. "And you always scored high, so I know you can learn from this. And I'll be there to support you, just like I always have."
Rumiko's face scrunched up and her eyes became wet with emotion. Reaching up, she clasped his hand with hers. Beneath the lights of the hospital ceiling, their wedding bands glinted against one another.
"I'm sorry," she said in a hushed voice. Drawing her close, she felt his head come to rest atop hers.
"I'm sorry too," he said, continuing to massage her shoulder.
###
Rika arrived in the meeting room, sullen and silent. She surveyed the other Tamers where they sat, taking in each of their moods. Kenta and MarineAngemon appeared to be the best in terms of emotional weather. He looked plainly stressed, but grateful to see her. Suzie's face on the other hand showed irritation and annoyance with her with an undercurrent of sympathy that she didn't want to be visible. Lopmon sat in her lap, looking for all intents and purposes like a stuffed toy. And the white-haired boy next to her…
Rika blinked, feeling a sense of unreality wash over her.
"Henry?!" She looked at the others for an explanation. Adjusting his glasses, Kenta turned to Suzie and the Henry lookalike.
"It's – he's – not Henry," Suzie said, and then tightened her hold on Lopmon.
"It's complicated," the former Deva added.
"It's an AI we developed to assist you in battle," Himiko said, brushing by Rika. "Its appearance is a result of programming errors made during its development."
"Right." Rika pressed her lips together, feeling a bit relieved that it didn't involve yet another alternate reality intruding on their world. Rika glared at that puzzle and it – he – looked back at her. Her eyes fell on his strange, white and green hair. Something about it reminded her of Terriermon.
"So… What's yourstory?" she asked and the boy cocked his head to one side.
"I am Jianliang, Zero Arms Sleipnir, Unit 001," the Henry lookalike said before giving Rika a polite bow. "I apologize for my late arrival to the battle."
Straight away, Rika felt her anger return with a vengeance. "Yeah, you'd better be sorry!" she snapped. "If you were there sooner my grandma and Takato wouldn't be in the hospital!"
"Back off, Model Girl!" Suzie shouted, rising from her seat.
"Hey, let's all take a deep breath here," Kenta began, also getting up. "It's no one's fault what happened."
"Hypnos should have at least warned us!" Rika exploded. Kenta blanched from the force of her storm, but didn't wither.
"They tried," he said softly.
"Enough! All of you!" Himiko slammed her hand on the table, catching everyone by surprise. "We're here to discuss strategy for dealing with that digimon! I will not waste time on anymore nonsense! Is that clear?!"
Rika seethed, but something told her to reign herself in. With considerable effort, she did just that, but it did nothing to quell the hurricane she felt inside her. She wanted so very much to hit something. To break something. IceBeelzemon preferably, but right now, she found herself almost not caring for preferences. She just wanted something to hurt the way she hurt.
No. Stay focused. Don't do something stupid. Don't say or do something you can't take back.
"Sorry," she said to Suzie first before doing the same to Jianliang.
"Momentai!" Jian smiled in a tone that reminded her eerily of the Terriermon she encountered. Rika shuddered, and she saw Suzie do likewise.
"All right." Taking up a remote, Himiko lowered a screen. A light flickered on from the projector screen attached to the ceiling. A number of data charts appeared, alongside an image of IceBeelzemon.
"This digimon has the ability to hide itself from our sensors and to cause localized glitching in communications," Himiko began. "That's why we were unable to contact everyone." She shot Rika a sharp look before continuing. "It's not perfect. We were able to detect it at brief intervals when it launched attacks and its range is limited. We still do not have a perfect image of what its goals or motivations are, but it targeted Rika and Takato."
"It was after me," Rika said. Suzie made an annoyed sound.
"Not everything is about you, Model Girl."
"It's what he said!" Rika snapped back. "Look, I get that I'm a pain in the neck for you, but that digimon came after me. He said I was 'in the way.'" She closed her eyes, remembering the digimon's chilly grip around her throat. She shivered. "He also thought about making me his partner but decided I wasn't worth it."
"Digimon do come here sometimes looking for a partner," Kenta said, pushing up his glasses. "Did he say what you were in the way of?"
Rika shook her head. She couldn't imagine what she was in the way of. She hadn't been able to digivolve Renamon beyond the Champion level. In terms of card skill, she was above the others but they were all so much more powerful than her that they almost didn't need them.
IceBeelzemon practically walked all over me and Kyubimon. There's no way we were in the way of anything.
Something tickled the back of her mind though. She didn't know what, so she let it be for now.
"I think it's enough that he was after you," Himiko said. "You need monitoring and protection. We'll assign some agents to you. Sleipnir…" She hesitated before correcting herself. "Jian." She grimaced disdainfully. "I'd like for you to keep an eye on her."
Jian nodded. Rika furrowed her brow uncertainly, wondering how this…whatever Jian was would accomplish that. She frowned, suddenly realizing something.
"Are you that dragon from earlier?"
"Yes," Jian nodded. Rika pressed her lips together tightly.
"So, I'm going to be bait," she said. "Works for me."
"You're not going to be bait," Himiko said. "And we can't afford to use any of you as such to lure it out. Not until we have more power on our side."
"And what happens if we don't get more power?" Rika countered, saying the quiet part out loud. Takato and Guilmon were their heaviest hitters and it was still a tossup if the former would survive his injuries. Rika folded her arms together, trying not to think about that. "What happens if he just decides to attack us while we're still vulnerable?"
Himiko narrowed her eyes, clearly hating Rika's line of thinking but unable to deny it. IceBeelzemon proved to be a wily opponent and clearly had been thinking of a way to come at the Tamers for some time. There was no way he would be so kind as to fit within their timetable and allow them to recover.
"We have Juggernaut…" Himiko began, but Rika rolled her eyes.
