The body of Shouki lay motionless for awhile before he began to awaken. He slowly opened his eyes and looked half-asleep as he did so. Thoughts of what had happened filled his mind and caused him to go into shock. He quickly picked himself up so he was on his hands and knees and was breathing quickly from the shock. Shouki held up his hands to his face as though they belonged to someone else. "What did I do?" he mumbled. Stricken, Shouki buried his hands into his face and bent down with his head now resting on the ground. From the sounds he was making, it was obvious he was crying.

Reimumon also began to move but he didn't go into shock. It was more of a "my whole body is sore" movement. He finally stood on all fours and shook his body. "Agh, I'm going to feel this for awhile," he said. "Ick, I look like a mess after all that." He was about to lick down the fur that stood out at odd angles till he stopped and noticed Shouki. "Shouki?" he said cautiously. "Are you okay? We should have taken the same amount of damage so you should be fine as well, right?"

Shouki didn't react. He kept his head down and muttering the words, "What have I done? What have I done?"

Reimumon now understood. Shouki didn't take physical damage but emotional damage. Feeling it would be best for Shouki to get it out in the open, Reimumon questioned him. "What shouldn't you have done?"

"I shouldn't have fought." He was now speaking between sobs. "I shouldn't have drawn blood from someone like that. I punched, I kicked, I caused pain to someone. I hurt someone. She never hurt anyone; not one person. How am I suppose to be like her now? I'm tainted. There's nothing that can take that away." He finished and continued to cry into the ground.

Reimumon remained silent but stayed near Shouki. He didn't feel like the others would attack him or anything, but he wanted to keep Shouki company through this moment.

***

Following up her attack with Hanabimon, Leviamon roared in frustration as she was suddenly attacked by Masuraomon. “Damn…! Well, even though you’re only half as powerful, I’ll still kick the whole of your ass!” she exclaimed, casting a sphere of water around her to protect herself and possibly stop one half of Masuraomon. “Aqua Sphere!”

"Okay, okay, we're coming!" Tomeo tried calling after Divinamon, but she didn't hear him as he watched her jumping back into battle. He watched the others fight, feeling frustrated. Why couldn't they biomerge? He felt almost left out and helpless, if it wasn't for the fact that Asayake was there with him. He had tried stating strongly what he believed in, but that hadn't worked. He'd even tried to get himself in danger in hopes of triggering it, but that didn't seem to work either. What else could he do, what was the connection? It had to be a strong emotion that triggered it, didn't it? So why didn't anything happen when he was worried sick over Asayake? Or how concerned he was overall that his friends where constantly being hurt? Because she wasn't his digimon partner? 'Sure,' he thought, 'I'm worried if Parumon gets hurt. But I trust her enough to fight on her own... she could fight the whole battle and take down two digimon consecutively, she's that tough. Do I have to wait until she's about to be killed before we get the chance to biomerge?' The thought scared him a little.

He stepped over to Shouki and Reimumon, who Shireika had left. He wasn't far away, leaving Asayake the oppurtunity to take his earlier advice and follow him, if she wished. Shouki's crying had interrupted his thoughts, and he felt he had to do something to cheer up the boy, even if he wasn't on his side. Puting aside Shireika's request for the moment, he knelt down next to the other black-haired boy. "Hey, Shouki, don't cry. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but... I'm sure whoever you're talking about must be proud of you. I mean, you stood up for your beliefs and you fought for them, even if they are wrong. Some people don't even get to do that their whole lives. And at least you got to biomerge with Reimumon, right? That means you two have a deep, significant connection. That means you're a good person who knows... about friendship, and shows a lot of respect. And you're a good listener, too." he finished, trying his best to see good qualities in Shouki and making it up as he went along. "That's more than what I've got with Leviamon, at the moment..." He looked a little grim.

Leviamon side-glanced at her partner as she remained protected in her sphere and water, and almost thought she would scream. Instead of coming to help her biomerge, he was off with Shouki, talking to the enemy. Why couldn't he pay that much attention to her, and now of all times? Sure, he was a good kid, but sometimes it was too much for his own good. Didn't he realize that all the talking to him and insults she made were her way of trying to get his attention? She could swear, the way he just told her to shut up and stop teasing people was just plain insulting. So rude that... well, it hurt. Well, who needed him anyway? She called all the shots in battle; she didn't need to rely on him. She had done pretty well by herself in her Champion form up to this point, even without Hanabimon fighting by her side she could cruise through his battle easily. She turned her focus quickly back on the battle, all her thoughts having passed within a few short moments. Yeah, who needed him, anyway...

***

Wandering over to Shogaimon, Asayake rubbed her arms, her skin prickling oddly at the battle around them. She still felt the urge to fight, but it was weaker, somehow; it was hardly there, flitting back and forth between existing and not. Smiling brightly, in a far better mood than she had been in a while, Asayake gave Shogaimon's shoulder a nudge. "Go fight, you know you want to. You look about ready to rip out your own feathers for the chance." Shogaimon blinked at her digidestened, slightly unsure.

"Are you feeling better now?"

"Much," insisted Asayake, rolling her shoulders for emphasis, "Now, go on, before you go nuts."

Shogaimon snapped her beak happily, hauling her katana from her shoulder and holding it out in front of her before taking off into the air. She looked around her, searching for anyone who needed a helping hand, but all of the battles seemed to be finishing up. The hybrid huffed, and pouted -- well, she would've if you could do that when you had a beak. Still, she made a valiant attempt at looking miffed.

Asayake, meanwhile, stared off in the direction of Tomeo and Shouki. She had heard snippets of conversation, enough to gather a basic understanding of why Shouki was upset, but couldn't bring herself to follow suit and offer the boy some advice. She knew how hard it was when you realized you'd done something horrible, but was terrified to stirr up old feelings. Giving a little shudder as memories tried to resurface, Asayake decided that thinking about that was definately not a good idea at the moment. The feeling of anger and malice had only just gone away, and she was anything but eager for it to make a repeat visit.

***

Tikutokmon slowly stood up with the sounds of gear teeth gnashing and joints creaking. Tegiwa's voice was rendered in static and reverbe. "Guy, do you pay any attention to the way you live your life? All you do is rock out, party, use girls like kleenex, and get other people to do your work for you. You aren't a posterboy for responiblity or anything. We have good reason to suspect you'd misuse any power you got. That is, if the big bad entity didn't show up to claim his bound up powers from you. THe fates did say they belong to something else. I'd count him as prime suspect, horsey dude.

"Now, out of my way. Naoko got what I meant for you. I've got to help her. I've got to... I couldn't live with myself if she died." Only, he really had no idead what to do. Examination of Haganemon revealed nothing. The blood pouring from him was quicksilver, there were no veins, and no muscle. Nothing came to mind for him to do. He was at a loss.

He looked at the purpl energy that still cycled through the warrior for it was his own energy. "Maybe this form is based on energy instead of organics." He put his hands on the gears and the lightning show stopped. He touched them one by one and each rose out of Haganemon in turn the hole sealing as it exited. The flow of silvery blood slowed but did not subside.

After a minute Tiktokmon said, "Look like you get to use your weapon on me anyway. I can't do any better. I hope it's not an incoveinence to you. If it is, I'm sure you could find another Naoko, but if you feel like caring about more than yourself and that key....then please heal her again."

***

"You don't understand anything," Centaurmon hissed at Tikutokumon. The robot's words stung in his heart. He was sort of right, but at the same so entirely wrong. He wasn't completely irresponsible. He wasn't going to let anyone have the key, only himself and the other digi-destined. No one could see past his playboy-rockstar image, and no one cared to anyway. They were all wrong about him, and no one dared to understand him except maybe Naoko. He pointed his spear towards Tikutokumon. "You're just like Shireika. You have no eyes for reality. We may have known each other since childhood, but you still have yet to understand me, just like her." He turned the spear point towards the sky. "Spirit of Chiron!" Just as before, strings of energy were sucked from Tikutokumon and then transferred to the fallen Haganemon.

***

Divinamon could see Tomeo and Asayake wander away from the current battle. Two somewhat tired biomerge and two champions still could defeat two other biomerge digimon. She floated in mid-air and looked towards Leviamon. She read the other digimon's face so clearly. It was obvious what she was thinking.

"We just have to do our best, right?" she called. "Get in there!" She pointed towards Isoramon. "We can still do this! You and Tomeo just might not be ready for biomerge yet. Right now, we have to do our best."

But, internally, she sensed a little dread with the situation. They might not be able to keep this up anymore. She was weak from battling with Eikonmon. She had two deep gashes and was exhausted from attacking so much.

***

"Yeah, Divinamon. I know." Leviamon called back to her. "Thank you." It didn't look like her and Tomeo would biomerge anytime soon, so she was on her own for now. With Masuraomon's Ratfink attack more focused on Hanabimon than herself, the water dragon dispelled her Aqua Sphere shield and floated towards Yuu's biomerged form. If she could take down two champions in a row, she could definitely take on a biomerged digimon, no sweat. She wouldn't need anyone's help. She gained speed, using her fins to propel herself forward as if she were underwater, and then composed herself into water as she closed the distance between herself and Isoramon. It was time to pay back Yuu's digimon for ganging up on her with Seidomon. "Deep Tsunami! Let's see if your evolution has improved your skill as a water digimon, if at all!" she roared.

***

Hanabimon ended the cyclone around her only to find a few copies of Masuraomon waiting for her. "Just what I need, a rodent probelm," she said. She tried her best to dodge them. After several close calls, Hanabimon flew up into the sky to get out of reach from Masuraomon. "You've already been through a cyclone. Now let's see how you do when it rains. Firework Frenzy!" Flying directly overhead of Masuraomon, Hanabimon placed her hands together to cause a storm of fireballs raining down on the opposing digimon.

***

Reimumon looked at Shouki questionably before looking at Tomeo and Asayake. "Um, Shouki is a little sensitive right now so talking to him will be a, what's the expression, a walk on egg shells?" said Reimumon. "I appreciate the effort though."

"Let's see if I can do this," Reimumon mumbled. With his lack on energy, he concentrated hard on making one end of his sash move. It did and Reimumon started to pat Shouki on the shoulder with it in a 'there, there' fashion. "By the way, I have no intention on attacking you two like this."

Reimumon seemed to be mulling something over in his mind. "Tell you what, you're trying to help so I'll return the favor with you and Leviamon. It's hard to describe it, but to biomerge, you kinda have to be on the same wave length. Shouki and I biomerged possibly because we both needed help and wanted to help. So if your digimon is angry, chances are you might have to be angry yourself but not at each of course. That's the best advice I can give ya."

Shouki moved slightly away from Tomeo when he started talking. 'He doesn't understand,' Shouki thought. Shouki didn't know what to do now. The prayer beads now wrapped around his wrist lay immobile on the ground next to him. Shouki un-looped a part of the strand and gripped it in his hand. He had kept this always as a reminder for him. Tonight, he had forgetten.

"It doesn't take back what I did," Shouki uttered. "She wouldn't have punched someone. She wouldn't have reacted like that. She would have been like an angel and talked her way through. And what do I do? I transform into a demon and try to tear someone to shreds." He now looked up at Tomeo, Shouki's blue and brown eyes now with a red background to them. "And you're telling me that's something I should be proud of?" he said, half-shouting. "That what I did is something she wanted?" It was obvious from his tone that he wasn't happy.

***

Divinamon's punch took Isoramon by surprise, knocking him into the ground. By the time he picked himself up there was already a swarm of black birds heading straight towards him.

"Osprey Sweep!" he called, slashing his naginata at the incoming shadows with incredible force. But the shockwave only took out about a third of the birds, and he was to busy trying to slice away the rest of them at close quarters to see whether the remainder of the attack hit anything else.

He was still fending off the birds when he heard Leviamon's taunt and turned to see the Deep Tsunami heading right for him. But in a very Kamo fashion, he simply grinned and replied, "Watch and learn," before diving right into it. His skills actually had improved, and the initial wave didn't do him much damage at all. However, Divinamon's birds had sapped his strength more than he realized, and instead of evading it the spear-tail gave him a nasty gash in his side. Now really injured, he knew he had to attack back before Leviamon could recompose herself. So, thinking fast, he took his naginata and drove it harshly into the only physical part of her he could find: her tail tip.

On reflection, probably not a great idea.

***

Asayake felt herself sigh before she made the sound, and she made her way over to Shouki. His comment about turning into a demon had made the back of her neck prickle uncomfortably, and she was bound and determined that Shouki was going to stop talking like that. Setting her face so she looked both caring and firm, Asayake put her hand on Shouki's shoulder and squatted down next to him. She made sure her grip was firm arnough that he couldn't skitter away.

"Shouki, you have no idea what it's like to be a demon," She said, careful with her words, "I do. I've had a demon inside of me, like the one you described, for years. When I was just barely fifteen, I nearly --" She cut herself off, her stomach tightening at the memory. She re-worded what she was going to say, "I hurt someone very, very badly. It's something I'm never going to forgive myself for, because I know I went too far, but I'm not going to feel guilty about it. At the time, I did what I had to do; my friend might've been abducted, or worse, had I not acted in some way. You did what you had to do," She gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze, and tried to smile, "And you shouldn't feel badly about that. It's not right to hurt people, but it's also not right to stand by and do absolutely nothing while they do something you don't believe is safe for them. Sure, maybe you pulled an Asayake and went too far, but no one is perfect, and it's ridiculous to beat yourself up about being imperfect. Belive me, you can waste away if you do, and it's not all that fun." Releasing her grip on Shouki's shoulder, she settled herself into a seated position beside him.

"I have to live with that demon every day; I've resigned myself to the fact, the FACT, that it's a part of me that might never leave. But even though I know it might not go away, I'm not going to let that one, singular part of me rule my life. I have the power to choose, and each mistake that I make helps me to choose better, safer ways to deal with things. I'm gaining the upper hand of my demon. Your demon is much different, though.

