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: 37/ Restless Days

Coffee cup in hand, Himiko sat at a park bench. Across from her, grounds-workers busied themselves with rebuilding Chuo Park. She supposed that the work went well. She knew of no delays and saw no arguing. The worst she saw involved a line of protestors that paraded down the streets, demanding that the government do something about the latest digimon threat. She felt she should be worried about that. Matters such as this determined the future of the government and the continuity of its policies. All it took was one election defeat and she would be gone and done away with, just as she had others.

Although, in my case, that's part of what I'm hoping for.

She caught sight of movement to her left, but didn't look up as a figure took a seat by her side.

"I thought you didn't like coffee," said the voice from the person next to her.

"I don't. But appearances are sometimes important."

"Appearing like you enjoy coffee is important?"

"More like I'm relaxing with an old friend during my lunch break."

"Anyone who actually knew us wouldn't be fooled."

Himiko glanced out of the corner of her eye. The man – the former Chief of Cabinets she ousted in favor of her own – was dark of skin with a severe, emotionless, cold, expression that reminded her of Yamaki. Even the sunglasses he wore appeared to be the same. She wondered at how common it was for people who partook in top secret organizations to share appearances and briefly entertained the idea that they were some kind of digimon.

"Would you prefer a better venue then?" she asked. "Something more natural for our working relationship?"

"We don't have one. You saw to that. I wouldn't even be here under normal circumstances."

"Then it's fortunate for both of us that these are abnormal times. So, let's cut the crap and stop talking in circles like politicians. I need your help."

The man arched a surprised eyebrow. Himiko finally turned to face him more fully.

"Well, to be more accurate, those kids need your help. I'm just trying to get them the help they need."

The man frowned. "I'm out of the game. You forced me out."

"And I can force you back in. I know you want your old job back and I'm finding that I'd rather have you as Chief of Cabinets again instead of the pig I put up in your place."

"I was under the impression that Yamaki's Sleipnir project was a success. It drove away the latest digimon attack, proving your point."

Himiko narrowed her eyes at his teasing smile.

"All right," he admitted. "Not as much a success as you would like."

"No one is thrilled at Sleipnir becoming a fully sentient program with the memories of a human who died. As far as the government is concerned, it's a failure. One we can't turn off or get rid of."

"A problem that can write its own programming and evolve apparently."

"You're well-informed for someone who is out of the game."

"Which is why you contacted me. So, as you said, let's cut the crap. What do you need from me?"

Reaching to her side, Himiko pulled out a folder and handed it to the man. Opening it, he looked through it. He gave a sudden chuckle.

"Well, this is certainly unexpected from you." He closed up the folder. "But what makes you so certain you can get me back on my horse?"

"I made that pig. I can break him. It'll be a line of dominos from there. And by the time I'm through, they'll need people like you back in place."

Of course, it wouldn't be that easy, and it would certainly take time. Longer than she would like in fact. Taking over Hypnos – weakened as it was by her machinations to dislodge Yamaki from power – and the fallout from recent events, ironically, made her rather radioactive. Fewer people wanted to deal with her now and those that did charged expensively for their influence.

Funny how karma works.

The man reopened the folder and pulled up a dossier. "I see," he said thoughtfully. He gazed at it a moment later before returning it to the folder and closing it up. Getting up, he bowed politely to her and wordlessly left. Himiko remained seated for a moment longer, watching as one of the workers planted a flower. She tsked, hating the colorful sight. It reminded her too much of Rumiko.

But protecting people like her is what I'm all about, she thought. Even from people like me.

Rising from her seat, she headed back to work.

###

Takato arrived at school with Guilmon by his side. Pausing at the gate, he turned toward his partner and nodded to him.

"You'll be okay getting back home by yourself, right?" he asked. Guilmon nodded.

"I will," he said, not pointing out that he had done so plenty of times in the past. IceBeelzemon's presence created a new wrinkle in their life. Guilmon knew it made Takato anxious. "You'll be okay too, right?"

