Introduction: If the title of this story seems familiar to anyone, it's because I posted an earlier version of the story years ago. I wound up deleting the story for a couple of reasons. The first reason was because I was never pleased with how the original version of the story turned out. The second was because I decided to take this series of mine, the Radiance Mythos in kind of a different direction. So I deleted the original version from the site and started posting Digimon: Child of Darkness. It's taken me a pretty long time, but recently I felt like I was finally ready to start posting the new version of this story.

Now I should mention that this story will not receive regular weekly updates. The main reason is because I'm also working on a major Sailor Moon fanfic called Revenge of the Old Ones, and that story kind of takes priority. In fact the main reason I'm posting the first chapters of this story now is because I'm a little blocked on the other story right now. The other reason updates to this story won't be done regularly is because I don't really know where this new version of the story is going. I mean I have an ending in mind, but getting there is a total mystery right now. The one thing I am sure of is that this version of Sakura Knight will likely be radically different from the original.

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.

Chapter 1: The Crusader

Seventeen-year-old Suzie Wong found herself lying completely naked on a large bed with white silk sheets, surrounded by a set of white transparent curtains. Her wrists were tied to the headboard with two long red ribbons made of a very strong fabric. Try as she might, she could not pull herself free. Suzie had no memory of how she had ended up in such a compromising position, nor did she recognize her surroundings. All she truly knew for sure was that she was rather frightened of how vulnerable she was at that moment. Yet at the same time she felt excited.

After a few moments of pulling against her restraints, Suzie heard the sound of a door opening and the footsteps of someone entering the room. She raised her head and saw a young woman standing before the bed. The young woman in question was a bit older than Suzie was, she had long brown hair that went down to the middle of her back and was wearing a red silk robe that ended above her knees. Suzie recognized the girl as her friend and fellow Digimon Tamer, Jeri Katou. Jeri was looking at Suzie with a very predatory smile.

"Oh my. You certainly are a cute little thing," Jeri declared as she licked her lips. "I'm going to enjoy giving you a taste."

The oddity of the situation aside, Suzie could tell there was something very off about Jeri. Whoever was standing before the bed definitely looked like Jeri, but it was like someone else was using her body. Suzie didn't have much time to figure out what was going on though, because in moments Jeri had shed her robe to reveal her totally naked form. Suzie couldn't help but gaze at the older girl standing before her. Jeri was absolutely breathtaking with her silky white skin and perfect breasts that were neither too big nor too small.

As Jeri crawled onto the bed, Suzie found that she was completely paralyzed. She no longer tried breaking out of her restraints; in fact she found that she didn't want to. In moments Jeri got on top of Suzie and shoved her tongue into the younger girl's mouth. Suzie's mind was blown by the incredible things Jeri's tongue was doing. After what seemed like several minutes or perhaps even an hour, the two of them broke apart for air and Jeri began sucking on Suzie's neck, causing the younger girl to moan.

Jeri soon moved from Suzie's neck to her collarbone, lingering there for some time before moving down to her right breast. As Jeri began sucking on Suzie's right breast, her right hand moved up and began kneading the girl's other breast, causing Suzie to moan louder and arch her back. Then after a blissful eternity, Jeri left Suzie's breasts and began leaving a trail of fiery kisses down the length of her stomach. Soon Jeri got down to Suzie's waist. And as Jeri spread Suzie's legs apart the younger girl prepared herself for the incredible pleasure that was about to come.

Suzie's eyes snapped open to the sight of the ceiling of her own room. As she slowly sat up in her bed, Suzie quickly realized what she had just experienced was only a dream. Everything in her room was as it was. The walls were still pink and place was lined with the various stuffed animals Suzie had collected over the years. The only stuffed animal in the room that wasn't actually a stuffed animal was the brown and pink rabbit-like creature with three short horns on its head sleeping in a wicker basket atop one of the tables. This creature was actually Suzie's Digimon partner, Lopmon.

