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Opposing Teams

The scene playing out in front of Henry was a familiar one. The entire group was gathered around a picnic table in Shinjuku Park as two of their own played the Digimon Trading Card Game. While the game was a hobby that most of them had outgrown, three of the Tamers still fit into its target demographic. Of course, this also led to a couple of the group's older members using them as an excuse to still partake in the matches that happened every so often.

Watching Kazu frustrate himself while looking over his cards, however, made Henry question whether or not this was a good thing. Again, this was a familiar scene, and not just because of the nostalgia of it. This was the fourth time in as many weeks that Kazu was playing against this particular opponent, and things were going about as well for him as they had previously.

"Nope," Suzie taunted as Kazu traced his hand over the cards he was holding. "No... not that one either." Normally, Henry would warn his sister against being overconfident, but the Kazu's track record made that lesson difficult to instill.

"Would you knock it off?" Kazu barked as slammed his cards on the table. "You don't even know what cards I have in my hand?"

"Well, not exactly." Suzie placed her index finger on her chin and looked off into the distance just to her right, essentially pretending to be deep in thought. "But I do know every card in your deck now, and no card you own can help you here." She then snapped her fingers and smiled. "Unless you've changed your deck since last week. Have you changed your deck since last week, Kazu?"

"No..." Kazu growled through his teeth.

"Well, then you're screwed."

"Suzie..." Henry warned, deciding this was where to draw the line. Her only reply was a shrug before settling down so that Kazu could take his turn.

"Okay..." Kazu said softly, allowing some of his usual overconfidence to come back to him. He placed down a modify card. "Beat that."

"Okay," Suzie replied. She set her own card down, winning the game.

"Awesome!" Mako cheered, no real regard for Kazu's wounded pride.

"That's four wins for Suzie," Ai reaffirmed softly. She wasn't so much boasting as she was happy for her friend, but that didn't seem to matter much.

"How many wins is that for you, Kazu?" Kenta asked, definitely intent on rubbing the loss in his best friend's face. Kazu had spent years mocking Kenta for how often he lost, so he wasn't going to miss an opportunity to return the favor.

"Shut up, Kenta!" Kazu snapped before turning his frustration back to Suzie. "I wanna play again."

"Why?" Suzie asked with a raised eyebrow.

"So I can win, obviously."

"But I thought we established you can't." Suzie looked around the group for support. "Seriously, did you hear a word I said?"

"Oh, I heard you..." Kazu turned back to Kenta. "Kenta, I need your cards."

"I... don't have any," Kenta replied.

"Really? You don't any cards on you?"

"I mean, I have MarineAngemon's modify cards, but I don't know how much good they'll do you."

"Well, they're a start." Kazu started looking from person to person, likely trying to figure out who he would have the best luck with. "What about you, Chumley?"

Takato, who had been focused on whatever he was drawing in his notebook, snapped his attention upward. "Sorry, I don't even have those on me today," he said.

"Of course not... Hey, Henry-"

"No," Henry said plainly, deciding their was no point in mincing words here. In all honesty, he couldn't figure out why Kazu expected different from any of them.

"Jeez, what kind of Tamers are you people?" Kazu continued his search until his eyes landed on his next victim. "Mako, buddy, you wanna do me a favor?"

"Uh, well..." Mako began nervously, looking to Suzie for either approval or disapproval. She only shrugged, likely not caring either way. "Sure, I guess."

"You're the best, dude!" Mako barely had a chance to pull his cards out before Kazu snatched them out of his hand. "We just need a little time to get set."

"Take all the time you want," Suzie replied as she and Ai walked off, heading towards a large tree not too far from the table.

Henry looked to the rest of his friends, none of them really surprised by Suzie's choice to leave. Henry doubted any of them wanted to watch Kazu obsess over a lost cause, and he considering following his sister's lead. Before he could, however, Jeri stood up and beat him to it.

"I'm gonna get out of the sun," Jeri explained.

Without giving an explanation herself, Rika stood up to follow. This caught Takato's attention, who up to this point seemed content to continue drawing while Kazu picked apart Mako's card collection.

"You're leaving too?" Takato asked. He wouldn't ask her to stay, as much as he obviously wanted her to.

"Yeah," Rika answered as she turned back to face him. "Watching Kazu bang his head against a wall goes from funny to sad pretty quickly." She didn't waste another beat before resuming her departure.

"Yeah, well, we'll see who's sad when I win the next game," Kazu called out to her.

"I don't think she has to worry about that," Takato commented as he returned to his notebook.

"You sayin' I can't win?"

"Well, your history kinda speaks for itself," Kenta chimed in.

"What history?" Not surprisingly, Kazu's fragile ego was showing again.

"As far as I know, you've never beaten Suzie, Henry, or Rika," Kenta listed off. "Takato's beaten you more times than you've beaten him."