In answer, Takato glanced in the direction of his school. Some students cast looks in his direction, ranging from boredom to curiosity. Guilmon was something the school had gotten used to during the time of his attendance, so only newcomers were ever taken off guard. A pair of girls however froze at the entrance upon seeing Guilmon and drew back a little. Their eyes flickered up to Takato and there he could see surprise, as if they hadn't expected to see him again. Immediately they began whispering back and forth with one another. They still didn't go through the front gate though, and continued to hang back. With the anxious looks they had, Takato was left feeling self-conscious and more than a little worried.

"Well, I can't make any promises," he said, turning back to his partner. His hand twitched and lifted toward his chest, but he quickly dropped it. "I just really wish my stitches would stop itching."

"You should get some cold compresses from the nurses office," Guilmon suggested. "I'll see you later."

"Later." Waving, Takato turned and went through the gate. A part of him desperately wanted to turn around and escort Guilmon back home. Or, better yet, simply skip school and be with his partner for the whole day. He gripped his bag tightly, fighting back against the anxiety building up in him.

I can't be like that, he told himself. It didn't change how he felt. IceBeelzemon remained on the loose. Hypnos' sensors still couldn't pinpoint his exact location, but they knew he was still out there, moving back and forth between the worlds. They were all still in danger.

Especially Rika.

He felt muscles tighten in his chest, remembering when he heard about her grandmother's injury.

The way she looked… I've got to find a way to get stronger. Or at least find a place where we can fight without anyone getting hurt. But how?

"Takato!"

Turning at the sound of his name, he spotted Kenta hurrying toward him. The boy's expression was one of relief. Drawing up beside him, Kenta took a moment to catch his breath.

"I'm glad I didn't miss you," Kenta said. "How are you doing?"

"Could be better." Absently, he reached up and scratched at his chest. He scowled at his misbehaving hand. "Thanks for bringing me all the stuff I missed while I was out."

"It's what friends are for, right?" Kenta beamed. A second later, his face fell. "Ah, Masaru has been asking about you a lot since you were out. And…And there's been other things too. So, ah, you might want to be careful."

Catching Kenta's mood, Takato nodded, saying nothing. He wished he could say that he was surprised.

"All right," he said. "Thanks."

Takato entered the building with trepidation. He found Masaru quickly enough, leaning against the row of lockers at the entrance. His amber-colored eyes fixated immediately on him. Pushing away from the lockers, he made his way over toward them. Coming to a halt, he nodded first to Kenta and then focused on Takato again. Takato could hear his heart beating loudly like a drum. He knew what was coming and there was no getting out of it.

A split second later, Masaru threw a punch at him.

Instincts drilled into him by Henry's former teacher took hold. Both hands went up and promptly slapped down the punch as it came at him. Undaunted, Masaru came at him again with the other fist, and again Takato slapped it away. Again, a third punch, and Takato saw his intent to press him harder, inviting him to end things quickly.

Eager to do just that, Takato obliged him gladly. This time, instead of slapping away the punch, he grabbed hold of Masaru's sleeve and pulled him forward. He kicked out his foot and Masaru tripped over it, sprawling to the floor. Quickly rolling over, Masaru recovered. Flashing Takato a grin, he rose back to his feet.

"Nice technique," he said. "You look like you're getting back to what you were when you saved Chika."

"Masaru!" shouted a voice from down the hall. Looking up, Takato saw a teacher running toward them. Masaru sighed.

"Nuts. Someone ratted us out." Scratching at his head, he sauntered past Takato and gave Kenta a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Little Brother. I'll take the blame."

"Uh, thanks?" Takato said before giving Kenta a quizzical look. The bespectacled boy shrugged.

"Oh!" Masaru punched a fist into his palm, remembering something important. "Nuts. Could you tell Ayaka I might be late for our date later? This'll probably give me detention."

"Ah, sure."

"Thanks! Catch you later!" Waving at the pair, Masaru dashed off, leaving the two Tamers and the crowd they gathered to their own devices.

"Oookay…" Takato began carefully. "That was very…Masaru."

