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Sympathetic Villains

Despite a reputation for being a badass who played by his own rules, Impmon was still very protective of his human partners. So, when one of them came home covered with dirt and bruises, it was no surprise to anyone that this made him upset. What Impmon did find surprising were some of the specifics of how this occurred.

"What do yuh mean yuh didn't fight back?" Impmon cried out, a little more annoyed that Mako wouldn't turn away from emptying his school bag onto his bed.

"I just didn't wanna," Mako replied dismissively, which raised more questions than it answered. If there was one person Impmon could always count on to be ready to jump into a fight, it was Mako. "Can we not talk about this?"

"This isn't the first time this has happened either," Ai chimed in from her spot in the doorway of her brother's bedroom. "Kazuma's been picking on him for a couple weeks now. This is just the first time he hit him."

"Just leave it alone, Ai." Mako raised his voice as he looked at his sister. "This has nothing to do with you."

"Fine!" Ai rolled her eyes. "See if I care if you get beat up every day."

Impmon clenched his fists together, feeling nothing but anger at the thought of some snot-nosed brat laying a finger on one of his humans. "Is it just cuz he's bigger then you?" he asked. "Cuz if that's the case, I'll show 'em-"

"No!" Mako shouted, dropping what he was doing to give Impmon and Ai his full attention. He then took a deep breath and collected himself again. "It's just... he's not worth it. Got it?"

"No, I don't," Impmon answered, trying his best to understand. "Look, Mako, if there's somethin' else goin' on here, you gotta tell me. I can help."

"I know, but I don't want you getting involved. You just have to trust me on this one."

Impmon and Ai vacated the room and the door closed behind them. Impmon looked to his other partner, who only shook her head sadly and headed to her own bedroom. It looked like she wasn't going to be any help either.

Unsure about what to do next, Impmon wracked his brain for a solution. He did trust Mako, which was the only reason he wasn't marching to this Kazuma's house to give the kid a taste of his own medicine. That, however, did not leave his hands completely tied. Impmon needed answers, and he knew just the digimon to help him get them.

"Wow wow wow wow wow, I wonder if we'll reach the skies..." Calumon's singing wasn't exactly quiet. In fact, Impmon was sure if anyone had been on the streets below them, they would have been able hear the lyrics word-for-word.

It took all of Impmon's willpower to not knock the little Celestial off the ledge he was walking on. He looked to Renamon, the digimon he had actually asked to come with him, but she did not acknowledge him. Not that Impmon was going to let that discourage him from complaining.

"Why's he here again?" Impmon asked.

"Because he asked to come," Renamon answered as though it were obvious, which annoyed Impmon even more. There was no question that the yellow fox digimon enjoyed making him come across as an idiot.

"You don't think that's a little counterproductive to what we're doin'?"

"We're spying on a human child. Hardly someone we need to be concerned about tipping off." Renamon came to halt, looking at the house across the street from the one they had come to a rest on. "Is this it?"

"I think so..." Impmon squinted as he tried to inspect the property. Ai hadn't been able to give him an exact address. Just a general area and an old yearbook photo of the kid in question.

Looking into the kitchen window, they saw the boy finishing dinner with his parents. Nothing of note seemed to be going on other than that. Impmon zeroed in on the boy himself. This "Kazuma" had short black hair and seemed to be a bit bigger than Mako.

"What do we do now?" Calumon asked, speaking louder than Impmon would have liked.

"We wait," Impmon answered, trying to keep his concentration.

"For what?"

"I don't know, Calumon!" Impmon snapped. "Stop askin' stupid questions!"

Calumon didn't flinch at the yelling, instead looking at Impmon and tilting his head. "Well, what kind of questions should I ask?"

"What do you hope to accomplish here when Mako specifically asked you to not get involved?" Renamon asked before Impmon had a chance to reach out and try to strangle Calumon. The kitsune looked right at him, now refusing to acknowledge the boy across the street.

"I... don't know," Impmon responded. He looked back and forth between Renamon and the family across the way. "I just don't get what's goin' through Mako's head."