Suzie glanced at the alarm clock on her nightstand and discovered it was only 5:52 AM. There was still time for her to get a little more sleep before she needed to get up for school, but there was little chance of her getting back to sleep after having the dream she just did. She never could. For almost the past two months, Suzie had been having erotic dreams with the same theme of Jeri seducing her and ending with them just about to have sex. The oddest of those dreams took place at the most recent cultural festival for Suzie's school. In the dream, she and Jeri had wound up totally naked together right in the middle of the festival and nobody around them noticed.

Letting out a sigh of defeat, Suzie got out of bed and decided to go ahead and get dressed. She went to the bathroom and quickly brushed the shoulder-length hair that she had dyed neon-pink about four months ago. As soon as she was dressed, she went out to the kitchen to make a quick breakfast for herself and Lopmon. Suzie knew she was alone in the house, as her father had already left for work and her older brother had also already left either for class or his current job. It wasn't long before Lopmon had joined Suzie out in the kitchen, and as soon as the two of them had finished eating they were out the door.

There was very little conversation between Suzie and Lopmon as the walk to school began. Suzie couldn't help but think back to all her odd dreams involving Jeri trying to get into her pants. Try as she might, the pinkette couldn't figure out the reason why she was having all those dreams. All she knew was that they had started not long after a strange incident from four months ago where almost everyone in the city along with several wild Digimon had somehow become vampires. The media had dubbed the incident the Crimson Plague due to the red eyes and thirst for blood that the so-called disease had given its victims. But the true cause of the incident was actually a powerful malevolent Digimon known as Myotismon, and Suzie had been one of many people that had been infected by his power.

Like most of Myotismon's victims, Suzie had no memory of anything that happened during or shortly before her time as part of his vampire army. But right after the incident, Suzie couldn't help but feel awkward around Jeri. The awkwardness had lessened a bit as time passed, though there were moments when Suzie would blush when she saw Jeri in outfits many would consider sexy. Though such an occurrence was quite rare. Still, Suzie couldn't help but think that something must've happened between them during her time as a vampire to make her feel that way around Jeri, and caused her to have so many weird dreams about her.

"You okay, Suzie?" Lopmon asked from his usual perch on Suzie's shoulder.

"Huh?" Suzie responded upon being shaken from her thoughts. "Oh, I'm fine Lopmon. Why do you ask?"

"You've been pretty quiet this morning. Is something bothering you?"

"It's…it's nothing," Suzie lied. She'd tell Lopmon about many things, but her dreams she had decided to keep secret even from him.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Lopmon reminded her. "I won't laugh or anything."

Suzie wondered if perhaps she should tell Lopmon about her dreams. The way things had been going it was probably only a matter of time before he found out about them anyway. And she knew that he wouldn't judge her about them. Suzie was about to open her mouth to say something to Lopmon when she noticed something suddenly in her path. It was a pair of cats, one back and one white. They were standing in front of the open door of a little shop Suzie had walked past more times than she could count and paid little to no attention to.

Both cats looked Suzie straight in the eye and walked into the little shop. This caused Suzie to pause. As strange as it was, she felt as though the cats were telling her to go inside.

"I don't know why…but something about those cats didn't seem quite normal," Lopmon remarked.

Suzie nodded. "Maybe we should go in and take a look. I mean we did leave pretty early this morning, and I'm suddenly pretty curious."

"Wasn't this store abandoned though?"

Suzie shrugged. "I guess someone bought it. Let's just go in."

Suzie headed through the open door and found the two cats sitting in front of a simple folding table. Sitting behind this table though was a well-endowed young woman with purple eyes and purple hair that was cut just above her shoulders. She had on a pair of hexagonal framed glasses with purple lenses. Her outfit consisted of a buttoned white shirt with long puffy sleeves, a black dress that accentuated her impressive bust, black stockings, and a pair of white almost knee-high boots. The mysterious woman also had on a purple bowtie matching the color of her hair.