"He's been really worried about you since he heard you were in the hospital," Kenta explained.

Takato glanced at the boy's still-bandaged nose and frowned. Seeing this, Kenta laughed lightly.

"Yeah, he's really sorry about that too. And not just because Ayaka's mad at him. You know how he is."

"A man pays his debts," Takato quoted, remembering his first encounter with Masaru.

"Yeah, something like that."

Takato scratched the back of his head. "You'd think he'd try something a little more…" He struggled for words. "I don't know. Peaceful, I guess? I know Guilmon would call any debt repaid if it involves peanut butter."

"Maybe he thinks that wouldn't be enough. I mean, can you put a price on his sister?"

Takato's eyes softened a little. "No," he admitted. He went over to his locker and popped it open. "But I don't like it when people feel like they owe me something."

Taking out his shoes he turned them over and gave them a shake. No thumbtacks fell out, so he gave them a tap to dislodge any that might have been more securely fastened inside them and out of his sight.

Nothing. So far, so good.

He slipped the first shoe on and wiggled his toes. Pronouncing them safe, he put on the other one and then deposited his other pair inside the locker. He wondered what awaited him at class.

Only one way to find out.

Arriving at class, he found a glass vase of flowers sitting on his desk. He looked around, finding classmates staring at him with disapproving looks. He didn't bother asking who bought them. No one would volunteer such information.

Sighing, he wordlessly went over to it.

"At least they look nice," he said, and he meant it. The flowers were of the white chrysanthemum, symbolizing grief. He stroked their petals, thinking back on Henry, Jeri, Kazu, and Ryo.

If I stayed with them, would any of them have lived? he found himself wondering.

"Are you okay?" Kenta asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I'll be fine," Takato replied.

Taking the vase, he set it on the floor and began to sort through his things for the day. Catching sight of Ayaka entering the classroom, he paused in his work.

"Ayaka!" he called, heading over to her. "Masaru wanted me to tell you he, ah, he's probably got detention today."

Ayaka glanced at him before sullenly tossing her bag onto her desk.

"He tried to fight you again, didn't he?"

"Yeah," Takato confirmed regretfully. Ayaka ran a finger along her bag strap, clearly unhappy.

"I-If it helps, he's really sorry," Takato continued, hoping to take the sting out of the bad news.

"Of course he is. He always is whenever I get mad at him for fighting. But it doesn't stop him. He'll probably say something like, "You just don't understand! Men talk with their actions!"" She scrunched her face up in frustration. "Whatever," she muttered to herself. "Now he's got a debt to me to work off."

Their conversation over, Takato headed back in the direction of his desk. Passing Katsuharu, the boy sitting there piped up, "If you love the digital world so much, why don't you go there instead? Didn't you get the message? No one wants you here."

Takato came to a stop and looked at the teen. He forced himself to repress a wince. The resemblance the boy had to Kazu was frighteningly strong, not just in his physical appearance, but also his temperament. It felt like looking at a ghost.

"What?" Katsuharu sneered. "You got a problem with me?"

"No." Takato shook his head and went over to his seat.

From the far side of the room, he was watched by a tall teen with blond hair and a disheveled uniform. After a moment, he tsked and looked away.

###

80/100

Clenching her pencil tightly in her hand, Rika stared at the score on her exam with a glare, half willing it to become higher and half willing the sheet to just disappear.

"First time I've seen you with a score below 90," Kayoko said, approaching her desk with a chair. All about them, students were getting up from their seats in preparation for lunch. Assuming a look of serene ambivalence, Rika lifted her school bag and squirreled the exam away.

"I've got a lot on my mind," she admitted while Kayoko set her chair down.

"I know," Kayoko nodded. "There's no way you wouldn't."

Reaching out, the darkhaired girl brushed at the strands of Rika's hair. Rika's lower lip trembled at her friend's touch and her eyes became damp. With a fierce struggle, she reigned herself in. It wasn't easy. All she had to do was blink and she could see her grandmother lying in a hospital bed, half her hair gone to make room for the bandages wrapped around her head and covering her right eye.

