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Where We Began

The massive, insectoid form of GranKuwagamon flew forward, mowing down any trees in its path. Even bio-merged with Guilmon in their shared form of Gallantmon, Takato was just barely able to roll out the digimon's path. He reoriented himself for a counterattack, but by this point his target had flown back into the air.

In the aftermath of the D-Reaper's defeat, Hypnos set out to drastically overhaul its security protocols. Within the year, Shinjuku saw a huge decrease in bio-emergences, with Mega-level digimon like GranKuwagamon rarely making their way through. The exception to this trend seemed to be Shinjuku Park, which Henry theorized was the result of the portal underneath the utility shed.

Takato raised his weapons to prepare for when GranKuwagamon came back around, but that moment never came. Instead, the giant insect flew towards the person they were fighting alongside.

"Rika!" Takato called out as he sprinted forwards. The Tamer in question, who was currently merged with Renamon as Sakuyamon, turned around just in time to get tackled to the ground before GranKuwagamon's could come crashing to the ground.

Knowing Rika as well as he did, Takato did not expect much in the way of gratitude. Even to this day, she still felt as though needing to be rescued was a sign of weakness on her part. The anger he saw when looking down at the shaman's face, however, still left him a bit scared.

"I was fine!" Rika snapped. As if to prove her point, she stretched her left arm past his head and called up a barrier just in time to deter GranKuwagamon's follow-up strike.

The bug's claw bounced off the barrier, and rather than continue, the digimon flew off again. Having a brief reprieve, Sakuyamon didn't waste any time shoving Gallantmon off her.

"I can take care of myself, Takato," Rika stated as she stood up.

"I know," Takato replied as he trained his sights on GranKuwagamon once more. "Doesn't mean I'm not gonna worry about you."

Takato eyed the the digital field around them, noting it was starting to fade. He looked to Rika, who nodded to indicate they were on the same page. Once the field was gone, GranKuwagamon would be set loose on the city and there was no telling how much destruction would follow. They had to end the fight before that happened.

They broke off in different directions, with Takato charging to meet GranKuwagamon head on. At the last second, he leapt upward and slashed his lance across one of his opponent's wings. Results of this action were mixed.

On the one hand, GranKuwagamon's flight capabilities were successfully neutralized. On the other, it caused the digimon to lash out in pain, swinging a claw wildly and catching the side of Takato's head. He crashed to the ground just behind the insectoid digimon.

Takato stood up as quickly as he could, an act made slightly more difficult by the fact that his head was still spinning. By this point, he was face-to-face with the wild digimon bearing down on him again. Luckily, this wasn't cause for concern.

"SPIRIT STRIKE!"

Four fox-shaped attacks rained down on GranKuwagamon, with each striking one of the its legs and halting its advance. This left it vulnerable to a finishing blow.

"LIGHTNING JOUST!"

A bolt of energy shot from Gallantmon's lance, hitting GranKuwagamon and reducing the wild digimon to data. Takato let off a sigh of relief before turning to face Sakuyamon, who had landed right in front of him.

"You okay?" Rika asked.

"Sure," Takato answered, dismissing his lance and tapping a finger against his head. "Thick armor."

"Thick head is like it." The shaman closed the distance between them, taking hold of the knight's face-plate to examine where the claw had struck.

"Ow!" Takato winced.

"Oh, get over it."

"Guess this means you're still mad."

"Yeah, a little." Rika's tone softened, however, and she gently rested her hand against the side of Takato's head. "Doesn't mean I'm not gonna worry about you."

Takato didn't do much considering before raising his own hand placing it on hers. Again, he knew Rika well enough to know that gestures of affection weren't exactly something she was comfortable with and that what he was doing was essentially putting his person at risk. Yet surprisingly, she didn't pull away or resist. She only looked back at him nervously, or at least until...

"Ahem!" Renamon's voice jolted them both back to reality, causing them both to immediately separate.

"Are you alright, Takatomon?" Guilmon chimed in.

"I'm fine! I mean, why wouldn't I be?" Takato blurted out as they all let go of their Mega forms. He looked to Rika, who was currently avoiding eye-contact with him. "Sorry about all that. I guess I just get into the part when we become Gallantmon."

"Whatever," Rika replied, occupied with quickly tying her hair back into its signature ponytail.

