This is Hikari. Last time, Takato and I struggled with what it means to be a Tamer. I watched him fight a boy named Yuudai and his Yuki Agumon for no other reason than to prove who was stronger. I couldn't believe that we Chosen fought for a world where humans and digimon fought for sport. Takato and Guilmon won the duel but it left them with their own questions. I eventually accepted that I was a Tamer now but Yuudai showed up for a rematch with Takato with his evolved partner!

Takato fumbled with his cards. "Guilmon! Just hang on!"

Allomon grunted and twirled again, flinging Guilmon into another tree. The red dinosaur wobbled on his feet and shook the dizziness from his head. He threw his arms to the side and roared.

Takato flipped through his deck. What card should he use?

"Dynamite Head!"

The Tamer lifted his head in time to watch Allomon head-butt Guilmon, slamming the red dinosaur into the ground, with enough force to crack the decaying pavement.

Takato's mouth dropped open and his cards fell to the ground. "No! Guilmon!"

Allomon towered over the moaning Guilmon. Yudai laughed, "Do it, Allomon! Finish him and steal his data!"

Allomon roared but then froze. He gasped, hissed, and heaved, almost like he was in pain! He stumbled backward and fell onto his side. He gave another roar before shrinking with a glow, turning back into Yuki Agumon. Yudai hissed and scooped the digmon into his arm before running from the area.

Takato ran to Guilmon's side. "Are you okay?"

The red dinosaur shook his head as if he was wiping the injury from his body. "I'm okay, Takatomon, but what happened?"

"I don't know." He turned to the other boy.

"I have no idea," Jenrya said with a shrug.

Terriermon jumped onto Jenrya's shoulder. "Then let's go after him! He couldn't have gotten too far."

"Terriermon!" Jenrya snapped. His partner winced while he turned to Takato. "I'm sorry, but I don't want to get into a fight like this.

"B-but…" Takato protested, "He just attacked me and Guilmon. Plus what happened to his partner-"

Jenrya bit his lip. "Y-yeah…"

"Shouldn't we figure out what's going on with him?" Takato asked, almost pleading, "What if he hurts someone else?"

Jenrya hesitated and stared at his feet. What if-

Jenrya ignored the smoke billowing around him and stared at the still form lying on the rocky ground before him. "No," he whispered and dropped to his knees. He lifted his partner and pressed his tight to his chest. "Terriermon!"

Jenrya felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see an older man with a beard behind him. "Sensai, I-"

Jenrya shook his head. "It's still better to walk away." He hesitated, "I'm sorry."

Takato gapped for a moment before he snapped, "Why are you even here at all then?"

"I…" Jenrya looked at his feet. "I…I don't have an answer. I'm sorry." He bowed. "Good night."

Jenrya could feel Takato's gaze burning into his back as he walked away.

The Legacy of Courage

Chapter 5

Dilemma-Jenrya Li

Takato watched as the hands on the school clock moved together, his stomach threatening to rumble with each click. By the time the lunch bell chimed, he felt as though he would faint. He grabbed his box and started to walk to where Hirokazu and Kenta were pushing their desks together.

"Takato?"

He turned to see Hikari standing behind him. She was shifting uneasily on her feet with her hands behind her back, a different look from yesterday afternoon, when she'd yelled at him, with a look of disappointment and horror on her face, when he fought Yuudai. "Oh, hey."

She nodded slightly. "Yes, hey. Um, I'd like to talk to you, if it's okay, that is. Do you, um, want to eat lunch together outside?"

He tried to force away the hotness in his cheeks. "Um, s-sure. I wanted to talk to you too."

She relaxed slightly and brought her hands around, revealing she'd been holding her lunchbox. "Okay. Good."

He followed her outside, ignoring the snickers from Hirokazu and the stare from Juri.

They sat beneath the large tree in the schoolyard. Hikari opened her box, and Takato's mouth watered slightly at the fried eel and rice balls packed into her box.

"Did you want some?" Hikari asked.

He shook his head. "No, that's okay. Um, you cook yourself, right?"

She nodded but then raised an eyebrow. "I thought you said you lived at a bakery."