"Maybe he's just learning how to pick his battles," Renamon offered.

"But that also means knowin' when you have tuh fight."

"Fair enough." Renamon paused just long enough for Impmon to return his attention forward. "It could also be a matter of empathy."

"I don't see how gettin' beat up by this kid would make Mako feel sorry fer 'em." Impmon watched Kazuma excuse himself from the kitchen before returning to his conversation with Renamon.

"An individual taking out his own inferiority on others. I guess it does sound absurd when I say it out loud." Renamon's brand of sarcasm was subtle, but easy to identify once Impmon got used to it.

"It kinda sounds like you're talking about Impmon," Calumon chimed in, probably having never tried to be subtle in his entire life.

"Yeah, well, this kid hasn't ben beatin' up by anyone as far as I can tell," Impmon countered. He looked back at the house, still no sign of Kazuma. "At least not yet."

"Just try to keep an open mind," Renamon replied. "Regardless of whether or not you learn to sympathize with this child, you don't want to do anything rash."

Conversation died down for the most part after that. Time passed and Kazuma did eventually reappear, but only to enter his bedroom and then go to bed a little after. The only light that remained on was the boy's parents watching TV in the living room.

"Well, I guess tonight's a bust," Impmon complained. He didn't want to give up, but there also didn't seem to be much to gain from sitting on the house any longer.

"Unless we want ask the parents what trauma their son suffered to make him a schoolyard bully," Renamon suggested, though Impmon couldn't tell if she was serious or not.

"Hey, that's a great idea!" Calumon nearly shouted, apparently not sharing Impmon's lack of clarity on Renamon's suggestion. Before anyone could stop him, he was leaping off the rooftop and floating towards the home they had been casing.

Impmon looked to Renamon, who was more than fast enough to stop Calumon before he made it to his destination. The kitsune merely shrugged instead, apparently having no interest intervening. Impmon growled in response before jumping to the street below in pursuit.

He managed to intercept Calumon just before he made it to the living room window, tackling the tiny white digimon right into a nearby bush. Impmon was sure to cover his mouth too, not wanting the home's residents to be alerted to their presence by Calumon's whining.

"We cool?" Impmon whispered, only releasing his hold once he received a nod from the Celestial.

"I was just trying to help," Calumon whispered back.

"Yeah, by givin' me a heart attack."

Impmon was about to get up and leave, but stopped. He was now close enough that he could clearly hear what was going on just beyond the window above them, and two sounds in particular caught his attention.

The first was the newscast playing on the television set. "Eyewitnesses confirm that a digimon was responsible for the damage sustained by this neighborhood," the reporter recited. "Hypnos has declined to comment."

The second was commentary from Kazuma's father. "We'd all be better off if the government would just kill all those monsters."

Having an entire day to think about what he heard did not help Impmon in the slightest. Not only was he now angry, but he had no easy way to intervene. What he wanted to get his hands on the little punk and teach him a lesson or two, but that would be playing into the ideas that the boy's father had filled his head with. In the end, stepping in had the potential to not only make things worse for Mako, but the Tamers as a whole.

None of this kept Impmon from following his partners to school so he could watch over them. As the final bell rang, he waited for Ai and Mako to leave school grounds on a large tree just outside the premises. They eventually appeared, with Suzie walking just ahead of them. Lopmon was absent to Impmon's surprise, as the youngest Wong had always shown less discretion when it came to bringing her partner to school.

Impmon assumed the three of them were in the clear once they passed under him, but any relief he felt disappeared when Kazuma pushed his way out of the mass of students. Flanked by two other boys who weren't quite as tall as him, Kazuma grabbed hold of Mako's backpack and yanked hard, causing Mako to fall backwards.

Impmon's finger twitched as he watched this happen, igniting a flame at the tip of it. He had to grab hold of his own wrist to keep himself from hurling it at Kazuma.

"Seriously?" Suzie almost yelled as she and Ai kneeled down next to Mako. She seemed more annoyed than surprised.