The woman smiled as Suzie and Lopmon entered. "Welcome to my shop. I am Mirei Mikagura."

"Um…nice to meet you," Suzie responded. "Sorry for just barging in, but I was a little curious."

Mirei chuckled. "Not at all. I only just opened up for the day. In fact you would be my very first customer."

"Doesn't seem like you have a lot to offer," Lopmon remarked as he looked around the shop.

Suzie had to agree that Mirei didn't have anything in the line of merchandise. In fact she didn't even have a cash register on what appeared to be the front counter. The only things Mirei had on her makeshift desk were a purple laptop and a crystal ball.

"To be perfectly honest, this is my first day of business here," Mirei admitted as she adjusted her glasses. "It's going to take me a few days to get everything properly set up. Fortunately I don't need much to provide my main service."

"What exactly do you do?" Suzie answered.

A sly smile formed on Mirei's face. "Most people just call me a consultant, but the most accurate title of my profession is fortune teller."

Suzie let out a heavy sigh. "That's it. I'm outta here."

"Oh really? You seem like someone who could desperately use my services. After all, it was fate which led you to my doorstep."

"Look lady, I don't buy into that bogus fortune-telling crap," Suzie responded as she turned to leave. "Find yourself another mark."

"Are you sure you want to leave so soon, Ms. Wong?" Mirei asked, causing Suzie to freeze in her tracks. "I should be able to shed some light on the very sensual dreams you've been having lately."

Shocked, Suzie turned back to face Mirei. "How the hell do you know any of that stuff?"

Mirei chuckled. "It seems I have your full attention. Why don't you grab a chair and let me take a look at your fate? I assure you it'll be worth it."

Suzie looked around and saw a folding chair leaning against the counter. She went over and grabbed it, and in another few moments placed it in front of Mirei's table. The purple-haired witch's two cats had quickly moved to sit over by Mirei's feet. Mirei meanwhile had placed a deck of long cards on the center of the table. The backs of these cards were purple, and in the center bore a silver symbol that Suzie couldn't help but notice that it looked like the symbol on the forehead of Calumon, Jeri's Digimon partner.

As soon as Suzie sat down though, she realized what Mirei's fortune telling was going to involve. "A tarot card reading? If you're going to pull some lame stunt where I pull the death card, I'm leaving."

"This is not any ordinary deck of tarot cards," Mirei told her as she cut the deck. "This form of tarot deck is known as Digi-Tarot."

"Wait, Digi and in Digimon?" a surprised Lopmon interrupted. "I've never heard of such a thing."

Mirei finished preparing the deck. "Now Ms. Wong, draw the first card from the deck."

Suzie sighed and drew the card, placing it face-up on the table next to the deck. The artwork on the face of the card showed a beautiful woman with pale skin and long dark hair tied up with gold ornaments, one of which had a pair of small horns, and four that hung down from the back in the shaped of pointed tails. Pointed ears were just visible under the woman's black locks. On her face the woman wore purple lipstick and mascara, and the symbol of a black bat adorned her forehead. Around her neck she wore a black collar with gold trim, and she was clothed in a black low cut bodysuit that revealed her shoulders. On the back of the outfit hung four black ribbons, two of which were shaped like bat wings. Hanging from around the waste was a sort of purple skirt that was open in the front. The same fabric was used to form a pair of baggy sleeves, though the woman's right hand was still visible and was revealed to be a sort of talon with skin that looked like decaying flesh.

"Ah! One of the seven Devil cards in Digi-Tarot," Mirei observed. "While the ordinary form of tarot has only one devil, Digi-Tarot has seven, each card showing a member of the Seven Lords. The card you've drawn is The Devil VII – Lust. It seems you've recently had an experience which caused you to awaken hidden desires you didn't even know you had, and it's these desires which have been causing your current dreams."