"Yours isn't one you can control; it's two beings becoming one, and you have to learn to operate as a singular entity. In order to keep yourself from beating yourself up every time you make a mistake, you have to find a balance, and that could take some time to do. I've had nearly three years to find it, and I've barely begun to load the scales. You just have to have faith in yourself," She motioned to his prayer beads, "And only look for GUIDANCE from other sources. Forgiveness isn't required for everything, if you know what you've done wrong and what you can do to fix it. I also doubt that someone will come down from on high, and tell you exactly what to do. That's why we were given brains; to live, and to learn, not to kick ourselves in the ass every time we fuck up a little. Whoever, or whatever you believe in wouldn't want you to eat yourself up about your mistakes; so, don't. Learn from them instead, and allow yourself to be a human; flawed and learning how to hide it."

***

"Well, it seems Hanshin has a serious side if only when biomerged. I'm sorry, but I can' let a few random actions influence the opinion I've delvelped of you over the years. You are a self-centered hedonist who can be trusted with cosmic powers. You are the one who showed me who you are; Seeing past your rock star image is tough when thats the only side you show. You always want things your way even to the point of driving away your sister because she chose a path different from your own.

"Now, I'm sick of these games. I'm tired of fighting friends. I'm going to hurl if the stinking key gets mentioned again. It's time to stop this...to stop you. Literally! TIME'S GRIP!!" He hoped Cenaurmon could be relieved of those stupid fragments while time was stopped.

Tikutokumon reached over Haganemon to grab Centaurmon, but Hagnemon sat up suddenly and locked Tikutokumon in a bearhug. Time slowly rapidly for the two as Time's Grip took effect.

The others seemed to be moving blurs, while the embracing biomerged become statues.

***

Isoramon's attack took its toll on Divinamon. The shockwave hit her face on, knocking her onto her back.

Now wasn't the time to give up, but where was her strength when she needed it? Damn Hanshin. The idiot had brought them all into this mess, a mess that none of them should be involved in at all. This whole situation was far too dangerous for any of them to really be fighting in, but it seemed that they would have to anyway. This was a whole bunch of crap.

Divinamon tried to pick herself back up, but she couldn't find it in her to do it. A sharp pain shot from her arm and chest as she managed to sit up. Hunched over, she clutched at her arm, where Eikonmon had slashed through her.

This couldn't be it. This couldn't happen. The fates wouldn't have wanted that key to get into the hands of someone like her brother. Of anyone. Right?

***

Internally, Centaurmon thanked Haganemon for stepping in Tikutokumon's way. The wuss was going to get it one of these days. One of these days they would all realize what kind of person he really was. That he wasn't so stupid or self-centered or whatever they believed about him. He looked around, seeing Divinamon still in battle, but she had fallen.

She looked battered, far more battered than he was himself. Braids had come slightly loose from running around. She was too weak to even stand. He pitied her but still wanted her to know what defeat really was.

He walked up to her and pointed his spear down at her face.

"It's over," he growled. "You can't win now. Just hand them over."

"Never," Divianmon replied.

Centaurmon swung his spear into Divinamon, pushing her to the ground. He towered above her.

"It will be over," Centaurmon explained as he held the spear right at Divinamon's throat. "Your group is weak, and the fates are against you. Look at you. Beaten, tired, exhausted. Dedigivolve and hand them over."

***

Hanabimon ended her barrage of overhead fireballs when she noticed Divinamon on the ground. "No," she said mostly to herself, "I will not let you take this victory from us." She looked down at Masuraomon. "Sorry to leave like this, but I have another pressing engagement to attend to." She flew a good enough distance away from Masuraomon and the raining fireballs before stopping to power up.

"Scorching Cyclone!" Hanabimon shouted. She spun around rapidly until another tornado formed around her. "There's not much time," she mumbled. She flew high enough to lift the tail of the cyclone off the ground. 'I still owe you for contaminating my hand with that... thing,' she thought. She quickly flew on a collision course with Centaurmon. "This is gonna hurt."

***

Surprisingly, Asayake's struck a cord on Shouki. He slowly rose back up to a sitting poistion but was on his knees.

"She's right you know," said Reimumon. "You can't undo what you did. But even then, if it's something you felt you had to do, you shouldn't wallow in sorrow like this your whole life. You can't walk through a forest without stepping on a few leaves. If you try, you don't get very far. Maybe that's why I was given to you as a partner. Perhaps I'm suppose to bring out that little demon within ya then help you find a medium through all of it."

Shouki wiped his eyes with his palm as he tried to clear out the remaining tears. "*Sniff* I just wanted to be like her," he said. "She was perfect." He looked back down at his prayer beads for awhile then clasped his hand around them. 'Please help me in times of need,' he thought. *Sniff* "So, does this sort of thing take long to adjust to?" he asked weakly.

Just outside the corner Reimumon's eye, behind Asayake and Tomeo and far away from all the action, he could have sworn he saw a barely visible figure standing on top of a street light. The ghost cat cranked his head toward the street light but saw nothing there. One thing was for sure of the figure he might have seen; it was smiling.

***

Smiling brightly, Asayake stood up and crossed her arms over her chest. "It'll take some getting used to, but as long as you can find an outlet, you'll be fine. You just need to find something you can do so that your demon can come out in a harmless way. I, for example, write music. Just find something you like doing, or have always wanted to try, and let your demon out in spurts. You could jion some sort of self-defense class, or it could be something as simple as keeping a diary. As long as you're not constantly afraid of whatever's in there," She poked Shouki in the chest, right above his heart, "Or in there," She poked him in the forehead, "It can't hurt you. Just be thankful you have a digimon you can depend on when you need someone to talk to that will listen, and talk back; not many people get that liberty. Docotrs aren't exactly the best muses."

To lighten the mood she mimed holding a clip board and a pen, and stared at Shouki over non-existant glasses. "So, you say you are... Angry. How does this make you feel?" Taking on an accent, she made it sound more like 'Sho yew shay yew aa... Ahngree. How dos sees maik yew feer?'. She made a face, faked a shudder, and chuckled. "Trust me, having to explain over a period of two and three hours how feeling angry makes you feel, other than angry, is not fun."

***

Tomeo bit his lip, looking away from Shouki at the ground, half in shame, half thinking. He wasn’t exactly sure who Shouki was babbling about, but it was obvious this girl he kept mentioning was obviously important to him, in some deep, significant way. He looked back up again as if he was about to say something, but Asayake stepped in before he could utter a word. Somehow, the way she had said it was along the same lines as what he would have said, but better because of the use of Asayake's experience. He was glad she helped him set Shouki straight, but he was a little stunned about the demon Asayake kept describing she had. He thought back, recalling what he had witnessed; the time when she had been throwing up in the apartment bathroom, and now just before when she seemed to have lost all her strength. Did the two incidents have anything in common with her ‘demon’? He felt worried. He wished he knew.

“Thanks, Asayake.” He nodded solemnly, and to Reimumon as well. “I appreciate the advice, Reimumon. I will consider it, thank you.” He chuckled a little, feeling better at Asayake's inpersonation of a psychiatrist, and would have kept on doing so, if he hadn't spotted Centarumon towering over Divinamon out of the corner of his eye. The cheer left him as quick as it had came, reminded that they were still in a battle. There was nothing he could do, but he couldn't just ignore her like that. Slight fear grabbed at his heart, for he knew Hanshin wouldn't kill Divinamon, but he didn't want him to win, either. Hanabimon was coming in to attack Hanshin, and hopefully Shogaimon and Leviamon would be able to help her. "Leviamon!" he called frantically over the top of the others, trying to get his partner's attention. He might have not been able to biomerge, or even help Shouki for that matter, but he had to do something, even if it was insignificant.

Leviamon flew backwards from Isoramon's blow, flipping in mid-air. The attack on her tail hadn't done any harsh damage, but the force of the physical blow had made her reel backwards, forcing her to loose her concentration on her water-induced form.

"Watch and learn? The only thing I learnt from that is now I know how to spear fish." she replied giddily, floating backwards away from Isoramon as he heard Tomeo call to her. Was he in trouble? No, but he was paying attention to her now, at least. She noticed him pointing at something, and then saw Divinamon at Centaurmon's feet. She gasped, turning back to Isoramon. "Your friend Shinzuimon bailed on me while I was fighting him earlier; now it's time for me to return the favour. Bye!" She turned tail, following after Hanabimon's Scorching Cyclone and transformed herself into water again. "Deep Tsunami!" she roared once more, diving towards Centaurmon in a follow-up attack.

***

"So, now what should I do?" Tegiwa's thoughtd rang hollow in an abyssmal void. "I can't tell if it's been two seconds or twelve days, so I don't dare release."

A familar voice replied, "You'll have to figure something out. We may be outside of time, but the world is passing us by."

"Robotmon? How did?"

"I've been in your head since the biomerger. Just had nothing to say." It would have been impolite to call Tegiwa an idiot since he was his partner. And, his actions seemed to turn out like this anyway so there was no point in rubbing it in.

"Yeah, Tegiwa. Looks like you screwed the pooch on this one. Just leave us like this and they can cart us over to the Art wing. I suggest a racy title like 'Giant Lust.' What do you think?" This voice was low and dripped like syrup.

"Naoko! what are you doing in my head. Time is stopped so we shouldn't be having this conversation."

"Pardon me, I wouldn't have spoken except that I heard you. I had known it was some comsic violation....I would still butt in."

"Really? I bet you would....No, it doesn't....it hould work this way. Time is supposed to freeze."

"Time is merely slowed, Tegiwa. Or, Slowing. It's an asymtotic progression. Time slows but never stops."

"Oh, so we can get out of here. I guess you just have to let us out. What will you do if millions of years have passed and you and I are the last two people on earth?"

"Don't say things like that. It creeps me out. I'm not coming back to your bed, never ever, so hope you are good at cards."

"Hmph, your a sore loser and a worse winner. How can you be so down on Hanshin and me just because we have fun?"

"It's not fun with you. Sex becomes hedonist indulgence, a meaningless act to kill some time. It's..."

"What's wrong with that?"

"It's base. It's taking an expression meant for people who care about each other and sullying it. It's a mockery like someone painting a moustace on the Mona Lisa or hanging up a drop cloth as a Jackson Pollock or rewriting shakespeare in ghetto slang. You just shouldn't."

"And, you explain your actions how? Mr. Hippocrit?"

"I'm not a hippocrit. I don't explain my actions, either." At least to you.

"Shit. Some child of knowlege you are."

***

Isoramon was slightly annoyed that Leviamon had bailed out on their bout together. That is, until he saw what she was bailing towards. Centaurmon, standing over Divinamon, with a spear to her throat.

Isoramon hovered stock still staring as the Yuu in him took over. How could he threaten her like that? His own sister... she meant so much to him... but not as much as that key? How could he?

But then reality came snapping back to him, and he realized that Centaurmon had an onslaught heading right towrads him. "Centaurmon!!" he yelled out in warning.

***

"Hanshin!" Divinamon said after Isoramon had called out to Centaurmon. She had feared that the white centaur was going to attack her at the moment, but her allies had come to her rescue. She knew she could count on them. After all, they believed in her.

Centaurmon looked back to see an angry Hanabimon and a determined Leviamon heading straight towards him with full force, despite their injuries. And here was the dilemma. Would he dodge the incoming attacks and leave his sister, their supposed ally and leader, to take the brutal hits? Or, would he block them and fully take the attacks on himself, keeping Shireika from harm? She was already badly injured. He worried that if she were attacked like this whether it would do more harm than just cause her to dedigivolve.

He looked at the spear in his hand, which was held near Divinamon's throat. Didn't he want to hurt her? Didn't he want to prove that he was stronger so he could have the key fragments? But, Shireika was his sister. Always his sister. How could he have thought to do such a horrible deed to the person he loved most, even more than his own mother?

Hanabimon and Leviamon's attacks collided with Centaurmon. The white centaur burst with light as his energy drained quickly.

And for some reason, it felt right. Losing like this. In trying to justify the defeat, he concluded that perhaps he wasn't supposed to have the key anyway. Perhaps his sister was the one who was better to hold onto it. She and the others were possibly right. The key wasn't safe in his hands. He'd abuse it, probably.

When the light faded, Centaurmon was no longer standing above Divinamon. Instead, a tired Hanshin collapsed into Divinamon's open arms, and a weak Shunbamon rested next to the biomerge digimon.

"It's over, Shireika," Hanshin said softly. He pulled out his two key fragments from his pockets and held them before Divinamon. "They're all yours."

When Divinamon took the two fragments from Hanshin, her form glowed with white light as she dedigivolved back into Shireika and Alesmon. The rookie bird lay exhausted beside Shunbamon. Shireika stared face to face with brother as she held the two key fragments from Hanshin.

"You win, like you always do," Hanshin continued with a faint smile. "Just promise me you won't destroy them? You have to understand that we might need them, and perhaps you should hold onto them."

Shireika pulled out the other two fragments from a pocket and held the four metal pieces in her hands. By some sort of magic, the four pieces floated above her hands. They swirled around each other in various orbits until they seemed to find their places together. The circular key fell into Shireika's open hand.

Well, taking it apart didn't look like a possibility. She'd have to hold onto it, and there was no way she could leave it in Hanshin's hand. Despite his heroic effort to protect her, she couldn't give the key back to him. Besides, he was telling her to hold onto it. And, she supposed that she could keep it from being used wrongly. That was her intent in all of this, right?

***

To the digi-destined,

Congratulations on finding the key. It is very excellent that you have found it so quickly, for the dark queen could arrive any time. You must be prepared for her, and the key will indeed be necessary to defeat her.

Keys always have a keyhole to unlock. I will show this to you tomorrow at 3 PM, at the location designated on the map. Bring only yourselves and digimon partners. This must remain a secret, for if others find out about it, they will surely go after you to obtain the key.