He shrugged. "We sell bread and pastries." He paused, "Well, we do sell sandwiches but they're pretty simple compared to…" He was stalling. He exhaled; might as well get this over with. "Look, I'm sorry about yesterday. I shouldn't have let Yuudai get to me like that."

The brown-haired girl shook her head. "No, I'm the one that needs to apologize." She sighed, "You just remind me so much of my brother and I don't think he would have just let someone goad him into fighting like that."

She pulled her knees closer to her chest, "At least, what I last remember of him. When he was a kid, he might have, but he didn't really let people get to him as a teenager."

"Really? I remind you of your brother?" He was like the great Taichi Yagami?

She nodded, smiling as well. "It's the goggles. When we were kids, he just started wearing them one day." She shrugged, "He never really said why. Um, where did you get those anyway?"

He fingered the eyewear resting atop his mop of brown hair. "They were in my attic. Neither of my parents were sure where they'd come from, but my mom thought they might've been my grandfather's since he was a swimmer."

Hikari's smile fell slightly. "Oh, I see. Um, anyway, I guess I was out of line telling you what it means to have a digimon partner." She breathed in, "I need to accept that this isn't the time of the Chosen anymore, it's the time of the Tamers, and if Tamers duel each other, then I need to get used to it."

She pulled her pink D-Arc from her bag. "Plotmon and I fought a digimon last night and she loaded his data. She said digimon used to do it a long time ago, so it's not really unnatural…" She squeezed the device, "I'm a Tamer now. My family's gone, my friends are gone. I just need to accept that I'm in a new world now."

She nodded, more to herself. "I'll duel Tamers if I have to, but my main concern is still going to be stopping the evil digimon from hurting people."

Takato had a headache, it felt like a whirlwind of ideas was crashing into his brain. "Ruki says Tamers only fight, Jenrya doesn't think it's right for us to use our partners like that and you just want to protect people." He rubbed his head, "Why are we Tamers? What's the reason?"

Hikari gave him a sad smile. "I wish I could answer that for you." Then she scowled, "But speaking of that Ruki girl, I ran into her last night. If you remind me of my brother, she reminds me a little of Yamato and Sora put together."

He searched his memories. "I don't think I've heard a lot about them. I know their names, but…"

"Ruki looks a little bit like Sora while she's got Yamato's attitude."

Takato shoved vegetables into his mouth and then almost spit them out again. "Oh! I can't believe I almost forgot! Last night, Jenrya and I ran into Yuudai again, but he suddenly could evolve his partner!"

Hikari nodded slowly, "And Tamers can't really do that, right?"

"I guess not," he said, "Or I'd bet that Ruki, out of anyone, could do it, but listen, during the fight, his partner devolved again like he wasn't stable." He stared at her in the eyes, "And he was suddenly wearing goggles."

Hikari visibly shivered, "What does that mean?"

Takato shrugged. "I don't know. I wanted Jenrya's help, but he won't. Says he doesn't want to fight."

"Sounds a little like Jyou and Iori," she whispered. Then she blushed. "I'm sorry, I keep talking about people that you don't know."

Takato hesitated and then shrugged slightly. "Well, um, maybe you could tell me? What the First Tamers were like, I mean?"

Hikari grinned and nodded.

"Is there something you want to talk about?"

Jenrya looked across the kitchen table at his father, who was sipping tea from a mug. "No, why do you ask?"

His father smiled. "You've been staring into space and tapping that stylus like you're beating a drum."

Jenrya glanced down at the digital writing utensil in his hand and then at the writing app on his tablet. "Just, um, thinking about my homework."

"For the past ten minutes?" his father asked, "You're usually more focused than that. What's wrong?"

Jenrya hesitated. "I, um, one of my friends, uh, came to me with a problem. I wanted to help him but that would go against my beliefs."

His father raised an eyebrow and Jenrya winced. "I mean, I can't help him in the way he needs help.

"Ah, I see," his father said with a nod. He was quiet for a moment. "Is there a way you can help him without compromising your beliefs? Or is there a way you can understand his?"

"I do understand him! I-" Jenrya's protests died in his throat. Did he understand Takato; really understand him?