"Alright, I get it, Kenta..."

"Hell, even Jeri beat you the one time you forced her to play against you."

Kazu jumped upward to get in Kenta's face. "I said I get it!"

Henry sighed and shook his head. He wondered if it was too late to follow the girls' example.

While Jeri's departure from the table had meant to be a way avoid listening to Kazu obsess over a card game, she found herself enjoying the side effects of her decision. The temperature was fair and a nice breeze had kicked up. It was also quiet so far, with the only noise coming from Suzie and Ai, who were sitting across from her.

Leaning against the tree next to Jeri was Rika, who was keeping to herself. Jeri found this funny in its own way. Rika acted like she preferred the quiet and would rather be alone, but she could have gone anywhere else in the park for that. Though she would never admit it, she had gotten too used to being around the others to go anywhere else.

"Funny how no one else seems to be around today," Ai pointed out suddenly, looking around the Tamers' immediate vicinity.

Her observation was correct. Besides them and the boys still sitting around the picnic table, the area's only other occupants were the digimon. The lot of them were playing tag, or at least one of Calumon's complicated variants of it.

"We have a nice spot here," Jeri said. "It's not the shed, but it'll do."

"Yeah..." Ai's half-hearted reply was followed by a quick but noticeable glance towards Suzie.

"What?" Suzie asked suspiciously.

"Nothing!" Ai replied nervously, usually one to avoid stirring up trouble with people who weren't her brother or Impmon. "I was just thinking it's a shame that a Tyranomon got wedged in the door."

Suzie snapped her attention towards Rika. "You said you wouldn't tell anyone!"

"I didn't," Rika said casually, not even bothering to face her accuser.

"Who did then? Takato wouldn't have said anything."

"Have you met him?" Rika's reply wasn't an unfair one. While Takato would never intentionally go back on his word, he was often too absentminded for his own good.

Still, Jeri was unconvinced the revelation of whatever part Suzie had played in damaging the shed was the root of problem. While Rika and Suzie never actually fought, it did seem like some kind of small competition had started between them. Suzie in particular seemed set at beating Rika at something, thought at what Jeri hadn't figured out yet.

"Maybe we should drop this," Jeri suggested, not looking to take sides here.

"Who blabbed, Ai?" Suzie asked, ignoring Jeri. "Tell me, now!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Ai called out, not thriving under the pressure of being in Suzie's crosshairs.

So much for the quiet, Jeri thought as she looked away.

As Kazu and Kenta continued to bicker, Henry tried to find something else to concentrate on. Eventually, the digimon ended up in his eye-line. Even with them enjoying their game, he couldn't help but worry about them a little bit. There was always a risk in bringing them out in public like this, given the public's very mixed feelings towards them. Henry hated to admit it, but that fear of digimon was likely why they currently had this section of the park to themselves. On the bright side, people staying away was preferable to the handful of run-ins they had with digimon protesters.

Henry decided to drop the line of thought altogether, feeling as though there was more important things to focus on than hate and fear. He looked back at his friends, finding Mako looking in the digimons' direction as well. Henry understood, knowing that the boy would at the very least be more comfortable playing with them than being stuck next to Kazu.

"Why don't you go join them, Mako?" Henry suggested.

"Because he's having fun right where he is," Kazu said before Mako got a chance to answer himself.

"I guess..." Mako said as he sunk lower in his seat.

"Why are you holding him hostage again?" Henry asked, knowing that he wouldn't like any answer that Kazu gave.

"Relax, Henry; no one's being held hostage." Kazu held up Mako's cards as though that made everything okay. "Mako's just helping me."

"No, you're helping yourself," Takato corrected.

"Why is this so important to you anyway?" Henry asked, hoping that changing his question would yield a clearer answer.

"As if you don't know the answer already..." Kazu said as he shook his head. "Explain it to them, Kenta."

"I'm with them, actually," Kenta replied. "Who cares if you can't beat Suzie?"

"First of all, I can beat her. Secondly, it's important because..." Kazu proceeded to explain his reasoning, which only convinced Henry to try and tune out Kazu's voice.

Suzie sat back down after a bit to shuffle through her cards, though Jeri knew that the younger girl's hunt for answers wasn't over. She didn't give up easily, and was likely just biding her time for now. Still, Jeri was looking to keep things calm, so she took the momentary silence as an opportunity to shift the conversation.

"Are you changing up your strategy for the next game, Suzie?" Jeri asked.

"No," Suzie answered, sounding almost disinterested in the topic.

"Why not?" Jeri questioned further. In addition to wanting to keep the conversation going, she was also a little curious about the girl's reasoning. "Isn't that what Kazu's doing?"

"Kazu's changing his cards, not his strategy."

"Is there a difference?" Ai asked, suddenly becoming interested as well.