"So..." Takato spaced a bit on what to say next. Even after all these years, he still occasionally felt like an idiot when he spoke to her. "You heading home?"

"Eventually..." Rika gave him her full attention now. "I was thinking about sticking around here for a little while."

"Perfect night for it." Takato looked upward, the digital field having long dissipated to reveal the stars above them. "You... want any company?"

Rika hesitated a second, obviously considering her choice of words. "You can stay if you want."

"Cool." Takato tried not to sound too eager. He then paused and turned to Guilmon, having once again almost forgotten his partner's presence. "What about you, boy? You wanna head home?"

"What should I tell Mom?" Guilmon asked in reply. A fair question, given the way Takato's mother may react if the saurian returned home alone.

"Just tell her I'll be home in a little bit."

"Okay..." Guilmon shrugged before turning to leave.

"I think I'll accompany him back," Renamon said as she turned to face Takato.

"Really?" Takato responded, trying not to sound surprised.

"Someone should keep him from getting into trouble. Besides, Rika's safe with you."

"Well, thanks, Renamon." Takato scratched the back of his head nervously. "That actually means a lot coming from you."

"And if you ever prove me wrong, I'll cut you into pieces so small that not even Guilmon will recognize you."

"Right..." Takato's entire body went cold. Renamon's words weren't a threat; they were a promise.

"Do you really think you could get the pieces that small?" Guilmon asked as the two digimon walked away. His tone was almost too casual for Takato's liking.

"I suppose we'd find out," Renamon answered in kind.

"You coming?" Rika called out to him, having already started walking.

Shaking the image of Renamon dismembering him from his mind, Takato quickly moved to catch up with her. They wandered the park for a bit, not really saying much of anything. Not that this was abnormal for the two of them. One of the many things that separated Rika from other girls was she never mistook lack of conversation for lack of interest in her. On the contrary, Takato knew for a fact that she sometimes preferred the complete silence.

Despite this knowledge, Takato still couldn't keep himself from running his mouth sometimes. His parents liked to refer to it as his "wonderful curse." Case in point, as the two walked into a familiar clearing, Takato couldn't find it in himself to keep quiet.

"This can't be the first time we've been back here, right?" Takato asked, coming to a halt to take in his surroundings.

"What do you mean?" Rika asked back, genuinely not knowing what he was referring to.

Takato looked at her and tilted his head. "Come on, there's no way you don't recognize this place."

Rika looked around again and her eyes widened in realization. "It's..."

"Yep." Takato plopped himself on the ground and leaned back against the chain-linked fence. The same chain-linked fence that Renamon had kicked Guilmon through five years ago, thus marking his and Rika's first meeting. "I wonder how long it ended up taking them to fix it."

"Probably not that long." Rika stuck her hands in her pockets as she continued to look around. "Feels like a lifetime ago."

"I mean, it was the day after Guilmon was born, so technically..." Takato looked up at her and smiled. She only rolled her eyes at him. "Still, I remember most of it clear as day. You called Guilmon a lousy fighter but insisted a fight was a fight."

"I remember..." Rika finally sat down next to him, pulling her knees up to her chest.

Her sudden change in mood made Takato feel lousy, as he wasn't sure exactly what was making her upset. Then he figured it out, which made him feel even worse. Rika still held onto a lot of guilt about her early days as a Tamer. Having believed that digimon weren't living creatures, she had indiscriminately killed a lot of them just so that she and Renamon could become stronger. The fact that she had been set on making Guilmon one of her victims only made things worse.

Takato and Henry had both made it a point to tell her that they forgave her and that she shouldn't dwell on the past. Like GranKuwagamon, most of the wild digimon they had fought back then were a threat to the city. Even if they had had a way to send them back to the Digital World, next to none of them would have cooperated. In the end, however, the only person whose forgiveness Rika wanted was her own, something she was obviously still working towards. At that point, it became hypocritical for Takato to push the matter any further, as no one had more difficulty letting go of past mistakes than him.

Still, that didn't leave Takato completely powerless. If he couldn't get Rika to let go of her guilt, he could at least try to make her feel better by getting her to think about something else.

"That day was also the first time you called me a Goggle-head," Takato said, smiling in the hopes that the slight shift in topic would be enough to bring her back.

"I called everyone that back then," Rika replied, still not looking at him.