Until then,

The Watcher

***

While sitting on the floor next to a window by her locker, Shireika fiddled with the key which hung from a chain around her neck. She had decided this was the best way to keep it safe, and Hanshin seemed to agree with her. Since last week, he had settled down from the loss. In fact, he never really was angry about it, which was unusual for him. He hated losing to her, but this time, he accepted it.

Still, she was worried about today. The Watcher had emailed them last night and requested to meet with them today. Who was the Watcher? What did he really want? Was he really on their side, like Gennai had been before, or did he have other plans? Did he really have connections with the fates?

So many questions, but the only way they were going to find out was to meet with him directly. She wondered how the meeting would go. Maybe Hanshin and his group would change their minds if they had a face to associate with the name.

"There's something interesting about this key," Alatusmon mumbled as he looked up at Shireika. She held the key in front of the intraining digimon to let him have a better look. "It's a circle, and, well, this symbol is familiar. Doesn't it look kind of like your crest?"

"Maybe," Shireika replied. She wasn't really paying much attention to him. This whole deal with the Watcher just didn't sit well in her. Something about it felt wrong, like the Watcher had his own motives apart from protecting the universe.

***

Hanshin leaned on a propped hand in a classroom. It was raining, as it was nearing December, and the faculty decided that the students could eat in the classrooms, provided that they cleaned up afterwards. Not a big deal. They did that anyway before lunch.

"I'm so excited about the concert tonight," Ami whispered as she snuck up on Hanshin from behind him. She wrapped her arms around him and ran her hands down the front of his chest. She walked around him and squeezed between the desk and Hanshin to sit on his lap. "We'll have to spend a little time together. I've missed you."

"Maybe," Hanshin replied as he sort of pushed Ami off so he could finish his lunch.

"Fine," Ami said as she stormed off.

"Dude, what's with that?" asked his bandmate Yukio asked as he sat down next to Hanshin.

"You just turned Ami away?"

"Not really feeling like it," Hanshin explained.

"Not feeling like it? What is wrong with you?" Yukio demanded.

"Hey, leave him alone. He's been like this all day," Hiroshi said as he pushed Yukio back into his seat.

"If they only knew," Hanshin thought as he continued to eat. They were meeting the Watcher today. Shireika had seemed nervous about it. He didn't know about the others, but there was some sense of anxiety about this. They were going to meet the Watcher face to face. What was he going to be like? Would he be like them, a good guy with the right intentions, or would he be a bad as Shireika believed him to be? He hoped the Watcher was on the right side.

***

Leviamon brought herself around and turned back into her physical self, looking back to see if Centarumon would go another round. When he de-digivolved, she knew almost instantly the battle was over. They had won, and the key was complete.

"Leviamon," she heard Tomeo call, and looked down to see her partner with her arms outstetched. "De-digivolve, I'll catch you."

She floated down near him, and de-digivolved into Takamon, her feet landing on the ground. "No thanks, it wasn't necessary." she said, a little irritation in her tone.

"Leviam - I mean, Takamon, are you mad at me?" Tomeo guessed, picking it up from her. "I was trying to help us biomerge, and then Asayake and Shouki - "

"Save it." Takamon stopped him, walking past him. "Let's just go home."

***

She hadn't talked to him much since then, and as Tomeo slotted his books into his locker for lunch, he couldn't help but think of what Reimumon had told him. Maybe Takamon didn't want to biomerge - but it wasn't like her. Was it something he did, or said? He didn't understand. Takamon was back to her In-Training form, Parumon, and was waiting a little impatiently in Tomeo's bag. He closed the door to the locker and thought about looking for the others near the soccer field, when he spotted Shireika sitting by herself near a window. Finding it a little odd, he walked up to her.

"Hey, Shireika. You alright?" he asked, and after a moment's pause said, "Mind if I join you down here?" He sat down next to her, leaning his back to the wall. His attention immediately turned to the circular key she was showing Alesmon. "What do you make of the e-mail the Watcher sent us? The guy's obviously still been watching us, and he's known all along where the keyhole has been. And now, he wants to reveal himself to us. It almost makes me think he's been using us to assemble the key for him... but, I don't what to make of it myself. He asked us to bring our digimon, so he knows he have the power to stop him if he tried anything funny. But he should know you alone have sole poscession of the key, and you're not just about to open that keyhole just because he tells you to... you're not, are you? I mean, we should at least get some solid evidence first this 'dark queen' is coming, before we even consider it. Right, Parumon?"

"Whatever." Parumon grumbled to Tomeo, her head poking out of the bag, then looked at Shireika and Alesmon, and felt like talking again. "I say this guy's still a creep. If he had good intentions, he would have stopped us from fighting for the fragments in the first place. I say we give him the benefit of the doubt and play along until he shows his hand, then we bag the douche. And we have a fail-safe to fall back on in case he overpowers us, just in case - like, say, we don't show the key until he shows us what we want to see. Like how he knows the Dark Queen is coming, for example. But, of course, you're the all-mighty key-holder. With that key comes huge responsibilities, Shireika, and it's all up to you."

***

After her collision with Centaurmon and the force of the hit, Hanabimon had flown off course in another direction. It looked as though she was tumbling while flying. There was a bright light from her and, within seconds, two figures, Hanarei and Okimon, fell to and rolled along the ground. It wasn't until the stopped when they both spoke.

"Ow, my head," Hanarei moaned. She grabbed the back of her head which felt like it had a severe headache.

"Ow, everything but my head," said Okimon. "Did we get'm?"

Hanarei turned her head around and brushed out the few hairs in her way. She smiled but this time it wasn't wicked looking. It looked rather pleasant. "Yeah, we got'm." She flopped onto the ground, glad that the battle was over.

***

Hanarei closed her locker after pulling her lunch out. From the looks of things, she was really tired. "Hanarei, you left that book on the ground," Himotomon pointed out to her from her bag.

"Hmm? Oh, right," she said while she picked it up and put it in her locker. Ever since that fight last week she felt out of character or more out of sync. It didn't help when Nikko found out that the museum was broken into and something from a certain display case was missing. He didn't have proof, but he suspected his daughter had something to do with it. It helped to have several other people, namely digidestined, to say she was elsewhere.

Himotomon watched Hanarei as she walked down the hallway listlessly. "You okay?" Himotomon asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Hanarei answered automatically.

"Liar." Hanarei glanced behind her at Himotomon. "When we biomerged, I say some of those images you see. Something is definitely going on up there in your head."

"Then you also must have got the part where I just need to find another way to make you digivolve. That way, I get another piece of the puzzle. I can handle it."

Himotomon sighed. "If you say so." Himotomon wanted to help, especially after seeing some of those images, but she didn't know how. And with the theory of finding out what it all meant, Himotomon figured Hanarei would do next to anything to solve it.

As they passed one of the classrooms, Himotomon jumped up and down in the bag to get Hanarei's attention. "Hold it, I wanna bop in here for a second," the digimon said. Hanarei didn't really feel like arguing right now and entered the classroom.

Inside, she saw Tomeo and Shireika. Guessing that's why Himotomon wanted to go in, Hanarei walked over to the two. "Hey Tomeo, Parumon, Princess," she said, sounding a bit out of it.

Himotomon made sure no one else was looking and jumped out of the bag and next to Parumon. "Good morning Miss Water Dragon," she said cheerfully. She still felt psyched up after the combo attack they did together at the last battle. "And of course good morning to mr. shadow raven."

***

Shoki wiped his nose one more time. "I guess I'll try something," he said to Asayake. "But, um, self-defense will probably not be on my list of things to do."

Reimumon continued to pat Shouki on the shoulder with his sash. As he did, he smiled. 'We're making progress,' he thought.

***

Using chopsticks, Shouki reached into the bento box for some rice his dad cooked for him. Being the son of a restaurant owner had its perks every now and then. He watched Hanshin ignore Ami for the first time since he's been with the group. Shouki could tell he'd been with the group long enough since seeing that felt weird.

"I think he's just busy with something else on his mind," Shouki said to Yukio and Hiroshi. 'Something's definitely on my mind,' he thought.

Leaning in close so Yukio and Hiroshi couldn't hear, Shouki mumbled something to Hanshin. "Thinking about the meeting, right? I must admit that even though we fought for The Watcher and everything, I'm still nervous about meeting him, um, her, it, whatever."

"Shouki, lunch warning," said Kirimon. The ghost cat/orb digimon was in Shouki's bag and now had it's mouth open. Shouki looked around to make sure no one else was watching before he picked up a piece of fish and dropped it into Kirimon's mouth. The digimon munched on it and said, "Thanks. You bought another 10 minutes." Kirimon found out he could get food by 'threatening' to make a loud noise in the class room. He didn't intend to, but Shouki couldn't handle the idea of explaining whatever the noise was to 20+ students.

***

When Hanabimon left, Masuraomon watched, the two personalities inside of the biomerged fighting for a few moments. Finally, the energy left the digimon, leaving Enma holding Aoiromon in his stead.

"You're not gonna fight?" Aoiromon asked, bewildered. Enma shook her head.

"Hanshin's already given Shireika the key; we've got nothing left to do here." She said, before turning and walking towards the exit.

***

Enma sat, staring at the paper in front of her. Her bento box lay open, and the chopsticks were laid out on top neatly. "Aren't you gonna eat?" Mitikomomon asked, worried.

"I will." Enma said, obviously distracted. The note had said specifically...

"Enma?"

"Hide." Enma whispered to Mitikomomon, who did as he was told. Miyoki stood in the classroom door, and Enma watched her one-time friend cooly. Enma motioned to the desk next to her. "Hello, Miyoki." she said.

Miyoki moved to the desk and sat down across from Enma. "Hi..." they stared at each other in silence for a moment, before Enma closed her bento box, putting it away. She moved to the note and held it up.

"What's this about?" she asked.

The other girl shrugged. "Well, I just...here. Can't we be friends again?" Miyoki asked, holding out a small ring. Enma rubbed her middle finger for a moment, before standing.

"I..I have to go." She whispered, not making eye contact with Miyoki. Miyoki grabbed the smaller girl and handed her the ring.

"Just keep it and think it over, okay? We've been friends since we were little, Enma, and I don't think a stupid argument should come between us." Miyoki said, smiling at Enma. Enma took the ring, before fleeing the room, holding her bag close to her.

She turned a corner and could hear talking in a room. She looked inside of it, for a minute, before making a face. "Um...hi, Shireika..." She saw Hanarei there, and rubbed the back of her neck.

She'd been avoiding the other girl for most of the week, but her conscious was, for the first time in a while, getting the better of her. Or maybe it was the fat that Miyoki had freaked her out enough to actually be nice to the other girl for once. "I just...wanted to...I don't know...apologize. For how I've been treating you in the past few weeks." She said, standing at the thresh of the room. She was obviously uncomfortable, and was starting to slowly back out of the room. She turned to go, but stopped quickly. "I guess I'll see you guys this afternoon?"

***

Rogishimon munched rather enthusiastically on the dumpling she'd crammed into her mouth, careful not to get crumbs on the things in Asayake's backpack. Asayake had made her her own little lunch box from a few things from her own lunch, and Rogishimon was quite happy with them; Asayake knew what all of her favourites were. She heard Asayake shut her locker, and watched the zipper over her head open up. The redhead smiled down at her. "Move over, would you?"

"What's that?" Rogishimon whispered, shuffling forward so Asayake could take the little black book frombehind her. She craned her neck so she could look at it, and chirped quietly. "Wowies. So that's what smells funny."

"It's leather," explained Asayake, "It's a present for Shouki. I figured he could use it, and it's just sat in the back of my closet for ages. No big deal."

"Is that what you were looking for last night?" asked Rogishimon. Asayake nodded and zipped her bag up again, and Rogishimon felt it slip over the girl's back. The digimon turned back to her lunch, eating happily.

Asayake looked down at the book, fishing the little keys that went with it out of her back pocket. It wasn't all that special, just a little book bound in black leather with a little brass lock, but she hoped it would help. She slipped her digivice from her beltloop, and squinted at the screen. "God damn, but this thing is handy sometimes." She mumbled, replacing it after finding the dot she was looking for. She made her way to one of the empty classrooms, and found Shouki sitting at one of the desk with his lunch.

"Hey," said Asayake, smiling at him, "I brought you something." She put the little journal on the desk, along with the little set of keys. "It's nothing much, and it's kind of a hand-me-down, but it's never been used. I figured you could use it more than I could, considering it's been gathering dust in my room for a few years." She shrugged, suddenly feeling rather sheepish, and gave him a brief wave before making her way to where the other half of the digiidestened were beginning to congregate.

She found herself a seat next to Tomeo, greeted everyone with a mumbled "Hello", and popped the lid off of her bento box. Wondering absently why she was feeling so withdrawn all of a sudden, she popped one of the dumplings into her mouth, staring dully at her lunch.

***

Tegiwa felt time must had slowed close to that infinite crawl he had been talking about, but it could have just been the company he was with.

"Robotmon, let us out. The others must have finished their fight by now. I don't really want to end up on display beside Pollock's drop cloth, and you know Teggy is taking this thing way too far." Naoko felt herself becoming more worried and cranky as time moved on.or didn't in this case. She could feel herself suffocating.

"He has been less than rational. True. His emotions even overwhelmed me, but I regret I must inform you I'm not in control. I'm sure he'll calm down if you let him."

"Like any of this is mistress' fault. She's gone out of her way to be nice to him.well, most of the time if you don't count being angry when he was dating her sister.or that being locked in her room, or those other times. Anyway, how dare you accuse her, implacate her, even speak to her in this situation."

"Relax Suzumon. All he said was Tegiwa would let us out when he calms down." Naoko tried to soothe her tiny tin companion since she was on the edge herself. It would do to have for people going nuts.