Cracked skull. Eye damage. They had to glue parts of her skull back together!

She realized her breathing was starting to come out fast. With an effort, she forced herself to slow it down so she wouldn't worry her friend.

"I'm okay," Rika said, more for her own benefit than Kayoko's. "Grandma's doing fine. Mom and Dad are going to the hospital later to see if they can bring her home tonight."

Another blink, and she saw her grandmother lying on the street, blood pooling underneath her. Her pencil strained against her fingers and then there came an abrupt, loud snap. The top of her pencil tumbled off and landed on her desk.

Rika heard Toshiko gasp. Looking up, she found the mousy girl freezing mid-approach. It lasted only a second, but all three of them saw it.

"S-Sorry," Toshiko said, not bothering to deny what happened. "For a second there, you looked kind of scary."

"She did, didn't she?" Kayoko agreed, looking at Rika contemplatively.

"N-Not that there's anything wrong with that!" Toshiko continued hastily. "Your grandma…"

"I get it. I get it." Rika placed her now broken pencil in her bag. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Sure," Kayoko said. "Like how you want to beat up the asshole digimon that hurt your grandmother?"

Rika's eyes flashed and her hands tightened into angry fists. Kayoko nodded, as if she expected no less.

"I don't want to talk about him right now," Rika seethed. It wasn't a lie, but also not quite the truth either. She wanted to pretend, at least for a little while, that everything was normal and she didn't have a Mega level digimon trying to kill her, or that it hurt her grandmother and Takato to do it. She wanted to just be with her friends and worry only about their exams or Kayoko's inane talk about her boyfriend.

"You should," Kayoko said, drawing up a desk. "Bad feelings can be like poison, and if you're going to fight this guy, you can't have that distracting you. And you yourself said once how they might affect Renamon." Reaching out, she tapped the top of Rika's head with her knuckles. "The two of you are too cute to turn into a head hunting Digimon Queen and a monster fox."

Rika's mouth twisted as her two friends watched her sympathetically.

"I don't…" she began. "I don't know what to do. Or how to talk about it." Clenching her eyes shut, she then pressed her hands against her face. "I just feel so angry."

She let out a shudder and then looked at her two friends.

"Kind of funny, isn't it? Usually, I'm the last person to be like this. I always know what to say or how to handle my problems."

"Not always," Kayoko corrected as Toshiko took out her bento. "And to be fair, Nonaka, you've never been a Tamer before. You didn't really know what you were getting into."

"Of course I knew!" Rika snapped back.

Kayoko rolled her eyes. "Let's be real. You 'knew' academically. Like something you only heard about. You didn't really 'know-know.'" Her face softened. "Like how no one really knows about death until it actually happens to them."

"I bet your other-you went through something like this when she first started," Toshiko chimed in. Placing her bento on the desk, she opened it. "Want some?"

"I'm not hungry," Rika shook her head. She had left her lunch behind because of how upset she was.

"Don't be like that," said Kayoko. "You and Fluffy Tail need to keep up your strength. No amount of hangry is going to help you beat that digimon's stupid face in."

Rika glanced at the offered bento. It contained pickled ume, two rice balls, and fried shrimp. She looked up at Toshiko, whose eyes shown with concern.

"I don't deserve you two."

"We can argue about that," Kayoko grinned. Taking out her own bento, she popped it open. "You can have some of mine too. And if it bothers you, you can make it up to us by making something for us."

Rika gave an embarrassed look. "You know I'm not great at cooking."

"We can help you with that. Right Toshi?"

Toshiko nodded her head exuberantly. "Food made together with friends always tastes better than food made by yourself."

"There, see?" Kayoko smirked at Rika. "Are you going to say no to our cute little Leg Queen?"

"I'm not…" Toshiko blushed brightly. "Please don't call me that."

"Learn to take a compliment," Kayoko laughed, pinching Toshiko's cheek. "Well, Nonaka?"