Suzie didn't like what Mirei was telling her. From what the purple-haired witch was saying, Suzie's dreams meant she had a crush on Jeri and wanted to have sex with her, but the pinkette refused to believe that was true.

"Okay then…so for the sake of argument let's say I really do have these desires you're talking about," Suzie finally spoke. "What am I supposed to do about them?"

"Hmm…well, that's hard to say," Mirei answered. "Why don't you turn over the next card so we can take a peak at your future?"

Suzie drew the next card from the next and placed it face-up next to the card showing Lilithmon of the Seven Lords. The picture on this card showed a boy with goggles on his head looking down at a small pinkish-white ball-shaped creature Suzie recognized as Koromon.

"Oh-oh! The Fated Meeting card," Mirei identified. "Very soon you'll encounter a person who will become a very important part of your life. The next two cards should tell us who this person is."

Suzie drew the next two cards from the deck and placed them face-up on the table. One of the cards showed a picture of the iconic WarGreymon, and the other showed the picture of a gorgeous blond woman wearing a white Roman-style dress and a blindfold.

"It seems you've drawn The Hero card," Mirei observed. "And the card baring the likeness of Venusmon is The Lover. It seems you're about to meet your true love, who will soon save you from a terrible danger."

"Oh come on!" Suzie protested as she shot up from her chair. "You're saying I'm going to be rescued by a handsome prince?"

Mirei chuckled and adjusted her glasses. "Essentially yes, though you might find this 'prince' of yours to be something of a surprise. In the long run though, this will solve your current problems."

Suzie let out a heavy sigh. "Okay. What do I owe you for this bogus reading."

"Nothing at all. My services are totally free to Digimon Tamers such as yourself."

"Suzie, we should probably get going now," Lopmon interrupted.

"Yeah. We've certainly wasted more than enough time here," Suzie agreed as she picked up her bag.

"Feel free to drop by here again should you ever lose your way," Mirei told Suzie as the pinkette headed for the door. "Oh, by the way. The next time you meet your friend, Ryo Akiyama, ask him to come see me. I've always wanted to meet him. So far there have never been any Tamers with a fate like his."

The mention of her friend, Ryo had caused Suzie to pause a moment, but it wasn't long before she and Lopmon were out the door. At that moment Suzie wanted to get as far away from Mirei's place as possible.

"Well that was weird," Lopmon remarked.

"I think you just made the understatement of the day," Suzie agreed. "How'd she know all that stuff about me? And how does she even know about Ryo?"

"No idea. But I kinda get the impression Mirei's not a normal human. Do you think we should tell the others about her?"

"I don't know. Right now I just want to forget that I ever walked into that shop."

From that point on the two of them traveled on in silence. One train ride across the city later, Suzie was almost at school. As she walked down the sidewalk, the area was suddenly lit by a blinding flash of light. The light faded and Suzie discovered that the sky had changed to a strange green. Parts of the ground beneath her had become covered in strange visual distortions resembling static, and the brick wall to her left was suddenly covered with strange black vines that glowed orange in certain places.

Lopmon jumped off Suzie's shoulder. "I don't know what's happening, but we should get out of here, fast!"

"Are we…in the Digital World?" Suzie asked.

Lopmon shook his head. "It feels like the Digital World, but it's something different. It's like your world and the Digital World have overlapped. We need to go!"

Suzie nodded and the two of them ran off in the opposite direction from which they came. Just as they reached the corner of the sidewalk though, one of the most horrid-looking Digimon the pinkette had ever laid eyes on leapt out from around the corner and roared at them. The creature was fairly large and most of its body was encased in a rotten grey eggshell. Extending out from a large hole in the front of the shell was a long brown demonic-looking head with several hideous eyes and a mouth like a crocodile's. It had long brown gangly arms that ended in claws and a pair or stubbly brown reptilian legs. On its back was a small pair of brown bat-like wings.

"Suzie, we need to take care of this thing, quick!" Lopmon told her.