Suzumon stood down as best as a metal convergance could. His tone was softer with less growl when he spoke again. "Yeah, I guess that's what I meant. Sure." He wasn't about to go against his mistress.

"All of you can end your grousing. I dropped the power awhile ago. At least I think it was awhile ago. The field should end in a moment, so you can just chill until we start moving again.

***

Naoko leaned over in front of Hanshin to give him a kiss on the cheek and a nice view down her shirt. She regretted the view wasn't as vast as certain other members of the club, but he had never complained about her figre that he knew of. "C'mon and lighten up babe. You said we'd all share the power right? So it shouldn't matter who has the key. And, yes, I think she'll show, AND yes, I believe we can keep her safe. Now, smile for me Hanshin. Smile before your face freezes like that; You look like your dad right now."

***

Tegiwa had spent the better part of the week avoiding Shireika. He had totally lost it in front of her and the others. He dreded meeting with them. He wasn't sure he could apologize, of if he could frgive himself. Add the fact that he had wanted to ask Shireika out if they had won (they had.) and you had a miserable Tegiwa.

His busy life that left him little time to sleep seemed to expand in to vast, empty stretches of time not unlike those his power produced. He hung around dispatch likw a lonely pup and sighed as he polished the Ambulance or caught up on paper work he normally left for others. He also dusted the shelves at the chiense apothecary where he worked and polished jars. He had a feeling the shelves and jars there had been bought dusty.

By the end of the week he grew bold enjoy to approach the group and find out what he'd miss. He hoped Shireika would kill him or yell at him or do anything. He doubted there would ever be a good time to ask her out in this life. He gave up on that dream. He'd Given up on it regularly since freshman year. Now, all he wanted was companionship. Unfortunately, he wasn't going to grovel before her and the others.

He overheard the topic of conversation as he approached. He saw the key. He spoke.

"Shireika, I can't believe you'd consider meeting this guy without the key. Now, I hear you want the two of them in the same place?" He wish he hadn't. He came to apologize after a fashion and critized instead. Would he ever learn?

***

A small grin appeared on Hanshin's face as he took a quick glance down from Naoko's face and back up.

"We wouldn't want that would we?" he asked. "Though, I do recall a certain somebody commenting not too long ago that I had one of the best looking fathers in Tokyo Academy." He winked at Naoko as he seemed to relax a little.

"And then there was your mother," Yukio added. "I've seen pictures of her. Damn. That's where your sister gets it from. You know, if she would just lighten up a little and try to be nicer to guys like us, she'd be up there with popular girls like Naoko here." He presented a cheesy smile at Naoko.

"Shut up," Hiroshi muttered as he swiped a hand across the back of Yukio's head.

"Ow! Jeez."

"If she finds out that you talk about her like that, she'll throw you out the window."

"You've seen her, haven't you? I mean, she's hot." Yukio argued as the two began an intense debate.

"We didn't get it for the Watcher," Hanshin said to Shouki. "We merely used him to get information, but I wonder about this Watcher. We don't know anything about him or her. Whatever the case, the Watcher could be a threat." He shrugged. "Well, once we know the location of the keyhole, we can do whatever we want with the key, right?"

"Didn't Hanshin tell us that his sister was off limits?" Hiroshi said. He grabbed Hanshin by the arm and pointed at Yukio. "Remind him the rules about Shireika."

"She's off limits for you two," Hanshin replied blandly.

"See, I can still look at her!" Yukio argued, launching another debate between the two bandmates.

Hanshin sighed a little and rolled his eyes.

"But, we have to make sure Shireika doesn't get harassed by the Watcher for the key, if he wants it," he said to Naoko and Shouki. "She won't ever want to use it, but at least it's in the hands of one of us."

***

"Huh?" Shireika asked when Tomeo joined her. "I wish this key didn't exist," she said softly to Tomeo and Hanarei. "Its potential frightens me. If I could destroy it, I would, but it won't break apart into the pieces we found. If that were possible, I would have returned them, but it won't separate." She sighed. "Just one lump of metal that won't come apart." She looked at Tomeo. "Don't worry. I won't do what the Watcher wants if he asks. Since when did we ever do that?" She patted Parumon gently on the head and smiled at her. "If the Watcher wants the key, he'll have to get through all of us for it, right?" She looked up at Tegiwa when he interrupted the group. Her mood seemed to instantly change when he appeared. She knew he had avoided her all week, right when she had expected him to be at her side and helping her figure out what to do. Right when she needed his support. "I don't go anywhere without it. Better with me than left in my room, where someone could potentially steal it, don't you think? And as far as the Watcher goes, it seems that most people are planning to go. My brother mentioned it to me this morning, and it seems that there will be others, too. I wouldn't consider going there alone, but if you don't like that, then maybe you should be there to help out if necessary. The invitation was extended to all the digi-destined."

***

Hanarei looked at Enma as she came in and was starting to leave. Call it what you will, but Hanarei felt something other than anger when Enma came in. Hanarei looked down at Himotomon who nodded to her. "We dicussed this earlier," said Himotomon. "I finally got you to agree."

Hanarei frowned at her partner before looking back up. "I'll be right back." She moved away from the others and followed Enma. "Oi, Enma, wait up," said Hanarei.

There was a moment of silence as Hanarei stared at the other girl. Finally, she spoke. "Look, as long as we're closing gaps and loose ends and everything, I wwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaannnn.... She paused. She rubbed the back of her head and looked off in another direction. "Look, this is really hard for me here since I barely even utter the word so bear with me." She glanced back at the others who weren't that far away. "Even more difficult if I have an audience. I just want to say that, after all the fighting, threats, and whatnot, I'm s-s-s-sorrrrrrrrrrr...." She seemed to strain herself as she turned her head toward Enma and held out a hand for her to shake. "I'm sorry."

***

Shouki was surprised when Asayake dropped in and handed him the black book. "What's this?" he asked curiously but was too late as Asayake left. "Um, thank you." He examined the book for a moment before trying to open it. It didn't move and he noticed the lock and keys. Taking one of the keys, he inserted it into the lock and opened it. It was a diary. And from the looks of it, a blank diary. 'She did suggest keeping a diary awhile ago,' Shouki thought.

He tore his eyes away from the book to divert his attention back to Hanshin. "Oh right, sorry, I must be tired or something," he responded. "Even though we knew it would result in this, it feels weird to have it finished. We'll finally know what the whole story is now. At least, that's my hope."

"Always the optimist, aren't you?" said Kirimon. He was listening more to Hiroshi and Yukio's discussion. "Hey Shouki, did you note that Hanshin only said those two weren't allowed to touch Shireika. Looks like Hanshin is willing to give you a chance. You can even brag to those two that, granted it was fighting, you've touched her." There was a large smile over his face.

Shouki's face went slightly red. He picked up the rest of the fish in his bento box and leaned slightly closer to Kirimon. "I'll give you the rest of the fish if you promise not to say something like that again."

"Deal." Kirimon proceeded to munch down the large chuck of fish from Shouki. "I should have thought of this a long time ago."

***

Tomeo nodded at Shireika. “Just checking, I thought there was a chance you might have changed your mind.”

Parumon leaned into Shireika’s hand as she stroked her, like a cat would, minus the soft fur with smooth scales instead. “I’m just worried that the Watcher might be able to overpower us in some way, or force our hand. That’s all.” She confessed as she relaxed, in such a good mood she actually smiled at Hitomomon as Hanarei came to join them. “Hey, fire fairy. You know, I never got to say how you did in the last battle, and you did pretty good, kid... sorry about snapping at you before. Fire and water can be a lethal combination, don’t you think?”

Tomeo smiled as Hanarei came to join them. “Hey, Hanarei.” he greeted, and was about to ask her what was wrong, when Enma came in. He tensed, expecting a cat fight between the two girls. He was surprised when Enma apologized – the way the two girls had been acting, he thought hell would freeze over first. “Yeah, we’ll see you this afternoon. I’m sure we’ll all be there. You can come join us, if you like.” he said kindly to her.

When Asayake came in and sat down beside him, he felt the hairs bristle up on the back of his neck again. “Hey, Asayake.” he greeted her, his voice sounding a little shaky and timid this time. He looked a little coyly at her as she ate her lunch next to him, feeling like he had to ask her a million questions at once. He was convinced that Asayake was only a friend to him, yet why did he think so much about the way she reacted during the battle? His mind was muddled up, and he just blamed it on feeling isolated to the ice-cold treatment Parumon had been giving him. That, and the fact he felt awfully concerned about the demon Asayake had been hiding. That was all, he told himself, although everything else seemed to undermine it. He would have to deal with his confused feelings later; the threat had to be dealt with first.

“Hey, Tegiwa. Haven’t seen you in a while.” He noticed the other boy come into the room, and realized the whole group was here. “I – I was just saying to Shireika guys, about the e-mail. So, the Watcher is going to finally reveal himself. I’m all for it, but I can’t help but think that there’s something more that will happen tomorrow than the Watcher giving us powers, and then walking off. He wants to be there for a reason other than showing us the keyhole, so why would he show us the location on the map? Something doesn’t add up, and I think we’re all wise enough not to trust the Watcher at this point, not when we’ve come so far.”

He looked thoughtfully at the key, as if it were some dark omen. “It’s potential frightens me a little too, now. Shireika’s tried to destroy it and take it apart, but it won’t break. Its singular purpose seems to be inevitable, that’s it going to unlock that keyhole. We have to try to avoid the two coming together as much as we can, but somehow I don’t know if we will be enough. Still, we have to try and be ready for any possibility. We’ve become so strong so far – I think we can do it. No – I know we’re ready for this, guys.”

***

Enma was very surprised when Hanarei stopped her. "Believe me," she said as the other girl started to stutter. "It wasn't easy for me, either." She took Hanarei's hand and shook it, before letting go. She looked at Tomeo, and shrugged. "That's okay;" she said to his offer to stay, "I'm sure I'd just be in the way. I'll see you guys later, though." She said, bowing, before leaving. "That was nice of you, Enma." Mitikomomon said as they turned another corner. Enma chose to ignore her digimon, and instead leaned against a locker. "This is the weirdest expierence of my life; how did mom survive this without going menta...never mind, she did."

***

"I say we shove the key up the Watcher's ass and see if it shuts him off," Asayake said, her voice rather monotone, "I'm really not looking forward to meeting this person. I'd rather think that he's not real, that he's just a figment of my imagination. I want to wake up at home in my bed, and have all of this be a dream."

This whole Watcher thing was driving her insane. It wasn't not knowing; that she could deal with. No, it was the memories that kept resurfacing, and the nightmares they bubbled up from that bothered her most. The smell of cigarettes and alcohol; the oddly melodramatic beat of her throbbing jaw; a warm, coppery taste in her mouth; cold, rough fingers pulling at her jacket... That sadistic little chuckle... A dull, blissful nothing...

She shuddered and put the lid back on her lunch, suddenly feeling rather sick. Swallowing the unsteady feeling in her stomach, she pushed the box away from her, crossing her legs and leaning her elbows on her knees. She grabbed a hold of her left hand with her right, holding it tight an massaging her palms together. When was the last time she'd done that? Not subconsciously, but to calm herself down? Years, wasn't it? Almost two? She shuddered again, and kneaded roughly at her palms.

This was not what she needed right now.

***

Tegiwa was apalled at the answer Shireika gave him. "After all we went through to get the key, we are going to take it within a kilometer of someone we know we can't trust? That is just....way, way, way uncool. I know you can't leave the key alone exactly, but... do we really need to go to Mr. Watcher on his terms? I think we could have let the key with Hanshin for this much of a risk....No, don't worry, I'll go with whatever you guys want to do. I just want to feel like there is a purpose or a plan behind our attending this meeting."

Tegiwa sat at the table in an open spot and brooded. Geez, it's not like we can go it all powered up. Our partners take time to build up their strenght. I sincerely doubt the Watcher will let us leave with the key or that he will say please when he asks. If he has dark intent, then he may just kill us on the spot without the melodramatic dialogue. They had no proof of the Watcher's will be it good or evil, but the email sounded like a setup. Could the Watcher be someone they know? He had a great deal of information on each of them, or was the Watcher some omnious being perhaps the Dark Queen herself duping us

Tegiwa didn't like these dark thoughts. He'd been far too pessimistic of late. He was a bit of a worrier by nature; however, he managed to be somewhat upbeat inspite of himself. Lately, he was a prophet of gloom and doom.

"Let's get the meeting over with as quick as we can. What happens...happens."

***

Naoko smiled at Yukio and Hiroshi. "No worry about that 'Anshin baby. Shireika woudn't let these rubes within 50 yards. If they did try to touch her we'd have to restaff the band. Of course, I'll have to agree the girl is deliciously hot for someone who is so cold. She's Hanshin's sister. I wouldn't expect less." She smirked at Shouki. "Yes, I think Hanshin would allow you to touch his sister. I might let you touch mine. You could do either of them some good if you went out with them, but I'm not sure how you'd fair with them. You are a very sweet boy, naive and sweet. I hope you never lose those things compleatly. It would be a shame if you turned out like the rest. We girls need diversity you know." Of course, Hanshin was the only one for her. even if she couldn't speak the words she could think the thoughts. She felt he'd need her support more than ever because his ego had been bruised by the defeat.

***

Tomeo looked up as Enma spoke to him. "Hey, you won't be..." he tried calling after her, but she was gone. "... Never mind." he finished. He guessed she just felt uncomfortable being with their group, after all they had gone through. He didn't blame her, it would feel awkward for him if he was sitting with Hanshin's group... he made a mental note that at some stage, he would have to apologize to them all for things he had said.

"I don't like the idea of the Watcher anymore than you do, Asayake." he replied understandingly to her after he had finished speaking. "And I've got to admit, I don't like the idea of a key unlocking evil powers, either, it frightens me a little. But, I don't want all of this just to be a dream and have everything back the way it was, with us being strangers to each other. It's not just because we have the power to stop evil... I don't regret meeting any of you, or Parumon, and especially y - Asayake?"