"Yeah, but when you said it to me, you meant it."

"That's not a good thing, you Goggle-head!" Rika finally turned to him. There was a pause as she looked back at him with a renewed sense of annoyance. Takato held his ground, however, and she eventually shook her head and smiled too.

"I rest my case." Anytime he could get her to smile was a win in his mind.

"Shut up..." Rika paused again and her smile dropped away. While she didn't seem sad, her expression did seem to be one of contemplation. "You think I've changed since then, right?"

Takato's own demeanor fell away too, having been caught off guard by the question. He tried not to wait too long before answering. "Yeah, a little."

"Just a little?" Rika seemed disappointed by the answer.

"Rika, since when do you care what other people think of you?"

"I don't, but you and Henry and Jeri aren't 'other people.' You're my friends. You're important to me, and I don't want anything I do to push you guys away."

"That'll never happen," Takato stated. There was no doubt in his mind.

"It will if I really haven't changed in five years." Rika looked at the ground in front of her, causing Takato's heart to sink. He was losing her again and needed to think fast.

"Hey, no..." Takato grabbed her shoulder and waited for her eyes to meet his before he continued. "Look, I just meant that I don't think the Rika I met that day was that bad a person. You were just hurting and lost. When I look at you now, I don't see a different person. I see the person I think you always were underneath."

Rika didn't respond right away, but Takato wasn't bothered by this. He knew she and vulnerability still didn't quite fit together, so he knew when to give her a minute. The fact that she hadn't hit him or just gotten up and left was a good sign.

"I think I'm gonna throw up," Rika said, somewhat succeeding in lightening the tone of her voice. "You know that everything you just said was cliché, right?"

"Sorry..." Takato replied. He let go of her shoulder to scratch the back of his head. "It was all off the top of my head."

"I guess I should at least feel better knowing that you really haven't changed either. You and your thick skull, stupid optimism, and always trying to see the best in people."

"I guess I've never really been able to outgrow that last one."

"And don't you ever," Rika ordered.

"I promise," Takato said, knowing she would hold him to it.

Takato stood, feeling like the two of them were in a good place now and it was okay to keep moving. He extended his hand to help Rika to her feet, and was surprised when she actually accepted it and let him pull her up to him. Their eyes met again and there was another pause.

"Any other days you wanna reminisce about?" Rika asked, still holding his hand as she spoke.

"None in particular," Takato answered. His heart was beating faster now, the result of anxiety over the gamble he was about to make. "That day was special. It's not every day that you get to meet your dream girl."

"You know Renamon's not the only one who can kill you, right?" Rika's temperament stayed even, however, and she remained in place.

"W-What are you waiting for?"

"What are you waiting for?" Despite a mostly confident facade, it was obvious she was nervous as well.

"Honestly..." Takato concentrated on Rika's violet eyes, hoping that would calm his nerves. "I'm kind of expecting Henry to come out of nowhere and interrupt us."

"Oh, get over it."

And for a split second, as he placed placed his free hand on her cheek and leaned closer to her, he did. Unfortunately, that second came a hair too late. Takato's cellphone blared, causing both startled teens to jump apart.

Rika's face was red, and heat he felt on his own face told Takato he wasn't much better off. Not really knowing what else to do given the situation, he checked the caller ID on his phone and answered it.

"M-Mom?" Takato said nervously.

"I was just wondering if you could define 'in a little bit' for me," his mother responded.

"W-Well, I was... Y-You see, it's kinda like..." Takato looked to Rika for help, but she had already started walking away. Takato sighed and admitted defeat. "I'm leaving the park now."

"I hope so. I'm not stopping Guilmon if he tries to eat your dinner."

Takato hung up, too distracted to even say goodbye. Looking around his surroundings and at the girl he had almost kissed, Takato couldn't figure out if he was the luckiest or unluckiest being in two worlds. He decided the answer was both.

So that's two Rukato-centric chapters in a row. Almost wanted to have them be two parts of the same chapter, but decided against it given the POV and tonal shift. Still not sure how many dedicated "Rukato stories" this collection will end up with. I have one or two specific stories that I'm still looking to include here, but I'm considering having their relationship recur throughout rather than a having a bunch chapters focused solely on them. I guess my chief concern here is that I want this collection to be varied, at least in terms of which characters are the focus of each chapter.