"I hear ya!" Suzie agreed as she pulled out her D-Arc. "Go get 'em, Lopmon!"

With that, Lopmon glowed with a pink light and began to transform. "Lopmon digivolve to…Turuiemon!"

In moments, Lopmon had transformed into a lavender-colored humanoid rabbit with three small horns on its forehead. He had on an orange gi along with a blue bandanna that was tied around his neck. He wore black shoes and red gloves that each had a bladed weapon.

"Oh crud! I could only evolve you to your champion form again?" Suzie exclaimed.

"Don't worry. This form should be more than enough to take this guy out!" Turuiemon assured her. "Gauntlet Claw!"

Turuiemon leapt forward and delivered several swift punches to the digital abomination using the bladed weapons on his hands. The creature seemed unfazed by the kung-fu rabbit's attacks and merely swatted him away with his right arm. Turuiemon quickly flipped back after being hit and landed on his feet.

"Boy! This thing sure is tough," Turuiemon declared. "What kind of Digimon is it anyway?"

"Let's see…" Suzie replied as she looked at her D-Arc. A small holographic screen depicting the creature appeared over the device. "Looks like this thing is called Devitamamon, and…oh crap! It's a Mega level!"

"Huh?" a startled Turuiemon responded as he looked back at his human partner.

Before either of them could react, Devitamamon hit Tururiemon with several red lasers fired from its multiple eyes. The rabbit warrior was knocked back and reverted back to Lopmon. The angered demon egg Digimon then roared at Suzie and her fallen partner.

"Looks like we're done for!" Suzie exclaimed as she closed her eyes and held Lopmon tightly. She waited for the deathblow from Devitamamon to come.

Suddenly a fast-moving figure jumped over Suzie and Lopmon and punched Devitamamon in a spot next to its blasphemous head. The punch caused an explosion that made the egg demon to roar in pain. Suzie opened her eyes, and standing between her and Devitamamon was a slender humanoid figure clad completely in pink, gold and white armor. From the way the armor was constructed, it was hard for Suzie to tell of the one who save her was male or female, but whatever it was appeared to be a knight of some kind. The warrior had four gold ribbon-like bands extending back over their shoulders, and two thin golden wings decorating the sides of their helmet. Attached to the knight's right arm was a weapon that resembled a golden shield with a pink cross on the front, in the center of which was a round blue gemstone.

The pink knight turned their head to look back at Suzie. "You okay?"

"Uh, yeah," Suzie answered.

"Stay right there. Let me handle this thing."

With those words, the pink knight charged forward and the gold ribbons on its shoulder extended forward and whipped around as though they had a mind of their own, cutting large cracks into Devitamamon's shell. After the knight ended its attack and fell back, Suzie got her D-Arc back out to find out who her mysterious savior was. The D-Arc's holographic screen told her that the knight was Mega-level Digimon known as Crusadermon. Before Devitamamon could fully recover from the knight's last attack, Crusadermon charged forward and punched the creature on the snout using the shield-like weapon on its arm. A twister full of rose petals surrounded the digital fiend before its body disintegrated into particles of data.

As soon as Devitamamon was destroyed, there was another flash of light and the surrounding area had returned to normal. A breeze blew and scattered several petals from the surrounding cherry blossoms around the pink knight. Just as Crusadermon was about to walk off, Suzie stepped forward. "Uh, excuse me," the pinkette spoke, causing Crusadermon to stop and look back. "Thanks for saving me just now. I'm sure I would've been a goner if you hadn't shown up."

Crusadermon turned around to face her fully. "I was merely passing by. You're very lucky I got here when I did though. It would've been smarter for you to run away instead of trying to fight. Clearly your Digimon is lacking when it comes to battle."

"Hey! Lopmon and I did our best," Suzie protested. A look of sadness soon came to her face though. "But…yeah. You're not wrong. I seriously thought Lopmon and I were going to die just now, so…thanks again."