If anyone had noticed the change in Asayake's body language first, it was Tomeo. He didn't want to make a big scene out of it, but he could sense something was wrong with her. Suddenly, the meeting didn't seem so important anymore as he pushed all other thoughts out of his head. He pushed himself out of his seat and stepped over to her table. "Asayake? Are you - feeling okay?" he asked, kneeling down next to her table to get close enough to speak quietly to her. He knew it she wasn't feeling queasy because of her lunch, and he knew well enough now that it wasn't some kind of symptom. "It's about what you told Shouki during the battle, isn't it? About your...your demons, right?" he loudly whispered to her, unable to think of a better word for it, looking at her with bold green eyes. "Listen, if it doesn't make you feel bad, you can talk to me about it. I'm your friend, I'm here for you, okay?"

***

"This is our chance to get information, find out what's really going on," Shireika said to Tegiwa. "There are many of us, even though we have no idea whether the Watcher is one person or many. Still, we have fought each other, and we've gotten stronger. Still, if the Watcher wants the key for the power it seals, he probably would desperately need to defeat us. We have an advantage over him." She paused and sighed a little, seeing her closest friend brooding at the table. She got up and hugged him. "I know I'll sound hypocritical, but don't worry so much. That's my job, remember?" She sat down next to him, such that she was facing the opposite direction from him. She rested her head on his shoulder as she continued. "Sometimes things happen for a reason, and we can't ignore it. The key put itself together, so perhaps that was supposed to happen. You know. Maybe we're supposed to find it...protect it...keep it from being used..." Her focus distanced as her voice trailed off.

She feared what might happen if the key were actually used to unlock the powers it sealed away. Something about the thought of using its power terrified her. She shivered as it mulled in her mind.

"We can use this opportunity to get rid of the Watcher," she murmured. "I still don't trust him. So, this is the chance to find out who he is really. And, then, if he does have evil intentions, we'll know how to get rid of him."

***

"Shouki, you needn't worry," Hanshin said to reassure his fellow bandmate. "Shireika doesn't give most guys even the time of day." Most guys. For some reason, the few men she paid attention to included that perverted Tsuyoikou Sensei. Wherever she was at Tokyo Academy, he somehow found a way to find her. The roses, the meeting with her after classes, that damn card with contact info. The disgusting pervert. Fortunately, he no longer worked at Tokyo Academy. Tegiwa might be somewhere on that list, but as Naoko said, Shireika was as cold as she was beautiful. Tegiwa would never be able to melt her icy exterior, considering that nothing had worked before. Except, he hadn't seen her smile so warmly than when she talked to Tsuyoikou Sensei the last time he was at Tokyo Academy.

He smiled at Shouki and said, "It's not you. It's her, really. If you were interested, I suppose that's fine, but she's the school icicle. Your male classmates are either terrified of her or they've given up. Naoko's sister is cute, someone you'd get along with."

***

Yuu wandered around the halls looking for a classroom to have lunch in. She was hoping to find Hanshin or the others so that they could talk about the email last night. It had certainly been giving her a lot to think about during the school day. She finally came upon the room Hanshin, Naoko and Shouki were in, but it looked like the other band members were there too. Ah well, she thought, she still needed a place to eat lunch.

As she walked in she nodded politely to Hiroshi and Yukio before sitting down near Shouki. She had heard after the battle about his breakdown, and still felt guilty somehow for not noticing or helping out, though she really didn't know what she'd have done. Just then she noticed the open book on his desk.

"What's that?" she asked out of curiosity.

***

Himotomon smiled and hopped out of joy. "Agreed," she said to Parumon. "I'd give you a high five if I had hands at the moment. We should keep that little trick up our sleeves if we ever need to use it again."

With the apology now said, Hanarei let out a sigh of relief. "Well that takes care of one errand," she said. She still sounded tired. "By the way guys, I really did mean that to Enma so don't let that last phrase make you think otherwise." She seated herself down around the table and laid her hands and head on the table. This headache of hers or whatever it is was giving her, well, a headache. After receiving all those images not that long ago, it felt like her mind was trying to sort out every thing while trying to do the rest of her usual functions. A few days ago, Hanarei had almost walked into a wall since she was so tired.

"Unfortunately, I want to see the Watcher just so I know who in the world this person is. True, I'd prefer that we found him/her first without him/her knowing about it but that seems like an unlikely chance. Still, we just have to protect the key. Keep it as far away from the guy while still being a part of the meeting is my idea."

Everytime Hanarei looked at Shireika, something inside of her kept repeating the same name; Sutako. She remembered saying it on accident at some point but brushed it off when that happened. But now it seemed odd to have the name mentally repeated in her. "Hey Princess?" she asked. "Does the name 'Sutako' mean anything to you?"

***

Shouki's face was glowing as bright red as ever. "Well well," said Kirimon, "looks like Shouki has a few more possibilites of girlfriends then we originally thought." He was enjoying the fact that he could still poke fun at his partner. That and the number of times Shouki was moving around in his chair from being nervous. "Better watch out Hanshin or Shouki here could have a larger harem than yours."

Shouki's face shifted back and forth to every person now present in the group. "Um, ah, I, uh, can we change the topic here?" he muttered quickly, his voice slightly higher than normal.

He was thankful beyound words when Yuu got his attention away from the current topic. "Oh, this? Um, Asayake gave it to me. It's some kind of diary she never used and offered it to me. She suggested I give it a try and write in it about...," his mind flashed onto his sister, "personal things."

"At least you're willing to TRY and open up. That alone is a big step for you."

***

"I have no idea whether we are ready are not, Tomeo, since we don't have a clue as to what or who we are dealing with. So far, we have been assuming a worst case deal with Hanshin. Maybe that was an error. The watcher is certainly creepy though. I feel he wants the key for himself-- to take it and to use it. Maybe the fates have other plans for the key. It could be a contest between us and him to grab the power.

"I've never been a big believer in luck or fate be it good or bad. Ogiisan relies on them, but had major issues with the old Chlid of Fate. Mom, she didn't believe until her adventure; now, she almost hates the Fates. She blames them for alot things. I'm kinda reluctant about the whole topic. I just wish there we could not have the key this first meeting...." Tegiwa lost all focus as Shireika hugged him. He put his arms around her loosely. How could he not believe in her? She'd do anything to keep the power of the key safe, so why should he fear the Watcher?

"Shireika, I'm...I'm sorry about losing it in the last battle. I don't think you would be able to forgive if I hurt or killed Hanshin. If Naoko hadn't put herself in the way, I could have...I'm sorry. I was selfish. Uncertainty, well, it gets to me."

***

"Yeah, Shouki , you might like my neechan. She's a bit of the quiet type and very reliable too. Your speed too. Tegiwa dumped her, so she's on the rebound. Give it a thought.

"Now, the rest of you, if we can finish with this Watcher bussiness and keep a decent band schedule, I may be able to find a studio where we could cut some new demo tapes. The old ones are...old. They reflect poorly on the bands current abilities. Not, that we need to change out all the songs, but you guys play much better now. And, Shouki has added something new to the song too. Just keep it in mind." Great, Naoko was facing another band event with little hope of playtime after. For causing all this trouble, she might try to get lucky with the Watcher as long as he didn't look like some horrible anime monster. Heh, perhaps those hentai tentacles could be fun...one never knows...

***

Shireika grinned at Tegiwa a little. Always so apologetic, and always the worry-wort. She knew that uncertainty was frightening for him. It made him nervous that he didn't know what would happen next, rather unlike he general laid-back personality, but that was the way he was. Always fearing the unknown, but who didn't? They were all nervous about this meeting, but Tegiwa tended to be just more worried than most. That and more vocal about it.

"Sutako?" she asked as she turned to Hanarei. "That's my mother's name. People say I look a lot like her." She remembered that Hanarei had once called her Sutako by accident; her grandmother would do that once in a while too. "I'm curious, why do you call me 'Princess' all the time?" Shireika knew she certainly was no princess. She had gotten used to Hanarei referring to her as "Princess," but Hanarei was the first to call her that.

***

"We do to have some real publicity through a music company," Hanshin said, almost grumbling. He hated music business. Perhaps, this was why he loved having Naoko around so much. She took care of this stuff that had nothing to do with the actual music itself. All he really wanted to do was just play music. All of this business with companies, labels, whatever - it was all a pain to deal with. But, he also hated talking about it. He grabbed Naoko by the wrist and pulled her onto his lap. She sat in his lap such that she was facing him. He pulled her close to him, touching her legs and hips under her short school uniform skirt. "Didn't I say that business was not meant for meal time?" Well, he believed that business was horrid and should be avoided as much as possible. "I know you always do what's best for the band. I trust you," he whispered as kissed her neck. "Just let us know the time and place for things, and we'll do it. All we really want to do is just play music."

***

"Why I call you 'Princess?'" Hanarei asked. "Well it's because...." She stopped. She paused as she tired to figure out why but almost nothing seemed to come to her. "I thought it was because that's how I saw others always treating you, but...." There seemed to be something else on her mind. "Sutako was your mother?" she repeated softly.

Almost instantly, Hanarei's eyes widened as realization came to her. One of the people from the images appeared in her mind. It was a girl who really did look like Shireika. The name now matched up with the body; it was Sutako. Slowly, the image of Sutako transformed. It looked similar to her but... it was slightly different. Raven hair, intense blue eyes, and a smirk that Hanarei suddenly hated. Images were putting themselves together again.

Hanarei's head quickly shot up from her resting position. She felt cold, somehow different. And after seeing those images like that, she had a mixture of fear and loathing within her. Hanarei stared at Shireika for a moment as though Shireika as a riddle. "No, that can't be it, can it?" She started to mumble mostly to herself but bits of what she said were audible. "Sutako was.... Seiyami was called.... A Dark Queen is coming. Does that mean...?" Hanarei had no clue what was going on inside her. This sudden combination of images only provided her with a new theory. 'Could this dark queen in fact be related to Shireika?' Hanarei thought. 'Is that why I call her princess?'

"Could she be... your mother? Does that even make sense?" she questioned herself but said out loud for the others.

***

Immediately stilling her hands, Asayake's eyes darted up and locked with Tomeo's. They were open wide, as if Tomeo's question had taken her off-guard. Actually, it had; no one usually asked about what she did, and since she hadn't really talked to anyone she supposed they didn't have a reason to care. Suddenly nervous, she pressed her hands together and trapped them between her knees. "No!" She said, a bit louder than she'd wanted. Her face flushed, and she continued in a low mumble. "No, it's -- it's not that, it's..." Shifting her eyes away from his she stared at her forgotten lunch; she wondered if it would catch fire if she stared at it long enough. "I just -- it's something... something else. Whatever, it doesn't matter; I'm fine."

'Oh, right, that was smooth!' She shouted -- in her head, of course -- at herself, 'Did that even come out in english? God dammit but I'm an idiot sometimes! Now he's going to do that weird thing that everyone does and look at me funny and then turn around and pretend to be doing other stuff but he'll still looking at me like I'm some sorta fucking FREAK!' Asayake dove at her lunch again, taking her anger out on her poor, cast-away dumplings. She stabbed at them with her chopsticks, nearly mincing them before she remembered that she was meant to be eating them, not torturing them.

Oh, she was not looking forward to meeting the Watcher at ALL if this was how she was going to act about it. He was like that creepy guy who hits on you at a bar and refuses to leave you alone, even though you've already spilled your drink in his lap five times, and threw it in his face twice. Nope, this would not be fun in the least.

***

"Yeah, we should use it again." Parumon nodded to Hitomomon. "Just call my name in battle when you do your attack, and I'll know what you mean."

Tomeo felt just as embarrassed as Asayake, thinking he caught her off guard in front of everyone and was making a huge scene about nothing in particular. "Ah, um, okay." he said quickly and awkwardly as he withdrawed from leaning in to her, and tried to recompose himself. "Well, um, just checking, that's all. If you need anything, anything at all, um... you know where to find me." he said as he stood up, and tried to catch snipets of the conversation so no-one would focus on his insignificant attempt to make things right. God, how stupid did he feel right now? There was something mysterious that had been picking at him all the time about Asayake, and of course he had to go find out what the problem was in school hours in front of the entire group, when she was vunerable. Did he really think he could solve all of her problems in just one quick-fix session, when she probably had a whole history behind it? From the sound of things it sounded like she had already seen therapists, so what good could he do? And what the hell was, 'You know where to find me?' He doubted Asayake even knew where he lived, otherwise she could only contact him through e-mail outside school hours. And he doubted if she even wanted to talk to him at all for a while after this.

"So, what is this I'm hearing about 'fates' and 'princesses'?" he asked naively as he looked between Tegiwa and Hanarei, trying to catch up on what he had missed so he could pretend nothing had happened. "It sounds like some corny fairy-tale, but from all the other unrealistic stuff that's been going on around here as of late, I wouldn't be surprised that it's reality, too. Tegiwa, you talk about these 'Fates' as if they're actual people. Maybe you're right about me saying that we're ready prematurely, I don't even know all the history behind all of this. I bet it's got to do with the previous digidestined... your parents? You don't have to explain to me now if you don't feel like it, I'll probably piece it together as we go along, but I couldn't think of a better time than now." He looked at Hanarei as she seemed to be remembering something. "Shireika's mother? No, Hanarei. Shireika's mother is... she's passed away, remember?" he put it softly as his eyes darted to Shireika, trying to be reasonably respectful with his words. "I think you're just getting Shireika's 'princess' nickname confused with something else, that's all. It's probably just a way your mind is telling you that you've forgotten something important you have to do, like reading a book for homework."

***

Tegiwa looked at Hanarei with lightining in his gaze; however he otherwise remained calm. "Dude, what an uncool thing to say. Sutako could no more be the Dark Queen than Shireika could. Sutako was the Child of Light descend from the Angel of Toyko. They were light personified. But, that other name reminds me of something. My mother told me about it only a few times.