"I'm not sure," Terriermon said to Jenrya as the human got ready for bed. "I mean, I'm a digimon, so I get the whole 'fight and battle thing,' but I'm not sure you do."

Jenrya frowned. "No, I do understand that. I understood it so well that I almost got you killed-"

"Deleted," Terriermon interrupted, holding up a finger, "Deleting only applies to digital material because-"

Jenrya growled a sigh. "I'm not in the mood for one of Sensei's lessons." He paused. "What do you think he'd say?"

The small rabbit-canine shrugged. "Probably something about me getting the defective human."

"Sensei! Not his par-" Jenrya exhaled and rubbed his eyes. "No, you're right. He probably would've said I was a defective program or something."

Terriermon grinned. "Yeah! He sure did like switching from teacher to drill instructor on a dime!" He wiggled a finger at his partner. "But you know he'd be interested in that Yuudai kid."

Jenrya closed his eyes as another memory played in his mind.

Jenrya straddled the large laptop in his arms while Terriermon hoisted the thick USB cable over his head. That cable connected the laptop to a parabolic microphone-like device held by the old man. "You can hear the difference, right?"

Jenrya studied the beeps from the laptop speakers. "Yes. The higher pitched noise is the One and the lower pitch is Zero?"

"Correct," his sensei said, "When the boundary between Earth and the Digital World is thin, the binary code can affect the air molecules. Since One represents an electrical signal that is 'On,' i.e., something, it makes sense that the air molecules would be affected, causing sound. I'm still trying to discover why Zero, representing 'Off,' i.e. an absence of something, still makes a sound."

"But Sensei," Jenrya said, "What does this have to do with the Card Game?"

The old man turned on him. "Everything! Binary code, the vibrations in the air, the cards, they're all information! It's only a matter of how you use-" He frowned, "-or corrupt, that information."

"Corrupt?"

The old man nodded. "Chosen are giving their partners while Tamers choose theirs, so, one would expect that there would be Tamers with demonic partners, but if the reports are true that non-demonic partners are evolving into Dark Area and Nightmare Soldiers digimon, then the Digimon Cards are corrupted somehow. The question is how? Did the code become corrupted or did someone intentionally do it?"

Jenrya blinked a few times and returned to the present. "Yeah, especially if it relates to corrupted data in the cards."

Terriermon cocked his head to the side. "So you think Yuudai used one of those Evolution Cards?"

"I don't know." He crossed his arms, "We promised not to say anything about those but…with Lady Hikari here, I can't help wondering if we've been chosen-" He smiled slightly, "No pun intended, to deal with an upcoming threat."

"Does that mean we're gonna keep our promise or break it?" Terriermon asked.

Jenrya stared. "We're keeping our promise. We gave our word."

"Yeah, yeah," Terriermon said with a dismissive wave, "But Lady Hikari's..well, one of the Chosen! Doesn't that overrule any promise we made to Sensei?"

Jenrya hesitated; that was a good point. "It depends."

"On what?"

"If Sensei was one of the Chosen like we thought." He dropped into his desk chair and switched on his desktop computer. "For now, though, I think we should try and find out more about Yuudai."

Terriermon nodded. "You gonna go spying on the Internet?"

"Don't call it that," Jenrya frowned, "I'm…gathering information."

"Seems like you're spying to me," Terriermon muttered, "You gonna call Takato and Guilmon? Yuudai's got it in for them, remember?"

Jenrya reached for his phone. "I'll text Takato and see if he's available tomorrow afternoon."

Takato was surprised at the text from Jenrya. What should he do? He finished loading his bag and walked over to where the girls were chatting in the corner. "Hi, Takato," Juri smiled.

"Hi," he said, "Did Lady, er, did Hikari go home already?"

Juri's eyes narrowed slightly. "Why? What do you need her for?"

"I need to talk to her about something."

"Oh?" she asked, "Maybe I can help."

Should he tell her? "Um, o-okay, well, I have a, sort-of-friend and we got into a little argument last night, but now he wants to talk."

Juri nodded. "And you're not sure if you should go? Well, if you want to be his friend, then you should hear what he has to say."

Takato nodded. "Yeah, I think you're right. Thanks, Juri."