With a flick of their wrist, Crusadermon produced a red rose from nowhere and handed it to Suzie. "It is the duty of any knight to rescue a lovely young maiden in distress, especially one with a hairstyle as cute as yours."

Suzie's face turned bright red at this remark. "Uh…what?"

Crusadermon gently placed the rose in Suzie's hand and suddenly glowed with a pink light. The light split in two, becoming a human and Digimon pair. The Digimon was a short reptilian creature with scaly blue legs and a tail wearing black and grey kendo gear with sleeves that were too long for its arms. On the top of its helmet was a pair of conical grey horns. The only parts of its face visible behind its wooden mask were two large round yellow eyes. Slung across its back was a bamboo sword.

The human meanwhile was a beautiful young woman with long wavy red hair tied back in a ponytail, and lavender eyes. She had on an unfamiliar school uniform consisting of an olive-green blazer with a red tie and a short red skirt, along with polished black shoes and and knee-high mint-green socks.

"Oh! So you're a Tamer like me?" Suzie realized.

The redhead said nothing and came up to Suzie with a sly smirk on her face. Suzie noticed how the redhead was just a little bit taller than she was. She also noticed that her heart seemed to be beating a little bit faster now that they were standing so close together. The redhead placed both her hands on Suzie's shoulders, and then she placed a firm kiss on Suzie's lips.

"Uh, what's happening?" Lopmon asked, tilting his head in confusion.

The redhead pulled away and smiled. "You be careful now, cutie." She then turned to her Digimon. "Let's go, Kotemon."

The little reptile Digimon in kendo gear nodded. "Right."

The redhead raised her D-Arc, which was rose red with pink trim. She also pulled out what looked like a trading card with a green and blue back.

With a bit of flourish, the redhead slid the car through the side of her D-Arc. "Digi-Modify! Fast Travel Field activate!"

Suddenly the redhead and the Digimon known as Kotemon were surrounded by a sphere made of pink light. When the light faded, the redhead and her Digimon were both gone. Suzie meanwhile remained frozen in place, her face a bright shade of red. There was practically steam shooting out of her ears.

"Suzie, I think maybe we should go after them," Lopmon suggested. He then noticed his partner's current condition. "Suzie?"

Suzie blinked as she at last returned to her senses. "What. The. Hell?"

"Are you okay?"

Suzie shook her head and let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah. Let's just get to school already."

"But that Tamer. Don't you think she might cause trouble? We should at least call your brother or Takato and let them know about her."

"We can do that later! Right now I just wanna get to class and try and forget this whole morning ever happened."

Suzie had miraculously made it to school with Lopmon on time. She had been sure being caught in that little battle earlier was going to make her late. By the time they reached the building, Suzie went inside while Lopmon went to hang around somewhere outside on the property. The public had become more accepting of Digimon over the years, but one hanging around inside a school still tended to make some people nervous. Within moments, Suzie finally made it to her classroom just before class was about to start.

Suzie went to her desk towards the back of the room to find two of her friends already seated at their neighboring desks. One of them was a girl who had bright green eyes bright orange hair with pigtails who Suzie knew as Miyuki Sahami, or Miki as she liked to be called. The other girl, who looked to be thumbing through a fashion magazine, had shoulder-length wavy green hair and hazel eyes. Suzie knew this girl as Akari Tomoe, or Aki for short.

"Hi Suzie!" Miki greeted in her usual cheerful manner as Suzie approached. "I was starting to think you'd be late."

"Yeah, well I ran into a little trouble on the way here," Suzie explained as she sat down.

"What happened?" Aki asked as she put down her magazine.

"It's kinda hard to explain," Suzie answered. "Why don't I wait and tell you both at lunch?"

"Sure, sure. We've got bigger news to discuss anyway," Miki declared.

"Such as?" Aki asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I just heard the juiciest bit of info out in the hallway! Apparently we're getting a transfer student in this class."