"It seems some of the Digidestined were divided into their better and worse halves by a demon called Akurei. He was the ruler of some other realm, and they were fighting him. Sutako was split and imprisioned along with some of the others. My mom was there so I guess she was split too. Anyway. This darkside Sutako was called Seiyami, just as you said. Seiyami was made general over all Akurei-dudes troops, but for some reason she aidded the digidestined for her own reasons. Akurei wanted to make Sutako/Seiyami his queen....hmmm....now there's that word again...maybe that's where you get it. If you heard the story before then maybe you are just remembering."

Tegiwa turnred to Tomeo, "Well, its hard to say whether they are actual people. The Fates are like a spiritual council that determine what happens. They choose the Digidestined and pass along their choices to Genai or whoever is in charge now. You'd have loved the digital world. Roman gods and goddesses inhabited the temples of the Chosen and tested those who carried the crests. Among other duties. I don't know how much the Fates and the gods really control of this world however." He found himself calm again, back in his element so to speak.

"If we consider the Watcher...grr...it sounded like the so called Dark Queen was returning to this world or returning from the dead. That's creepy. But, I don't think Seiyami made it this far, or if she did mom didn't mention it. The Watcher's identity. He has to be someone who can spy on us alot. I haven't seen anyone around all of us that much. He must have clairvoyence. Or....be one of us...or something." So, many varibles.

***

Naoko straddled Hanshin. "But lunch time is the only time all of you are together. Now, if all of you would come over...well, I doubt we'd talk then either. So, I'll just tell you guys when to show up and play." She kissed Hanshin and rubed her small hands across his broad back. "If you are going to get me started, you had better be a gentleman and finish the job. I don' want to be horny the rest of the day."

Hanshin would never care to take care of band bussiness, which was fine with her as long as she was around and taken care of. She wanted to shop the band around to some other corporations. So many groups wanted clonable boy bands and pop groups with no talent and just looks. Then the corps could replace them every few years to update their image. Just let them lipsync to the songs others wrote and let them sell soda and posters to screaming teen fans. Not talent to worry about, just play to the corporate image du jour. Talent and Freedom were reserved to the like of Zepplin, Pink Floyd, and Aerosmith. She was going to make sure nobody messed with Hashin's dream and musical vision. He was meant to be free and wild.

***

Shireika listened intently to Tegiwa's story about her mother and her parents' generation of digi-destined. Something about it made her fume a little, and she breathed heavily as she tried to calm down.

"My mother would never be the dark queen that the Watcher claims is coming to destroy all," she said harshly. "She would have never considered such an idea. She would never put myself, my brother, or anyone in danger. Seiyami was a part of her, as a result of Akurei. It wasn't her choice. She would never become that dark queen, nor would she ever consider doing evil. This is why we're going to that meeting with the Watcher - to see that he really is full of bullcrap!"

***

"They don't care about business," Hanshin whispered. He didn't care if his classmates could see. The girls didn't seem to mind, since they all knew that Naoko was sort of the band manager. They knew why she got attention, but all the girls knew Hanshin's heart belonged to no one. "Yukio just wants a good lay. Hiroshi, earn a little money. Shouki, play the music. You know that bringing us together wouldn't do much to get business done. They'd get bored and leave." His eyes glanced towards a group of girls, and he flashed a smile at them. He leaned closer to her ear, his lips nearly touching it. "Did you want me to get you started?" He had maybe two hours to kill. Plenty of time. He had done it in less than fifteen minutes before. "The girls' room would be empty, wouldn't it?"

***

"Well excuse me for making a possible theory," Hanarei snapped back at Tegiwa. "Look, I don't know how you feel about Seiyami, but somehow the very thought of her is giving me the creeps." Hanarei felt like adding that the death of Sutako/Seiyami didn't bother her at all but figured that would be the least intelligent thing for her to say right now.

"My dad still hasn't told me the full story and everything. Personally, I think he's leaving out the embarassing or regrettable parts. He told me about the Dark Digidestined or whatever they're called but he never gave details. He didn't even give me names." Hanarei paused after what she said. She figured that the others would catch on to the fact she was never told the names of certain people and yet knew about them.

She glanced down at Himotomon who was looking back at her. "You may as well tell them," said Himotomon. "It wouldn't hurt. Besides, if you don't, I will since I saw the same images when we biomerged."

Hanarei puffed out her cheeks. "Fine," she mumbled. Looking back to the group, she started to explain. "Okay, look, for awhile now, I've been seeing images; images that don't 'belong' to me I think. They keep showing me places I've never been to, people I've never met, and actions that I've never done. After each digivolution, I get more pieces to these images. That's why I mentioned the name Seiyami without being told about her." Hanarei shivered after saying the name.

"I think that's why I call you princess; since you're related to someone, I mean half of someone, once called the Dark Queen. It's possible that's the same reason why I hated you and Hanshin before I even met you two."

Hanarei stopped and looked at everyone around her. 'And now the "you're crazy" looks come forth,' she thought. She glanced over at Asayake and noticed her acting weird as well. "Hmm, peas in a pod, I guess," she mumbled under her breath to herself.

***

Shouki was starting to notice what Hanshin and Naoko were doing right at the table. Trying to be discreet, Shouki held the open diary just at his eye level to block out what Naoko and Hanshin were doing. 'Don't look, don't look,' he thought.

Kirimon happened to notice this and rolled his eyes. Staying below desk level so Hiroshi and Yukio wouldn't notice him, he rammed into Shouki's side. Shouki almost fell off his chair but used both hands to save himself. When he looked down, he noticed the book was gone from his hand and flew into Yuu's lap. Blushing out of embarassment, Shouki stood up from his chair to get it. "Sorry, sorry," he said quickly to Yuu. He reached down to pick up the book from her lap.

Figuring no one would look for whoever spoke, Kirimon changed the sound of his voice (deeper) and yelled, "Look! Shouki's touching a girl!"

Shouki immediately grabbed the book from Yuu's lap and looked around to see who yelled, his face back to being bright red. He looked down at Kirimon who was looking in the other direction while whistling. "Why'd you do that?" Shouki whispered.

"I thought now was a good time for to mature one more step," Kirimon whispered back, "and I was bored."

***

“Okay guys, let’s cool it. We’re not the enemy here, the Watcher is.” Tomeo said, trying to get Tegiwa and Hanarei to settle down. “Tegiwa, I’m sure Hanarei doesn’t mean to speak ill of… Sutako.” He paused for half a second, learning the name of Shireika’s mother, and was glad he didn’t have to keep referring to her as ‘Shireika’s mother’. Although, out of respect for Shireika, he’d rather not try to refer to her much at all if he had to. He had learned by now that Shireika wasn’t terribly sensitive about the subject, but he still liked to show his respect as a part of being her friend.

“And don’t worry what Tegiwa says Hanarei, I think you’re cool. And I have to say, this is all a lot to take in, but I think I believe you. I mean, if you told me the same thing a few months ago, maybe then I would’ve thought it was crazy. But now, I have no reason to think why it wouldn’t be true at all. Normal went out the window when all the digimon arrived. So, why not?” He thought for a second about Hanarei’s description, thinking about how she obtained information through digivolution. “Hey, maybe since you’ve biomerged with Hitomomon, you’ve just picked up the ability to see things that have happened, that’s all. What do they call it… premonition, but seeing things in the past instead of the future. It could be one of the side-effects or after-effects to digivolving, I dunno. I wouldn’t be surprised, seeing how bizarre the concept is that we can mix our own DNA with the digimon.”

He sat back down in his place next to Asayake, becoming extremely curious and intrigued with all that he had heard. All this talk of magic and demons and gods felt daunting to him all of a sudden, because he realized it all had to be the truth in some way or form. He was almost grateful he had Parumon as a partner; without her, he’d just be an oblivious, powerless pawn in a world that was under a growing, very-real threat. He felt a little pang of insecurity at that moment, knowing he had failed to biomerge like the others, but did his best to mentally brush the thought away. The idea was almost enough to give him extreme paranoia - as if he didn’t have enough already thanks to the Watcher. “Okay, I understand the Fates and stuff, that explains how the digimon popped out of nowhere, I guess. The digital world sounds like a beautiful place I’m sure Tegiwa, but that’s not where the fight is. So basically if I’m getting this right, the previous digi-destined were split half-and-half by a demon… so, demons are real? Creep-city…” he thought aloud, shuddering at certain images in his head. “Anyway, and this ‘Seiyami’ was the darker half of Sutako, right? So Tegiwa, finish the rest of the story. What happened with the darker halves of the digidestined? It’s obvious they’re all fine now, but what happened? Are they still half-people, or did they find a way to merge themselves back together again?”

***

"What's that?"

"A strawberry."

"Can I have one?"

Enma looked down. She had been sitting next to a window, watching the rain fall for the remainder of lunch, and had been waiting to eat her coveted strawberries.

Mitikomomon looked at the red fruit quizzically, before looking up Enma's chopsticks and arm to her face. "Pleeeeassseee?"

Enma sighed. "Fine," she said. "Open up!" She held the chopsticks over Mitikomomon's mouth, and dropped it. Her digimon partner ate it up quickly.

"Yummy!" Mitikomomon chirped. Enma nodded.

"They're my favorite."

"I can see why!" Mitikomomon looked out at the rain, and then back at Enma. "I've never seen it rain so hard before.

Enma shrugged. "It's not that bad." She said noncomittaly. She picked up another strawberry and ate it, making a face. "Ergh...that one was still frozen." She said, grimacing.

***

She could almost feel her ears twitching as talk of gods and things floated through her ear drums. It itched to be turned into a song, and her fingers started to tingle as words tried to write themselves out on nothing. She snatched her back, scaring the bejeebus out of Rogishimon, and snatched a pen and scrap of paper from inside. She scribbled furoiusly at it, scratching lines out every now and then in favour of new ones. As she wrote, she decided to add something to the conversation; writing made her feel intellectual. "Hanarei, maybe you're remembering something from some sort of passed life?" She asked, staring down at her paper for a few seconds before attacking it again, "You know, the whole cycle of rebirth belief? Maybe you've inherited the memory of someone else, who actually went to the digital world and saw that stuff. Or maybe you've managed to channel some sort of repressed memories in Himotomon. Rogishimon was telling me about Digimon, and their life cycles. It's really neat; they don't die! They just turn into eggs, and then grow up again. So maybe Himotomon saw something like that in one of her other lives, and only remembered it when she met you, and has somehow been sending them unkowingly into your head."

Putting the finishing touches on her little scribble of words, Asayake gave it a quick read-over before stuffing it hastily into her bag. "There are a lot of ways you could be getting someone else's memories; they're all just theories, but hey, we've got talking aliens as sidekicks. How much weirder can this get?"

Asayake faded into silence again, and stared at her thoroughly mutilated lunch. She sighed, pulling hre juicebox out of her bag and eating that instead. She recalled the photograph she'd found in Shireika's living room -- the one of Sutako, her mom. They looked a whole lot alike. Her mom had been a digidestened, too? And had some sort of split with a part of herself, which in turn became another person? It sounded a lot like a soap opera, but Asayake supposed weird things like that were bound to follow talking aliens. She just hoped these Seiyami theories that were bouncing around were just that, and nothing more, or else Shireika was going to have a bit of a time if they ever met this Dark Queen chick.

***

"Ah, that was kind of her" Yuu replied to Shouki's explanation of the book. "A diary sounds like a good thing for you" she added, almost to herself.

Meanwhile, she tried not to notice what Naoko and Hanshin were up to nearby. Yuu had by now heard all about Naoko's reputation from the rest of the school, so none of it really shocked her anymore, but it all still made her a little uncomfortable. Still, she thought as she caught them out of the corner of her eye, it seemed like Naoko didn't just play around with Hanshin... she loved him. But by the looks of things, it was one-sided. Maybe that's why Naoko was... well, the way she was, Yuu thought, and found herself pitying the girl.

But her thoughts were interrupted suddenly when a book came flying into her lap. She looked up when Shouki appologized, but was still so surprised that it didn't occur to her to pick it up and hand it back herself. Of course, right as Shouki reached for the book, the cat call came. She realized within moments that it was just Kirimon, but that didn't stop her from turning a nice shade of red.

Under the pretence of reaching into her bag for her lunch, she leaned down and whispered, "Kirimon, that wasn't very nice." Then as she sat up, "I'm sorry Shouki-san, I should have handed it to you myself."

***

It wasn't like anyone had been attacking Sutako's repuation. Tegiwa had a tendency to forget just how sensitive Shireika was about her mother. Her dad was even weirder in the opposite way. It's like she wasn't gone to him at all. That's what made him think of the idea of Seiyami returning. "Shireika, I don't your mom would be involved in anything like this. I have no clue about Seiyami, but she's gone. I don't think anything has the power to bring them back now. But, wow, just about anything could happen when cosmic forces align against you."

Tegiwa suddenly felt awkward. He felt he needed to tell the others some of it, but parts seemed at bit private to be bandeing about in public. "Sure, Tomeo. They apparently reconciled their differences during a fight and recombined into one person in order to stop the Dark Master. Oh, and, it was only about half of them. Don't feel bad, Hanarei, my mom left out alot of the details of that part for a long time. In fact, don't think she would have said anything if it hadn't been for Kaze." He paused here wondering how to put the next part, then forged ahead. "Asayake, as far as wierd things happening...my mom ended up being pregnant when she and her darkside merged. She stored the blasoplast in an embryo bank so she could have it later. That's how come Kaze is my older half brother even though I was born first. Being frozen explains alot about him actually." Ok, the story was both strange and embarassing. His mother's shadow had been like Naoko on meth. Not the kind of thing he wanted to ponder on.