"Big difference," Rika chimed in.

"Kazu's entire playing style is based around brute force," Suzie explained. "It doesn't matter what cards he has. He'll always assume that might makes right, which makes him predictable."

"It's actually kinda sad how little he's learned." Rika's assertion was harsh, but again not inaccurate. It also didn't help that Kazu often refused to admit his own faults.

"Honestly, he should learn to take his cues from the others."

"I guess you can't be surprised, though," Ai added, seeming a bit nervous. "He's not as smart as Henry is."

"I guess not," Suzie replied, obviously not finding how specific Ai's statement was as weird as Jeri did.

"Or as cute."

Suzie's cards fell from her hand. "What?"

Ai's face turned red, as she probably hadn't meant to say that last thought out loud. "I-I... said I think Henry's cute."

"No, I heard the words. They just don't make sense when you use them in the same sentence." Suzie looked around the group, now searching for a completely different set of answers. Her luck at finding them was about the same.

"Well, tough!" Ai's nervousness went away as she suddenly turned to face Suzie, conviction in her eyes. "Love doesn't have to make sense!"

"You think you're in love with my brother?"

"I don't think anything."

Jeri had to use all her willpower to not laugh out loud. She couldn't decide what was more adorable: Suzie's frustration or Ai's first crush.

"But... Henry?" Suzie questioned. "He's all old and serious all the time and into nerdy stuff and old."

A small part of Jeri wanted to bring up the way that Suzie used to adore Ryo, but kept quiet for a couple reasons. Firstly, she didn't want to call an eleven-year-old a hypocrite, and secondly because the thought of Ryo brought her back to Suzie's scuffle with Rika a few minutes. She wondered if it was just the result of misplaced jealousy on Suzie's part, but again chose to keep quiet about it. Instead, she filed the thought away as something for later consideration.

"I prefer to think of him as thoughtful, intelligent, and mature," Ai said as though she were lost in some kind of daydream. Her gaze drifted back towards the picnic table as she spoke.

"That's really sweet, Ai," Jeri said, trying to be as supportive as she could. "But I think Suzie's just concerned that there's a bit of an age gap between you and Henry. He might have trouble thinking of you in the same way."

"That's okay. I can wait for him to be ready."

"Yeah, but I don't think Alice will wait that long," Suzie commented as she picked her cards back up.

Ai twitched at the mention of the name. "Who's Alice?"

"Excuse me, but what?" Takato blurted out, dragging Henry's attention back to Kazu's rant.

His focus had been briefly shifted towards the girls when Ai had suddenly started yelling. He decided to forget about it, partially because he couldn't make out what she was saying but mainly because he knew her distress had nothing to do with him.

"You heard me, Chumley," Kazu answered. "Ladies dig a winner."

"Winners at a card game designed for children?" Takato probed.

Kazu hesitated for a second. "Yep."

"Alright, then which 'ladies' are you trying to impress? Because the last time I checked the only girls around here are eleven and..." Takato trailed off as his line of sight moved to girls in the distance. Then realization hit. "Really, Kazu?"

Henry shook his head and willed himself to stay quiet. He wasn't about to get dragged into whatever Kazu was trying to sell.

"Really," Kazu confirmed, obnoxious grin on his face.

"Do you really think Jeri cares whether you win or not?" Takato asked, sounding like he hadn't quite wrapped his head around the conversation they were having. "Especially with you being the sore winner you are."

"Eh, girls don't know what they want til you show 'em."

Takato gripped his pencil tighter. For the first time that Henry could think of, Takato looked like he wanted to punch Kazu in the face. Normally Henry would just say that Takato was just being overprotective of Jeri, but Kazu's comments weren't sitting well with him either.

"Maybe take it down a notch, Kazu," Henry suggested. "You're talking about our friend, not a piece of meat."

"Why are you guys getting so bent out of shape about this?" Kazu asked. "Aren't the Ice Queen and Morticia enough for you two?"

"You're being disrespectful," Henry answered, deciding to let all the insinuations of his last question go. At least for the time being.

"Just tell him like it is, guys," Kenta cut in before turning to Kazu. "You don't have a chance with Jeri."

"Based on what?" Kazu shot back.

"Facts. She called me sweet the other day. Sorry, pal, but she's already chosen her man."

"Aw, nuts..." Takato said under his breath. "Not him too."

"You're really surprised that you weren't the last person to have feelings for Jeri?" Henry asked. The girl in question was outgoing, smart, and fun to be around. Looking at things objectively, it was only a matter of time before interested parties started to show themselves.

"I guess not." Takato looked on as Kazu and Kenta continued to argue in front of him.

"First off, you're delusional!" Kazu yelled. "Second, I so do have a chance!"

"Only a chance at striking out!" Kenta countered.