"What?" Kazuma asked smugly, basically asking for a couple of slaps. "I was just trying to get his attention."

"Yeah, and I guess using your words made your brain hurt too much," Suzie shot back as she stood up.

Kazuma's expression turned into a scowl as the insult registered. "You'd better watch yourself, pipsqueak."

"What for?" Suzie's own expression was replaced by a childish smile. "I'm willing to bet only one of us knows martial arts."

"Drop it, Suzie," Mako cut in as he stood up. "It's no big deal."

"See, listen to your friend," Kazuma taunted. "He understands how things should be."

Suzie looked away from the bully and over to Mako. After taking a few seconds to consider, she sighed and turned to leave, motioning for the others to follow. Kazuma, apparently satisfied with himself, did nothing to keep Mako from following. Ai, on the other hand, stood her ground.

"And how should things be, Kazuma," Ai said venomously. She was angry, an emotion Impmon only saw from her when she was dealing with Mako or himself.

Impmon wasn't sure what to do. He hadn't anticipated this, and while Ai never gave any indication that she wouldn't want him stepping for her sake, things hadn't really changed either. At that moment, he was stuck trying to figure out what kind of regrets he was willing to live with.

"You 'Tamers' and your freaky friends think you own this city and need to be put in your place," Kazuma said as though his words were fact. "I thinking maybe I should start with you."

"Back off, Kazuma!" Mako yelled, fight coming back to his eyes. "We had a deal!"

"Deal?" Ai repeated as she turned around. Her anger didn't seem to be going anywhere.

"I..." Mako's new sense of conviction seemed to flicker as he looked down at the ground. "...agreed that I wouldn't say anything to anyone about Kazuma if he left you alone."

"And who gave you permission to make that deal?" Ai shouted, giving Impmon a completely new reason to be afraid of jumping into the fray.

"What are you mad at? I was looking out for you!"

"I can fight my own battles just fine, thank you very much!"

Impmon surveyed all the kids watching the argument play out. The only one not on edge was Suzie, who now seemed more interested in just seeing what would happen next. On the opposite end of that spectrum was Kazuma, who looked like he was figuring out how insignificant he had just become.

"Listen up, freaks!" Kazuma began. "I-"

"No one cares what you think!" both siblings replied in unison, causing him to take a single step back.

"Fine!" Mako shouted. "I'm sorry for not trusting you to look after yourself!"

"And I'm sorry for getting mad!" Ai returned in kind. "I know you did what you did because you care!"

"Aw..." Suzie said softly.

Impmon understood the sentiment. It was hard for him to not feel proud of his partners at that moment. Unfortunately, it was this feeling that caused him to let his guard down.

"That's it!" Kazuma yelled. "Beatin' you both up!" He lunged forward but didn't get far.

If Impmon hadn't known better, he would have said that it was a gust of wind that knocked Kazuma off his feet and into his two friends. They all looked around, confused and angry though not actually injured in any real way.

"Th-That..." Kazuma began. "That was one of your monsters!"

"Prove it," Ai replied. "Looked to me like you just fell over."

"Yeah," Mako added. "Maybe you should call it quits before you hurt yourself."

"This isn't over!" Kazuma called out as he and his friends got to their feet and ran off.

"Cool!" Suzie responded as she waved at them. "We'll see you tomorrow!"

The three youngest Tamers laughed before turning around and continuing their walk home. Impmon was going to follow, but decided to wait a couple minutes.

"Thanks," he said as he looked up a branch above him, finding Renamon exactly where he expected her to be.

"Well, your reflexes seemed a little slow for my taste," the kitsune replied lightly.

"Maybe I was just learnin' how tuh pick my battles."

"I was told that also means knowing when you have to fight."

"I guess I didn't end up havin' tuh." Impmon looked in the direction Ai and Mako had left in. He knew when the two of them couldn't look after themselves, they'd look after each other. Not that he wouldn't be around to help from time to time.

Impmon gave one last nod to Renamon before departing. He assumed there would be a story waiting for him when he got home.