"Guess the only way to know is to show up and find out. Maybe we should be the first ones there. Think we should start heading that way, Shireika, as soon as we can?"

He smiled at Shireika. She may be cold to some people, but she was his friend. She was the only one willing to smack him on the head when he needed it too. Maybe, someday he could manage to tell her how he felt. Now, however, was not a good time. She was the defacto leader and a battle was about to begin.

***

Naoko looked at Hanshin's face. Other than Shouki, he was the only truly good looking memeber of the band. The other guys were rather rough cut and plain looking. Hanshin's eyes were his biggest draw and the source of his charisma, and the lines of cheek bones and chin were elegant while remaining strong. He had the best qualites of his father and mother. His sister was the same. Beauty like a laser beam: it was inconspicous unless you met it head on, then it was blinding.

"Anta, I don't care if the principal is in there right now. Lets go. I feel like playing.

"Oh, sorry guys. I'll have him back in a few. I'm just going to tune his instrument."

***

"My mother is no longer the Dark Queen, let alone a queen," Shireka said to Hanarei. She stood up. She had had enough of this conversation. "The Fates would not bring her back to life as a dark queen either. So, quit calling me princess." She had finished her lunch already and grabbed her bags. "Look, we still don't even know if this queen is even coming." She stuffed her bento box into her gym bag quickly. "For all we know, the Watcher could be a piece of lying scum out for power, and the dark queen crap was all just a hoax to get us to find the stupid key." She pulled the straps of her backpack and gym bag onto a shoulder. "We probably should start heading off to wherever he wants to meet us." She gently picked up Alatusmon and carefully put him in her gym bag. "And then we can get to the bottom of this mess." And what a relief that would be.

***

Naoko slid off of Hanshin's lap and grinned at Yukio, who's eyes had widened at her statement.

"You'll have your turn, if you want it," she whispered to him as she grabbed her bag, which was on the floor near him. "Just let me know."

"See you later," Hanshin said as he pulled his backpack onto his shoulders. He walked up to Shouki as he headed out of the classroom. "Don't get so worried about things like that. I know you're not like Yukio or me, but you're not in junior high anymore. They mind some things, but not everything." He smiled at Yuu. "Later." He left the pair for the door, waving at a few girls along the way.

When he reached the door, he felt two hands slip around his torso.

"Now, let's get that instrument tuned up again and play a little," she said softly as they left the classroom.

"Not too long. We do have that meeting soon, and I also have a concert tonight," he replied as she pulled him along to the girls' room. "We wouldn't want to miss the meeting, and I wouldn't want to be tired from too much playing either."

***

"I'd like to think that but I would also like to know who these memories are from," said Hanarei. "But seriously, rebirth? Who would I be reborn from? Have any of the digidestined even died? Okay, other than," she pointed with her thumb to finish her sentence. "But trust me, I'm not her. I've been seeing her from another perspective. And I know the memory thing has been going on long before I biomerged with Himotomon so I doubt it has something to do with her except that her digivolving helps it develop more."

"I'll deal with it. It's not like it's something that'll kill me, right? All I have to do is fight and try to get Himotomon try to digivolve again and see what happens."

Hanarei watched Shireika walk away from the group. "Hmm, touchy subject," Hanarei mumbled so no one else could hear. For some reason, Hanarei didn't feel bad at poking at Sutako and she was curious why. It must have been more than the whole Seiyami thing. Not sure if Shireika could hear her, Hanarei still called out to her. "Fine, your Highness, I won't call you 'princess' if you don't want me to. Shall I come up with a nwe nickname for your brother as well?"

***

"They don't mind wha...?" Shouki repeated to himself. His face was not losing its, what now seemed to be, permanent shade of red. "But but but I didn't mean to do...." He tried to explain but Hanshin had already left. Out of instinct, Shouki hung his head out of embarrassment. He realized that Hanshin knew him well enough that he wasn't that kind of person. In fact, Hanshin and Naoko probably would have supported the idea.

Kirimon simply smiled at Yuu. "I know," he said to her comment. "I can be such the little demon sometimes, aren't I?"

Shouki heard what Yuu said and quickly shook his head. "No, no, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have reacted too fast like that and should have asked first. Sorry."

"Shouki, stop over reacting. I just did that to see you jump. That's all."

"O-okay." Shouki was still finding it hard to believe that Kirimon was trying to help 'bring out' Shouki's demon or whatever and not just tease him. "Well, now what?" Shouki mumbled to himself. "We still have some time before the meeting."

"I hear the roof is usually vacant if you two want to go there."

"Do you always have to poke fun at me?"

"It's because you're so easy sometimes."

***

"Dark master?" Tomeo said as Tegiwa finished, feeling a little overwhelmed. "Pregenant? Man, what did we get ourselves into? I hope we don't have to suffer the same fate of getting split in two."

He watched Shireika leave, and called after her, "See you soon, then." which was also followed by a respectful, "Bye, Shireika." from Parumon. The two met eyes for a moment as they heard each other, then Parumon glanced away quickly, obviously still pouting.

Tomeo knew they had a reasonable amount of time before the meeting; he figured he'd better use the time to have a little talk with his partner, and see if he couldn't smooth things out with her. "Meeting ajorned, I guess. I'm going to head out after Shireika; anybody want to come with?" he offered, getting up from his seat and hoisting the bag over his shoulder. He noticed Parumon shoot him a look, making Tomeo think twice. "Um, maybe you guys can catch up with us. We'll see you guys soon." He walked out of the classroom, taking a deep breath. So much was happening; he just kept telling himself he had to take it all in moderation, one step at a time. The first was resolving Parumon's issue with him, so they would be ready for anything at the meeting. If he couldn't biomerge, he was just as useless as some cheerleader standing on the sidelines. And if he was useless, he was just as good as dead.

***

"Yeah, we can't trust the Watcher," Tegiwa had a feeling that was the thousand time he'd said those words, "and, we can't count on the exsistant of a single threat. So, we need to stay alert. I'm glad some of us have taken the intiative of smoothing things over with Hanshin's people. We digidestined are about the only things we can count on." He felt doubly guilty though. His conduct had been horrible the last few fights, and he hadn't made any effort to reconcile until today. He had just enough guts to apologize to Shireka. He was clueless on how to apologize to Naoko or Hanshin. "I regret trying to snuff you?" It didn't seem to work. He supposed it could wait. Naoko was occupied protecting Hanshin, and Hanshin wasn't likely to back him in a fight normally so it's not like counting on them was essential. He could make due until he came up with something.

"Hanarei, it's going to be hard to out do her own 'Idiot Boy' but try if you must. 'Your Highness' does seem to suit Shireika better than 'Princess.' 'Princess'makes me think of something pink and wispy. Bleh."

***

"Hanshin, I supose its a good thing that Shouki is showing some interest, but I think I need to have another talk with him. Going around copping cheap feels will just get him labeled a pervert because no girl wants to be handled like that. He needs to be smoother and mean it. Guys who bump into girls just to fondle them and run off really bother me. Especially, the running off bit. I can't stand a tease." She embraced Hanshin and kissed him as they stood in the girl's bath. The room had ineed been unoccupied and Naoko had thrown the bolt to insure their privacy. Not that interruption was likely, since Naoko had started a rumor that wireless cameras had been found in here.

Naoko turned toward the mirror and the sink to gie her face and hair a quick inspection. She went up on tiptoe to look closely as she brushed something out of the corner of her eye. Hanshin grinned wolfishly as he studied the way her backside rose when she bent over then he leaned toward her and kissed the back of her neck

Naoko laughed. "We can get in a little play before the meeting. How would you like it? The stalls maybe?"

"Here's fine. Just stay like that." Hanshin lifted up her skirt from behind and patted her behind. "I see you still like bright colored thongs."

"They are becoming my trademark. I seem to keep losing them." She felt him move the string aside, and she leaned further forward to grasp the sides of the sink. When she lifted her head she could just make out his face in the mirror. "Perfect." She whispered then she gasped as Hanshin began.

Though their encounter was brief, Naoko was tottally enraptured by it. Nothing, no one made her feel the way Hanshin made her feel. She savoured the warm glow.

Naoko left the girl's room a few minutes after Hanshin and hurried back to the classroom so the group could leave with the others. She was still flushed by the time she got back to them. She came in quiet, but smiling and sat next to Yuu. "I hope you don't think badly of Shouki," She whispered.

***

"Dude, that was, uh," Yukio stuttered when Hanshin returned.

"Shut up," Hiroshi interrupted as he smacked the drummer in the head.

"See you at the club," Hanshin said with a grin. He glanced over at Yuu, Shouki, and Naoko. "Come on. We better get going." As he passed Naoko, he reached down and tucked his hand under her chin. He leaned down quickly and kissed her softly on the lips. "Thanks."

***

Shireika stopped in her tracks and turned around quickly, glaring at Hanarei and Tegiwa. This was all getting on her nerves, especially Hanarei. Why was Tegiwa encouraging her? Of all people, at least he would defend her from people like Hanarei.

But, perhaps "Your Highness" was a better way to acknowledge her.

***

Shireika sat by a window on the express transport. Her arms were crossed as she gazed out through the window. The Watcher had requested a location that was far from the busy areas of Tokyo, but it certainly wasn't the most pleasing of neighborhoods. She was glad that there were others with her so she wouldn't have to walk through this place by herself.

As the transport continued its course through Tokyo, the knot in Shireika's stomach seemed to tightened with every minute. The thought of meeting the Watcher made her more and more anxious, and the knowledge that they were actually going to meet him at last seemed almost unreal. And, yet, all she wanted to do was tell the guy off. She didn't care whether he was in contact with the Fates or not. No, he had pitted them all against each other, forced them to fight each other for a stupid key.

She fiddled with the key that hung on a chain around her neck. This stupid key. If she could destroy it, she would, but the thing was indestructible and unbreakable. If she could put it back into fragments, she would. However, that just wasn't possible.

She sighed as she tucked the key back inside her school uniform shirt. The Watcher hopefully wouldn't know that she was the one who held the key itself. The others wouldn't give it away, would they?

The transport was nearing their stop, and Shireika got up and shuffled to the doors to exit the vehicle.

"Come on," she said to the others while she adjusted the bags that hung across her body. "This is our stop." She stepped onto to the boarding platform when the doors opened and waited for the others to join her. Now it was down to minutes before their meetings with the Watcher.

***

Hanshin parked his car near the transport station. It would be easiest to find it here again, and he knew that Shireika and some of the others had taken the train with her. So, they could all walk back together. It didn't seem like the greatest of neighborhoods, which made him worried. He knew Shireika could take care of herself, but it made him worried nonetheless.

"We're here," he said as he grabbed his backpack from next to him. He took a glance at his digivice. "And so are the others. We should start heading over to the location so we all arrive at about the same time." He opened his car door and stepped out, while pulling his backpack onto his shoulders.

He was nervous about this, and yet he was also curious. He wanted to know who the Watcher was. Maybe this person was on their side. Maybe he really was working for the Fates. Then, everything was fine, and they just had to wait for the dark queen to show up. Not like how Shireika saw it. And, yet, something also told him that there was something wrong about all of this. Perhaps Shireika was right about this. Maybe the Watcher was the real bad guy. The only way to resolve this was to get more information. This would settle things once and for all.

***

Hanarei watched as Tomeo and Shireika left the room. "I guess that's my cue to get ready as well," she said. Himotomon jumped into the bag before Hanarei picked it up. "See you soon," she said as she waved her hand once to say goodbye.

Hanarei walked out of the classroom and went to pick up a few things from her locker. As she walked down the hallway, she saw Enma sitting down with Mitikomomon eatting lunch. Hanarei walked past Enma without looking at her but stopped several steps ahead of Enma. Without turning her head, Hanarei started to talk to Enma. "We're going to see the Watcher now," she said. "It'd be a shame to miss out on it, don't you think? Besides, the Watcher could be some perverted old man or something powerful. Either way, we're probably gonna pound the guy and we could use the extra force. Last time I checked, you had a pretty hard punch." She turned her head slightly to look at Enma out of the corner of Hanarei's eye. She was smiling mischieviously at Enma. "So why don't you come along? Could be fun working together for a change."

***

Hanarei held on to one of the poles in the express transport. Himotomon stayed secure in bag Hanarei was carrying and peeked out every now and then at the passing scenary. The digimon laughed when Hanarei pointed out a businessman who was asleep and drooling on his suit.

When Shireika mentioned this stop was the spot, Hanarei mumbled a quiet, "Finally." Hanarei and Himotomon stepped off of the transport and Hanarei stretched her body out. "Gotta get good and ready for when we meet the Watcher. First, I'd like to introduce him to ol' lefty here." She held up a fist. "Hmp, you'd think he'd pick a better spot than this to meet at."

***

Somehow or another, Shouki ended up getting the back middle seat with Kirimon in his lap. He couldn't get out of the car until the others did but Kirimon seemed to have another idea in mind.

"Hey Shouki," said Kirimon. "Since you're in the middle like this, I want you to try something cool."

"Um, like what?"

"Sit up on the back seat and roll out of the car."

"What?! But I could get hurt."

"Pfft, like a scratch. You're suppose to try new things every now and then, right? Well, here's one." Shouki was a little hesistant but glanced at the part of the car behind. Slowly, he sat up and sat down on the top of the seat. "Good," Kirimon continued. "Next put me down so I don't makwe you off balanced." Shouki did. "And now lean back into a roll and land on your feet." Shouki hesistated again but longer this time. He made several back and forth motions without doing anything. Finally, he leaned back and rolled off the trunk of the car. His feet touched the ground but he landed off balanced. Trying to save himself, he waved his arms around but he ended up falling down into a sitting position. "Very good," said Kirimon. "You almost had it that time."

"Um, thanks," said Shouki as he rubbed the part where he landed. "Just don't ask me to do that again for awhile." He stood up and Kirimon floated into his arms.