She grinned. "Sure, no problem."

Jenrya waited in front of the concrete building until Takato approached from down the path. "Hi, guys," he said.

"What's up?" Terrerimon asked.

"Hey," Jenrya said, "I'm surprised you're still keeping Guilmon here since Yuudai knows about it."

Takato shrugged. "Where else could I keep him? He's too big to sneak into my room."

Jenrya imagined Guilmon pretending to be a stuffed animal. "Yeah, I suppose so."

Takato opened the gate and waved him downstairs. "Come on. We'll talk downstairs."

Guilmon greeted Terriermon like a young child and they started playing tag again. Jenrya sighed, "I'd better get right to the point. I apologize for the other day. I was preaching and, well, I want us to be friends."

Takato smiled. "Everyone's apologizing to me lately. Lady Hikari did the same thing yesterday."

"Oh?"

He nodded. "Yeah. She said she was having trouble accepting that she's a Tamer now. I don't think she's comfortable with dueling, but she's a fighter."

He shook his head, "Everyone seems to know what they're doing as Tamers, but I still don't have a clue." He held up his D-Arc. "Why do I have this?"

Jenrya hesitated. "I…I really can't answer that."

Takato sighed. "Yeah, I know."

Jenrya held up his cell phone, "But I did some research. I think I found where Yuudai lives. Do you want to head over there?"

"And do what?"

"Well…why don't we try talking to him? See if he'll tell us anything?"

Takato nodded. "Okay, sounds like a plan."

Ruki pushed her way through the trees of the forested area of the park. "Ruki," Renamon asked, appearing beside her, "Why are we hunting that boy again?"

The orange-haired girl grunted. "That girl from the other day mentioned that stupid goggle head and she seems…familiar, somehow. I wanna know who she is. Besides, that damn goggle head and his baby dinosaur were the only ones that beat us. I'm not gonna let that hang over us." She squeezed her fist, "We've got a ninety-nine-to-one winning streak. It needs to be a hundred!"

Renamon nodded. "Yes, of course, Ruki."

They continued deeper into the trees until arriving at the area of the concrete building. The gate creaked open and they dropped to the ground. Through the brush, they saw Takato leave the building with that other boy with the Terriermon, what was his name? Right, Jenrya. Following them was a slightly shorter, hunched-over person in a trenchcoat.

Ruki snickered, was he seriously trying to hide that dinosaur beneath that trench coat?

"…Lady Hikari's going to meet us there," Takato said, putting his phone back into his pocket, "She just needs to drop off her groceries at her apartment."

"Probably had to do more shopping," Jenrya suggested, "Living on your own has to be tough, especially without knowing anyone at all."

"I thought she knew us," Guilmon said.

"Besides us," Jenrya chuckled.

Takato rested his hand on the goggles on his head. "But she said that her brother wore goggles all the time."

"Really?" Jenrya asked, "Where did you get yours?"

"I think they were my grandfather's," Takato said, his voice fading as the group vanished in the distance.

Ruki watched them leave, the pieces of their conversation clicking together in their mind. "T-that girl's named Hikari and her brother wore goggles…" She hissed as a cold wave washed over her, "It can't be! That girl's Hikari Yagami? What the hell?"

"How can that be?" asked Renamon, "The time of the Chosen was over fifty years ago! Some digimon may remain for that long, but it's more than likely their data would have broken down naturally on their own by then."

Ruki hesitated and then started after the boys. "Let's find out."

Jenrya bowed. "Good evening, Lady Hikari."

Her cheeks darkened. "Please, you don't have to call me that."

"We have to," Terriermon said, "You're like Digital Royalty!"

"More than that," Takato added, and Jenrya could see the twinkle in his eye. Didn't she transfer to his school? Did he act like that in front of everyone?

Her cheeks darkened even more. "S-stop, please."

"Taichi would've loved it," Plotmon said with a grin.

Jenrya felt Terriermon elbow him in the shin. He cleared his throat. "There's, um, something I'd like to talk to you about-" He glanced at the apartment building, "But later."

"Okay, sure," Hikari said, before turning to the building, "But this is it? Yuudai lives here?"

Jenrya checked his phone and nodded. "Yeah, this is it."