"Oh. Do you know anything about them?" Suzie asked, grateful for something to distract her.

"I overheard the teachers talking, and apparently this student is foreign," Miki answered. "His name's Alex Bradley."

"How do you know it's a guy?" Aki asked, skeptical.

"Well duh! Alex is a guy's name, right? I bet he's totally hot! Maybe some blonde European dreamboat! Ooh! Maybe he's secretly a prince! Wouldn't that be awesome?"

Before the conversation could get totally out of control, the teacher entered the room and directed his students to sit down. "Everyone, I have a special announcement to make. Starting today we'll have a new transfer student joining us. Please give a warm welcome to Alexis Bradley."

Walking into the classroom on cue was the very same redheaded young woman who had saved Suzie from a Digimon attack earlier. Upon seeing that her supposed dreamboat was a girl, Miki let out a disappointed sigh and slumped into her chair.

The redhead gave the class a charming smile. "Hello everyone. It's nice to meet you all. Please call me Alex."

Suzie planted her face on her desk. "This is now the worst day of my life."

Mitsuo Yamaki was walking down the hallway to his office. At his side was one of Yamaha's top Digimon researchers at Hypnos, Janyu Wong. It had been a busy morning for the two of them. Earlier, the Hypnos control room had detected a digital distortion unlike anything they had seen before. The good news was the distortion hadn't lasted for very long. There also hadn't been reports of any casualties from the event so far. Even so, Yamaki's instincts told him this incident was the signal for something much bigger on the horizon.

"What worries me is how close this distortion had been to my daughter's school," Janyu remarked as they walked.

"I'm certain Suzie's fine," Yamaki assured him. "But if you're that worried, you should give her a call once we're done here."

"I'll do better than that. I'll have Henry come and pick her up from school later. Until whatever we're dealing with is resolved, it's too dangerous to be traveling outside alone."

Yamaki couldn't help but roll his eyes behind his dark glasses. He could understand Janyu's concerns for his daughter's safety but also felt his friend was being just a tad overprotective. When the two finally reached Yamaki's office, Yamaki opened the door to discover someone sitting behind his desk. The person in question was an attractive-looking woman with long dark-brown hair, wearing a dark-grey pantsuit with a light-blue shirt.

Yamaki immediately recognized the woman who had stolen his desk. "Sato! What're you doing here?"

"Hello, Mitsuo. It's been a long time," the woman known as Sato answered as she rose from what was supposed to be Yamaki's chair. She turned her head to look at Yamaki's companion. "You're Janyu Wong, right. I'm Colonel Hitomi Sato. From what I understand, you're an invaluable member of the team here. I hope you and I will have no problems getting along."

"Yamaki, who is this woman?" Janyu asked.

"Sato works for the defense department. She and I have worked on a few government projects together in the past, all of which are still classified," Yamaki explained. "What I don't understand is what she's doing in my office."

"It's my office now," Sato declared. "As of today, Hypnos is now under the direct supervision of the defense department. In other words, I'm now your boss. By the way, I took the liberty of having your things moved to a new office I had set up for you down the hall."

"The only room down the hall is a maintenance closest!"

"Why yes, I believe it was. Don't worry though, Mitsuo. You still have the same salary you've always had. It's just that now you're only second in command of this operation. After all, I need someone to help show me what all the little buttons around here do and everything."

Yamaki's hands clenched into fists at his sides. "On who's authority have you taken control?"

"On the authority of the Prime Minister himself. He felt you people were handling this whole Digimon business a little too lightly. In case you haven't realized it, these creatures you seem to have gown so fond of are a potential public safety threat. That's why I was sent here to oversee this whole business. There are some big changes coming, Mitsuo. You had better get ready."

"What sort of changes do you have planned?"

Sato smirked. "For starters, I need you to have those Tamer kids you've been supervising to come down here for a little meeting later this afternoon. Their days of running around the streets playing hero are over."