Rika sighed. "Fine. We'll make a day of it. Just…don't overdo the sappy stuff, okay?"

She gave Toshiko a meaningful look. The mousy girl fidgeted, clearly wanting to say something. Unable to do so under Rika's withering gaze. Taking out her phone, she hastily typed up a message. Rika's phone buzzed a second later. Taking it out, she read Toshiko's message.

"Seriously?" Rika looked at Toshiko flatly. "You wrote 'squee'?"

"You said not to overdo it." Toshiko hid behind her phone.

After that, their conversations turned to more mundane subjects. Kayoko poked and prodded every now and then to draw out Rika's emotional weather, but didn't pull on any more rope than she was willing to give her.

Rika felt surprised by how normal she sounded. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw a different reality than the one she showed her two friends. Her grandmother, in the hospital bed with half her face covered in bandages. She never thought of her as frail or fragile. For as long as she knew her, her grandmother had been a pillar of strength and patience, weathering whatever storm troubled their household with calm serenity. Even Rika's occasional tantrums and frustrations over her parents never ruffled her, and when Rika all but declared her intention to become a Tamer, she accepted it gracefully. Supported her even.

And this is where it got her, she thought. Thinking back on it, she could almost – almost – say that this was entirely her fault. But she knew her grandmother would tell her otherwise. More, she knew it herself as well. Going to that other world might have caused a number of dominos to fall in her direction, but she hadn't chosen to do so at the beginning. In either case, dominos were falling regardless of what she did or didn't do. Kuzuhamon and Gaiomon might have still shown up to investigate Takato and Guilmon and IceBeelzemon had been out there long before she ever came into the picture.

It didn't change that she felt responsible. IceBeelzemon targeted her after all, and her family had come looking for her at the wrong time.

IceBeelzemon… If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to delete that frozen freak.

Anger flashing in her eyes, Rika drew her hands into tight fists. Kayoko, watching her, took note.

###

The school day wore down without further incident, for which both Takato was immensely grateful. At the main entrance, waiting for Kenta to join him, Takato took out his cellphone and looked at it anxiously. No new messages from Rika were waiting for him today. This wasn't abnormal, but worry wormed its way into his guts regardless. Did the silence from her indicate an encounter with IceBeelzemon? Or something else?

I would have heard something from Hypnos if he attacked her, he reminded himself. She's got a lot on her mind.

His finger began to type out a message to her, only to hesitate on the send button. He closed his eyes. Simply texting her felt cowardly to him, like he was trying to avoid her. He had seen her in person a handful of times at the hospital, but not since. Since the battle, a heavy cloud lay between them and he found himself no longer sure how to deal with her.

Her eyes are different from before, he thought, exiting out of messenger. They're more intense. Angry.

They reminded him of how he felt when he forced Guilmon to become Megidramon. A bit different, but the roots were the same. He couldn't blame her.

A tall, blond-haired youth bumped into him roughly from behind.

"Watch it," he grunted. Looking up, Takato recognized him instantly. Kouki Tsubasa, the school's number one delinquent. The taller boy glared down at him. Their gazes locked and Takato felt a chill run the length of his body. Though they never spoke to or otherwise interacted with each other, Takato recognized the hatred burning in his eyes. The threat of violence they contained struck him like a hammer blow.

"Sorry," Takato said, not breaking eye-contact. Kouki held his attention for a moment before turning away. Yet the cloud of violence didn't leave him. A shadow of threat fell on Takato's mind and he began to wonder what the future held in store regarding him.

"Takato?"

Turning, Takato found Kenta approaching. The bespectacled boy smiled at Takato, who returned it wanly.

"Everything all right?" Kenta asked, sensing something off.

"I'm fine," Takato replied stiffly. "Ready to go?"

Kenta frowned, but nodded silently.

With that, they set off. They exited the school gate and turned in the direction leading toward Hypnos.

Behind them, just out of sight, stood Kouki and four other teens, watching them intently.

"Let's go," Kouki said under his breath, starting after the two Tamers.

8