"Please," she said, interrupting her. "You don't have anything. I haven't been a Tamer all that long but even I can tell we're the ones carrying this operation."
"That's not true," Kenta cut in. "We wouldn't have beaten the D-Reaper without Hypnos."
"Well, whatever they had before, they don't have it now." Rika glared daggers at Himiko, who returned them.
"You are out of line, Rika Nonaka."
"H-Hang on," Kenta interceded. "Earlier you were saying how Doumon has abilities we can use. Why don't we build a plan around that like you were talking about?" He turned to Rika with pleading eyes.
"I was getting to that," Himiko said. "We have Juggernaut and we have Doumon's abilities." She looked pointedly at Rika. "I'm sure you are familiar with Doumon's Kimon Tonkou? Or in other words, the Hidden Demonic Gate?"
Rika thought for a moment before realizing what she was getting at.
"You want to seal IceBeelzemon away."
"Like what MagnaAngemon can do?" Lopmon asked. Suzie snorted.
"We don't need her for that. We can do that no problem with modify cards."
"Suzie… It's better this way. If we use a holy card on our own, we might accidently create another alternate reality incident."
"Kenta can do that without any problem! Besides, we can use a Doumon card."
"But I'm still not that good with using cards during a fight," Kenta pointed out. Blushing with shame, he looked apologetically at Rika.
"That's okay," Rika said. "We can get back to training. It'd be a good idea to have it as a backup plan just in case anyway. IceBeelzemon will probably focus on me and Doumon, so we can use that. We just need better terrain. IceBeelzemon picked where we fought today because he knew Takato and Guilmon couldn't go all out with so many people's homes around."
"The parks then," Himiko said. "They're your usual battlegrounds, if I'm not mistaken. Once we can figure out when IceBeelzemon shows up again, Juggernaut can weaken him and then we can shut him down."
"Sounds like a good plan to me," Kenta smiled. Rika frowned doubtfully. Could it really be that simple?
"Well, it's a plan," she grumbled, but she didn't feel any better for it.
"But the main issue will be determining how he gets around our sensors," Himiko continued. "Whatever he's got going on, it's not perfect. We can use that to our advantage once we figure it out." She cast her gaze about the table before settling on Rika. "I want you all to be careful. No heroics. I'll have the simulation room made available to you for your training."
Suzie chuckled. "You mean the Danger Room?"
Rika arched an eyebrow. "What's that?"
"It's a place Yamaki had built for us to train in without risking damage to the city," Kenta explained. He scratched the side of his face. "It's kinda cool."
"Pihpih!" giggled MarineAngemon.
"No, I don't think her face will freeze once she sees it."
"Thousand yen says you're wrong!" Suzie laughed.
###
Rika stepped through the door into what appeared to be a simple, empty room of metal walls. She frowned, unimpressed by its appearance.
"This is the place you say will impress me?"
"You have to wait for them to turn it on, Model Girl," Suzie said, placing Lopmon on the floor. Behind Rika, Doumon materialized out of thin air.
"I have been in here before," the blue-furred kitsune said. "Not all here is as it seems."
"If you say so," Rika replied doubtfully. She didn't see what the big deal was or why they called it the Danger Room. It had all the charm of a padded room.
Only without the pads, she thought sarcastically. Still, if they could drill here without the risk of damaging anything in the real world, she supposed she couldn't argue with appearances.
"Preparing to activate the simulator," spoke up Alice from above. "Selecting desert terrain."
Desert terrain?
Before Rika's eyes, the environment around her shifted and the metal room vanished from view, replaced by a clear blue sky and an endless expanse of golden, water-starved earth. Rika's mouth fell open in surprise. Such was her shock that she didn't immediately notice the shift in temperature from cool to hot. Whirling about, she found Suzie smirking.
"Now all you have to do is hold that expression just like that for a few minutes so I win the bet."
"You had a place like this to train in and you didn't bring me here when I was teaching you to use the cards?"
"Well, you weren't a Tamer at the time so we couldn't really bring you here," Kenta replied. "And, after that, there were other things going on."
"Better late than never," Lopmon said. "Shall we begin?"
Rika looked about uncertainly. "You're positive we won't damage anything?"
"We haven't done it so far," Suzie shrugged. "And it's not like we weren't trying."
"Pihpuhpuh," piped in MarineAngemon from atop Kenta's head. Suzie scowled at the fairy digimon.
"Kenta, I'm pretty sure that qualifies as rude."
"You don't even know what he said," Kenta laughed shakily.
"I've been around you two long enough to know. Fess up."
"Let's just say he was correcting you when you said we were trying to break things. As in, you."
"Like I said. Rude."
Rika found herself smiling with growing confidence. This was a good start. Now all they had to do was make the most of things.
For Grandma. For Takato. For all of them. She clenched her fists together tightly. I'll make sure to protect everyone going forward.
"Okay," she said, getting out her cards. "Let's get to work."
For a time, she forgot about the pain of her problems and focused solely on solving them.
###
IceBeelzemon stood atop a building looking out over Shinjuku. The Hypnos government building stood in his view. Cold wrath seethed within him. He had lost. Lost! Despite his machinations and the power he gained over the years, it still hadn't been enough to defeat the Tamers. Worse, the newest of the Tamers eluded him and even managed to digivolve!
Their luck holds even now, he thought. Clenching a clawed fist together tightly, he thought hard about how to overcome them. Clearly, the strength of all the fallen digimon he absorbed over the years wasn't enough. The Tamers still possessed one advantage over him that afforded them their victories time and time again. The partnership between human and digimon.
I'm going to need a human if I'm to win this, he thought. A cruel smile then curved along his face. Fortunately, there is one who just may suit my needs.
With that in mind, he faded out of sight.
9