"What do we do, now?" asked Terriermon.

"Let's go up and knock," Takato said, "Get him to come out."

Jenrya studied Guilmon in his trench coat and paled. "Um, why don't you stay here and…"

"I'll go," Hikari suggested, "After all, he only saw me briefly the other night. He already knows you two."

"Are you sure?" Jenrya asked.

She nodded and gestured to her bag. "I'll have Plotmon with me. Be right back."

The boys watched Hikari and Plotmon enter the apartment building. Jenrya and Takato busied themselves with their phones until the girls returned. "He's not home but his mom said he'd be right back," Hikari announced, but her cheeks were dark red.

"What happened?" Jenrya asked.

She shifted on her feet. "His mother thought I was his secret girlfriend and tried to get me to stay until he came back."

Takato chuckled. "My mom's kind of the same way. I don't know what she was like as a teenager but she seems to think all boys have secret girlfriends.

Hikari giggled. "Taichi was a little like that. He didn't have any steady girlfriends, just a lot of girls that lasted only a few days." She lowered her voice to almost a whisper, "I wonder if he married anyone and had kids after he escaped the Digital Gate."

Jenrya waited until Hikari stopped herself from crying before speaking. "What do you think he'd say about the whole Tamers situation?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I can see him not liking dueling, but at the same time, I think he would. He'd do anything he could to stop evil digimon from hurting others, though."

Jenrya frowned. "But why fight at all? Why not find another way?"

Hikari was quiet for a moment before saying to Takato. "Um, why don't you take the digimon to get a snack over there?" She gestured to a street vendor underneath a red canopy.

Takato opened his mouth to protest, but the digimon leaped in front of him. "Yay!" Plotmon cried, jumping up and down, "Snack!"

"Let's go, Takatomon!" Guilmon cried.

"All right, all right," he said, letting them pull him to the food cart.

Jenrya turned to Hikari. "So, what do you want to talk about?"

She chuckled. "That obvious, uh? I'm not happy that Tamers are fighting each other. I guess that's what Tamers do, but I'm still not completely comfortable with it."

She took another breath, "I didn't go with the other Chosen to camp when they went into the Digital World. I didn't get Tailmon, er, Plotmon, until later when an evil digimon named Myotismon invaded Tokyo. A prophecy said I was going to kill him so he wanted to kill me first. He almost destroyed the city, and killed people before he was stopped. It wouldn't have done any good to talk, he wouldn't have listened. So many people would have suffered if me and Tailmon hadn't deleted him."

Jenrya winced. "Oh, I didn't know that."

Hikari nodded. "Yeah. So, if you want to know why me and Taichi would fight, it's because we have to help others. Fighting doesn't give life meaning, it's the meanings that make life worth fighting for."

Jenrya nodded. "I…I see." He gave a weak smile. "And Takato was saying he didn't know his reason for being a Tamer. Maybe I'm the one who doesn't know."

Hikari gave him a reassuring smile. "But, um, you said before you wanted to talk to me?"

Jenrya nodded. Right, he had said that. "Um, the person who taught me about Digimon-"

Takato suddenly raced over with their partners. "He's coming!"

They jumped to attention as Yuudai marched up the sidewalk, with YugiAgumon dressed in an oversized sweatshirt at his side. Next to them was another boy, one with a pair of blue goggles pushing down messy brown hair.

Hikari gasped and Takato tensed. "Goggles?" they both asked at once.

That boy noticed the Tamers and grabbed hold of Yuudai's arm. "We've got company."

Yuudai hissed and jumped back. Jenrya held up his hands. "Wait, wait, we only want to talk."

"What's there to talk about?" the other goggle boy snickered, "They're going to attack us. Why else would they be here?"

"Who are you?" Hikari asked, "You look just like my…you look like Taichi Yagami."

"Do we?" the boy asked with a shrug, "You can call me Natsuki."

He handed Yuudai a Digimon Card, a dark orange one splotched with black spots. "Go ahead and show them what you can do now."

He bit his lip. "But what if we break down again?"

Natsuki handed Yuudai a card. "I'd still want to see that."