"Are girls really all you guys think about?" Mako asked as he slowly slid away from Kazu.

"I..." Takato began before pausing to look at his notebook as he considered his answer. "...don't have an easy answer for you, Mako. You'll see when you're older."

"The short answer is some of us more than others," Henry added as he glanced at Takato's notebook. He didn't actually have to see what was on the page to guess who the subject was. "Sometimes it's just the one girl, depending on your luck."

Takato took a second before catching on to what Henry was implying. His response was to slowly close the book and lean on top of it, almost as though he were trying to make sure it stayed shut.

"Sounds awful," Mako stated.

"You have no idea," Takato confirmed before turning his attention back to Kazu and Kenta. "Alright, guys... enough!"

Henry sat back as Takato switched over to "leader mode," getting his two arguing friends in order by switching their focus back to the card game. It was not an easy feat, but Takato did manage to show off the years of practice he had at the job. Henry had trouble deciding whether or not he was disappointed, given how rarely he had to step in to help him nowadays.

"...because she's a hussy who thinks because she traveled across an ocean she can just take whatever she wants! And... and..." Ai trailed off, now out of breath. Not that this surprised Jeri, given the colorful vocabulary she had just run through.

"You feel better?" Suzie asked dryly.

"No," Ai whined. "And now my chest hurts."

"You'll survive," Suzie reassured her friend as they shifted to a different topic of conversation.

"Well, that was dramatic," Rika observed, speaking softly so that only Jeri noticed.

"Let her be," Jeri replied. "She's still got a bit to learn about love."

Rika snorted. "First thing she has to learn is that love is something you only find in fairy-tales."

Jeri held in her laugh. Not because she didn't want hurt anyone's feelings, but because Rika had left set herself up to get knocked down and Jeri was not about to pass on the opportunity. "That's a bold declaration coming from someone whose boyfriend can literally turn into a white knight."

"He's not my boyfriend." Rika tried to keep her composure, but Jeri could tell she had hit her mark. Jeri had initially worried that Rika's denials about her relationship with Takato would grow old, but for her, the fun of them had come back around.

"Whatever you say, your Majesty."

"Don't try to be cute, Katou." Rika's use of Jeri's last name was usually a sign that she'd had enough.

"Who's trying?" Rika glared at Jeri, causing her to cave. "Fine, but can I ask one more question?"

"Go ahead," Rika answered begrudgingly.

"What word would you use to describe your feelings for him then?" Jeri asked, doing her best to speak genuinely again.

Rika looked over to Takato, almost like she needed to see him before she could put her words together. He was talking to Kazu and Kenta, showing an authority that Jeri didn't think anyone believed he would ever have. It was moments like these that made her question whether he was the same boy who used to doodle in the back of Ms. Asaji's class or someone else entirely.

"I trust him," Rika said finally. "More than I do any other human being."

That sounded like love to Jeri, but she didn't say so out loud. Rika would catch on eventually, assuming she hadn't already.

Then, with ridiculously perfect timing, Takato waved them back over. None of the girls rushed back, most of them probably feeling like the outcome was guaranteed.

"You ready to lose?" Kazu asked, usual cockiness now back.

"Yeah, yeah..." Suzie answered dismissively as she sat down.

Ai picked a spot between Suzie and Henry. "Is this seat taken?" she asked the latter innocently.

"It's all yours," Henry answered, obviously not looking into any of the subtext of the question. He acknowledged Jeri and Rika as they reclaimed their spots. "You guys talk about anything interesting?"

"Just the usual angst," Jeri replied. "You?"

"Same."

"And girls," Mako said absentmindedly.

"Really?" Rika asked. She looked to Takato, who only laughed nervously.

"Actually, it was mostly about Jeri," Mako added.

"Me?" Jeri would have been lying if she said she wasn't a little concerned.

"All good things," Kenta said quickly. "Not that there are any bad things to begin with."

"Okay..."

"Just shut up, Kenta," Kazu cut in. "Jeri's gotta focus on me kicking Suzie's ass."

"Did you just threaten to beat up my little sister?" Henry asked, not quite angry yet. In his defense, he had probably had enough of Kazu for one day.

"It's not really a threat if you can't back it up," Rika pointed out.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kazu snapped.

"I'm saying that an eleven-year-old girl would beat you up." Rika rolled her eyes as spoke. "Suzie's right; you really don't pay attention."

"The more things change..." Takato said softly as he opened his notebook up to a blank page.

With that, Jeri refocused on the game being played in front of her. She decided that she would be best off if she stopped reading into things for one day.

Growing up, I always hated the inevitable "boys vs girls" episode that every show would do. So naturally, that's the exact kind of chapter I decided to write here. Nothing else really to say about this one. It doesn't really have much of a plot. It's basically just pure character interaction.