Yuudai studied the card and then pulled out his D-Arc. "All right, fine. Let's do it, Yuki Agumon!"

His device's small monitor flashed with light and his partner emerged from the screen and landed on the ground. The digimon snarled and seemed to drool. Yuudai hesitated a moment before running the card through his digivice's slot. "Card Slash! Evolution!"

He slid it through his D-Arc and Yuki Agumon roared. "Yuki Agumon evolve to Allomon!"

"No!" Jenrya protested, "Please, we just want to talk!"

Allomon spit out a blast of hot air. "Dino Burst!"

The Tamers and their partners dove for cover as the attack ripped up the sidewalk. Guilmon!" Takato ordered.

"Fireball!" the red digimon cried, spewing out a ball of flame that struck Allomon's chest. The dinosaur flinched slightly before charging. "Dynamite Head!"

"Hang on!" Takato shouted, running a card through his D-Arc, "Card Slash! Strength!"

Guilmon groaned as energy flowed through his body, bulking him up like a strongman on steroids. "Rock Breaker!" he shouted, swinging his arm at Allomon's head. The Adult twisted aside at the last second, Guilmon's arm slashing empty air, before whipping his head into the red digimon and throwing him through the outer wall of the apartment building.

"Are you okay?" Takato shouted.

Guilmon wobbled out of the gaping hole but couldn't answer before Allomon darted forward and smashed him into the ground with a whip of his tail.

Plotmon twirled to her partner. "Hikari? Are we going to help or not?"

The brown-haired girl hesitated before nodding. "Yeah." She slid a card through her D-Arc. "Card Slash! Greymon!"

As Allomon continued to whip Guilmon with his tail, Plotmon leaped onto his back and ran up to the top of his head. "Baby Flame!" she cried, blasting fire into one of Allomon's eyes. The Adult roared in pain but grabbed Plotmon before she could escape. He slammed her onto Guilmon's head and both digimon fell to the ground.

"No!" Hikari shouted, flipping through her deck, "What card?"

"We need a recovery card!" Takato declared, looking through his own stack, "Damn it! Where is it?"

Jenrya was frozen, unable to move until he felt Terriermon's ear slap against his leg. "Jenrya! Are we just gonna sit here and do nothing?"

He twirled to face Yuudai, who was grinning. "Yes!" the other boy shouted, "Do it!"

"Stop!" Jenrya cried, "You don't have to fight us!"

Yuudai stared at him and then towards his partner, who was crushing Guilmon and Plotmon beneath his foot. "Maybe not, but I want to!"

Jenrya narrowed his eyes slightly. "I-"

"Jenrya!" Terriermon cried, "Shouldn't we do something?"

He hesitated. "I…I can't! What if you get hurt again?"

He swung his paw at Takato, Hikari, and their partners. "And that's better than letting them get hurt instead?"

Jenrya thought of Hikari's story, and remembered her words: So, if you want to know why me and Taichi would fight, it's because we have to help others.

He pulled his card deck from his pocket and selected the bright orange card on top. "Card Slash! Evolution!"

His partner charged at Allomon. "Terriermon evolve to Galgomon!"

The others stared as Galgomon rushed at Allomon, unleashing a stream of bullets from his gun barrel arms. "You can evolve?" Hikari gasped.

Takato looked at his cards and then back again. "Where did you get that card?"

Galgomon pushed back Allomon with his Gatling Arm. Yuudai roared. "No! No!" He pulled out cards but they dropped from his shaking hands. "I can't lose again!"

Jenrya was nauseous as Galgomon continued attacking. Allomon began to wobble on his feet." Galgomon! That's enough!"

His partner stopped and dropped his arms. Allomon stumbled and then fell to his side. Yuudai called out his name and he roared in response. The digimon's body started to twitch and spasm before his body faded and his data hovered into the sky.

Galgomon started to walk towards the flickering bits of light but Jenrya shouted, "No! Don't load it."

Yuudai glared at him. "You killed my partner and now you won't even give him the honor of loading his data?"

Jenrya winced. He was right; no part of Allomon was reforming into a Digi-egg. His partner was truly deleted. "All right Galgomon, do it." He started to turn but then stopped. No, he made his choice. He watched his partner jump into the swirling flecks, pulling the data into himself.

Natsuki crossed his arms. "Hmm, looks like his data degraded and fell apart. Interesting."

"Interesting?" Takato shouted, "Who the hell are you?"

"You'll find out," Natsuki laughed. "I'm sure we're going to see each other again. Later!" He gave a short wave before running in the opposite direction.

"Wait!" Takato cried. He started after him but Jenrya grabbed his shoulder.

"We'd better go," he said, gesturing to the damaged building and the crater in the ground,

"Too much damage. The Hunters'll be here."

Hikari turned to the crying Yuudai. "What about him?"

Jenrya hesitated but then heard sirens in the distance. "His partner's gone. The Hunters'll leave him alone." He sighed as the weight of that sentence crushed down onto his shoulders, "Let's go."

The three Tamers didn't stop running until they reached the area of the park with the concrete building. Hikari had not wanted to leave Yuudai, but Jenrya knew the battle would have drawn the attention of the Hunters.

"What just happened?" asked Takato, "And where'd Ruki go?"

"She and Renamon ran the other way," Plotmon frowned, "She's not very friendly, is she?"

"Never mind that now," said Hikari, "That other boy, Natsuki, did something to Yuudai? Gave him the power to evolve?"

"It was that card," said Takato, turning to Jenrya, "And you have the same one?"

The other boy hesitated. He wanted to be friends with them. "Yeah, I do. The last time I used it was when Terriermon almost got deleted."

"Where did you get it from?"

"It was just in one of the booster packs," Galgomon shrugged.

"I've never heard of that card before," said Takato.

Jenrya nodded. "It's very rare."

Takato licked his lips. "Can I try it?"

"It won't work," Jenrya shrugged, "I tried it with another Tamer. The card only seems to work with my D-Arc."

He turned to Galgomon. "And, as you can see, it has its drawbacks."

"Yeah," Hikari agreed, "Why hasn't he devolved yet?"

"It can take a while," Jenrya sighed, "Is it okay if Galgomon spends the night here with Guilmon?"

"Yeah, of course," Takato nodded, "I'm sure Guilmon'll love it."

Jenrya nodded and they continued to the concrete building. "We gonna start helping the other Tamers with the bad digimon again?" asked Galgomon.

"No," he said, "I still don't like it. I wouldn't have let you fight tonight unless it was necessary."

After a pause, Galgomon said, "All right, if that's true, why did you bring your cards with you?"

Jenrya hissed and turned away from the smirk on his partner's face.

Yuudai looked up from the ground when a shadow fell over him. A teenage girl was blocking the light from the street lamps. "Makino," he growled, "Now you show up? After what I did to beat that guy with the red digimon?"

She crossed her arms. "How'd you evolve your partner? What was that card you used?"

Yuudai stared and then laughed. "This is your fault and all you care about?!"

"Yes!" she snapped, "That's all that matters in this world! Where did you get that card?"

"Go to hell you bitch!"

She didn't react, didn't flinch, she just stood there, arms crossed, with the same blank expression on her face. "That's the best you could do? Not even any threats?" She snorted and turned her head. "I was right before. You're not even worth my time."

Yuudai screamed and jumped to his feet.

"Hold it!"

He froze as a boy in a blue and white uniform dropped from the sky. "I'm Hinkon of the Digital Hunters. What happened here?"

Yuudai turned to find Ruki, but she'd already vanished into the crowd.

Ruki walked down the sidewalk, clenching her fists and grinding her teeth. She spied a marble-sized stone on the side and kicked it as hard as she could. It wasn't a stone, it was a chunk of concrete. She screamed, in anger and pain, and watched the chunk only tumble a few inches forward.

She breathed deeply, getting her emotions under control. Calm and stoic once more, she said, "Renamon?"

Renamon appeared behind her. "Yes, Ruki?"

"Apparently, there's a card that can evolve you. We're going to find out more about it."

"Of course, Ruki."

Next

The Legacy of Courage

Chapter 6

Ambition-Takato Matsuda

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Author's note: I'm pleased to announce that I have a book scheduled to be published. If you're a fan of my fics here, please consider following my facebook page BCCharles46/