"Well, let's get going as soon as the others are here and stop the suspense," exclaimed Kirimon.

***

If there was one inanimate object Asaykae could honestly say she hated with every fibre of her being, it would be the train. It made her queasy, it wasn't all that clean, and the majority of the men who decided to grace it with their presence were rather skeevy. However, she'd decided she'd rather feel gross for a little while than get herself carjacked in her hover-Vette; this neighbourhood didn't exactly scream 'Let's be friends!'. She was rather thankful when the train shuddered to a stop, and Shireika announced that they needed to get off. Carefully picking up her little drawstring bag from the seat beside her, so as not to give Rogishimon a concussion or anything, she made her way off of the train as fast as she could and stood as close to Hanarei as possible.

It wasn't really the neighbourhood that bothered her; it was where they were here for that was making her so nervous. The only reason she'd been opposed to believing anything The Watcher had ever told them was based on the fact that, first, he was spying on them; second, they didn't know who or what he was, or even if he was an actual 'he'; third, Asayake didn't trust him as far as she could throw a 300-pound sumo wrestler. Her grip on her little bag tightened slightly as she tried to calm herself down. She was being silly, really; she was probably worrying about nothing. Nothing would happen; they'd be home in no time.

...Right?

***

"Parumon, we need to talk."

Tomeo set down his bag on a table in the lunch area outside, just after he had left the classroom. The area seemed to be vacant for the moment, so he assumed it would be safe to talk to the digimon in his bag for just a couple of minutes. He unzipped his bag, allowing his partner to emerge her head from the zipper.

Parumon made an annoyed sigh. "What do you want?"

"That right there, that's what I want to talk about." Tomeo indicated at Parumon's behavior. "You've been ignorant and distant to me all week since the last battle we had. What's the problem?"

"You should know." the In-Training snorted defiantly.

"How would I know unless I'm asking?" the boy answered back. "I can’t read your mind no matter how angry you become. I could take a pot-shot at what it is like I did yesterday, but I'm afraid you'll stop talking to me again."

"Fine. I'll tell you." Parumon said at last, looking her partner in the eye. "During the whole battle we had the chance to biomerge. After you stupidly risked yourself talking to Haganemon, you forgot about him and went to chat to Asayake. I mean, don't I matter to you? I'm fighting tooth and claw against the likes of Shinzuimon and Isoramon, and you run off to check if Asayake has any boo-boos? And then there was Shouki. Don't get me started on him."

"Is that all this has been about? You've been jealous of me giving other people attention?" Parumon looked away, as if she was almost ashamed, but Tomeo continued. "First of all, Haganemon didn't have an opponent to match his power. He was going to do something to hurt someone weaker than him, so I had to take the sacrifice of distracting him and give someone else the chance to biomerge. It's lucky he felt like talking, otherwise I would have been mince-meat. Secondly, Asayake didn't get hurt - I think, thank god, but she needed me. She needed someone to support her. She - "

"You love her, don't you?" Parumon said boldly, interrupting. "You spent so much time with her, holding her close to you, looking into her eyes... and then there was just now. You walked over and said something to her when she was acting all weird."

"Stop it," Tomeo said, feeling bashful as he turned away, burning a bright red blush across his face. “I don’t… Asayake is my friend. Friends look out for each other. She was in some kind of shock and I just looked after her until she was okay. Saying I love her is about as tangible as you saying I loved Hanarei or Shireika, Enma, Naoko or Yuu. Just because she’s a girl doesn’t mean I have immediate affection for her…” He sighed, feeling like he was losing a reasonable excuse to defend himself. “Okay, I didn’t want to have to tell you this. It’s private, so I don’t want you to go blab it to everybody, okay? I think Asayake has some sort of problem. Like, I don’t know, she has her demons, like she said in the battle. I couldn’t really pick up what it was… she said something about saving a friend from being abducted… but I think it’s been haunting her. And she shows it in her body language from time to time, like she’s going to throw up or something like she did in the apartment. I just… I’m just concerned for her welfare, that’s all. I don’t like seeing her like that, and I was worried.” Parumon didn’t say anything for a while, a look of guilt crossing her face as she realized Tomeo was being serious. Tomeo picked her up gently and looked her in her little yellow eyes. “Listen. I was just looking out for other people in that battle. Asayake wasn’t the only one. Shouki broke down too, and I felt inhumane if I didn’t do anything. The reason I stopped trying to biomerge is not because I don’t care about you – you’re important to me, Parumon. You are the strongest digimon that I know. You fought for yourself so brilliantly, taking down Kaishimon and Tetsumon in the battle before, that I thought you didn’t need me to look over your shoulder anymore. But obviously, I was wrong. You’re such a powerful little girl, and yet you still need someone to look out for you – don’t you?” He didn’t know why, but his eyes were welling up as he smiled.

Parumon couldn’t be angry at him anymore. Her resentment and guilt had faded and gone, replaced by regret and forgiveness. She felt touched. “I’m not good at this mushy stuff, but… like, I’m sorry, and all, okay? When I overheard you say you believed in me to Hanshin, I should’ve… well, I should have believed in you, too. I shouldn’t have doubted you.”

“Trust is the basis of all relationships, right? You just have to trust me, Parumon… whether you like it or not.” Tomeo chuckled lightly, bringing Parumon forward into a hug. “That was very big of you to say, and I’m proud of you. Now, you’ll promise not to tell anyone about Asayake, right?”

“I promise. Stupid boy…” Parumon sniffled. “Now look what you’ve made me done, getting all teary and stuff… this can’t be good for my image. Hitomomon was right; I can be a crybaby.”

“Screw what other people think of you. You are what you think you are, and that’s what counts.” Tomeo told her, standing up and grabbing his bag. “Now, let’s go join the others.”

***

The ride in the transportation in the others felt quiet. Not that Tomeo didn’t want to talk to anyone, but he was getting the feeling from everyone that they were nervous in some kind of way because none of them knew what they were getting into. This was, after all, the Watcher they were meeting, the guy who had been antagonizing them all the past few months behind his cryptic e-mails. He almost wished he could have ordered snipers to standby on the roof and target the Watcher when he appeared, but that wasn’t reality.

After Hanarei laughed at the business suit guy sleeping, he felt he should further break the silence by talking straight tactics, so he could spare everyone’s feelings from being nervous. He felt like he had to talk anyway or he’d go nuts, because it wasn’t like all of them to silent. He looked at Shireika subconsciously, thinking about the key. She had decided to bring it along with her, which was a risk considering that nobody here was going to hear him out. But he knew Hanshin and the others did… maybe Shireika wanted to give them that option out of fairness. Unless the Watcher had been watching after the last battle, if the Watcher knew Shireika had the key, she would be the prime target.

“I think when we get there, we’d better not mention anything about the key, or any piece of information that could give him the advantage.” He started in a low tone, so that no-one else could hear him outside the group. He cupped one hand in the other nervously, then separated them to shake the feeling away. “We’ll test to see what the Watcher knows… figure out just how much and at what level he’s been watching us. If he asks for it, we’ll just say that we don’t want anything to do this, and this has all been a big mistake. He’ll try to convince us, but we can just tell him to bugger off and leave us alone, and then we’ll leave.”

The transportation stopped, and he got out, standing always a few steps away from the group as he scanned around for signs of any trouble. No-one had replied to him yet, so he assumed that everyone felt the same as he did. He was concerned that Tegiwa could pull a wild card and do something unpredictable like he did last time – but he knew he wouldn’t do anything directly to hurt or endanger Shireika. He was more worried that someone in Hanshin’s group would mention Shireika having the key. She would have everyone there to back her up, but he didn’t know how quick to react the Watcher would when he found out – or even if he would react then and not later when no-one was suspecting it.

Tomeo did feel curious about the Watcher’s intentions, maybe enough to hear him out. But he definitely didn’t trust him. Something about meeting them in a derelict part of Tokyo seemed a bit suspicious maybe even dangerous. Something was going to go down, and they’d have to be as ready now as they ever would be.

***

Enma looked up at Hanarei as she walked by. She looked back down to pick up the last strawberry when Hanarei spoke to her. "It would be interesting to see how we'd work together." She said, with a chuckle. She broke the strawberry in half and gave some to Mitikomomon, before putting her bento box back into her bag. She stood and started to walk outside slightly behind Hanarei.

***

Enma looked around. "This is where we're supposed to meet the Watcher? It's so...bad cop movie dirty." she said, making a face. Her backpack shifted.

"I wanna see!" Mitikomomon begged.

Enma rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that'd go over well; I'd really not get mugged because I was holding a powder blue stuffed...head."

"You might not; I'm a fierce powder blue stuffed - hey!" Mitikomomon fell into the recesses of the bag, pouting. Enma checked her watch and looked around.

"If the Watcher's late, I'm going to have to strangle him; I didn't tell Mother-dearest about this little adventure - she thinks I'm at a study session." She snickered to herself, before leaning on a wall, eyeing her surroundings.

***

Tegiwa followed Shireika out. Maybe, he shouldn't have said that to Hanarei. Shireika was running low on sense of humor these days. Well, it wouldn't do to get on Hanarei's case every time she opened her mouth; it was best to treat her sarcasm as a joke rather than an insult. Besides, the girl was making progress patching up relations with Enma. She wasn't all bad. Now, if only she'd lighten up a bit on her own group.

***

Tegiwa looked out the window of the train. "I don't think i've ever made it this far into the city." The dingy walls of the builds that flew by matched perfectly the discoloured and graffti covered walls of th mass transport system. If the subway were the best way to reach this place it must be in a very old, very bad section of Tokyo. He stuck to the pod system whenever possible. Last place he had seen scenery like this it was in a terrible gang movie; or maybe, he swallowed, Demon City, Live Action.

He tied to sound cheerful. "C'mon guys. If it were as bad as it looks the train wouldn't stop here. It'd just slow down enough to let us jump off." It did stop, right?

He took Robotmon out of his bag and exited the train with Shireika.

"Tegiwa, you realize you only take me out for battles?"

"Yeah, dude, but let's hope that doesn't hapen tonight."

***

Naoko sat in the back seat with her arm absentmindedly around Shouki. "I guess urban renewal is out of vogue here, huh? Everything is so 1980's even the litter."

She looked around uneasily. Take-out places refused to come to this part of town. She wondered why Hanshin had brought the cool car to this meeting.

"'Anshin anata, you I'd give my life for you right? Do anything for you right? Never refuse any request? Well, here's some quick advice: Don't ask me to sit in the car and guard it while we are in this neighbor, so i won't have to say that word i never say to you."

She settled back for the rest of the trip. To many questions....no answers. Things were not aligning to calm her unease

She managed to smile when Shouki fliped out of the car. Between herself and Kiramon Shouki would be drug out of his shell yet. "Shouki, we need to get together again after the concert, ot before if there is time. It's been awhile.

***

Yuu had just finished up her lunch when Naoko had sat down and addressed her. "Hm?" she replied, wondering for a moment what she was talking about. Then she remembered. "Oh! Oh no, he wasn't... he just dropped his book by accident, and Kirimon decided to make a joke of it. It wasn't anything like.. like that." Of course, she still turned a little pink about it.

***

Finally, Hanshin's car arrived at the place the Watcher had designated. As Hanshin picked up the bag Yuu had been holding for him, she looked around at the area they had landed in. It wasn't really the best of neighborhoods, and that made her uneasy. She knew that Niigata must have had places like this, but she had never been in them. She felt distinctly out of place.

Her mood was saved slightly as she got out of the car and caught Shouki's acrobatic exit. She managed a giggle; he was certainly far from the rock star type. As Hanshin set off, she reached back into the car for her own bag and prodded it lightly. "Kuinamon, wake up, we're here"

A birdish yawn came from the bag and the digimon popped his head out. "We are? Hoo, finally" he murmured, rubbing an eye with his fin, "A' last we get t' meet th's Watcher fella."

"Yeah," she replied softly, setting out after Hanshin and the others, "I guess we do."

***

"Whatever happens will happen," Shireika said as she exited the transport station to head to the specific location for meeting the Watcher. "The Watcher wants to show us the location of the door that matches this key, and that's it. We can question who he is when he shows up. Otherwise, we really don't have much to worry about. We are the ones with what he wants, and he's far outnumbered if he wants a fight." She seemed to have calmed down a little, but her tone was serious. "We'll show him that we're a force that he does not want to cross."

***

"You'd think I would leave you alone out here?" Hanshin asked as he put an arm around Naoko. He leaned closer to her ear. His hand trailed down from her shoulder following the curve of her waist back to her rear, as he whispered softly. "If you were spending time with me, do you think I would ever leave you alone anywhere?" He gave her a sharp spank as he continued down the street. "And you know what else we'd be doing." He winked as he walked ahead of the group. He'd have to ask her for a retuning before the concert.

***

"Where the hell is he?" Shireika mumbled under her breath. They had been waiting at the location for maybe fifteen minutes, a very awkward fifteen minutes. She crossed her arms as she looked around. Everyone was tense with anxiety for the arrival of the Watcher.

"Maybe he forgot," Hanshin replied.

"I'll personally strangle the guy," his twin sister retorted immediately.

"He said he was going to show us how to use the key, so he'll be here. He wouldn't let us down, considering he's working with the Fates."

"Lies," she whispered mostly to herself.

"Fine, we don't know for sure, but at least give him the benefit of the doubt. That fact that he sought us out means he knows something, so maybe he really is an agent for the Fates."

Shireika grumbled something about the idiocity of her twin brother, questioning how they could possibly be related at all. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a figure walking towards them from the shadows of a building.

"Fashionably late," she said softly.

He wore a long black coat which hung down to his knees. The rest of clothing, or at least what could be seen of it, was also black: black slacks, black button-down shirt, black tie, and black shoes. His face was hidden by the shadows of the building.

Shireika swore that this was incredibly cheesy and so ridiculous. Of course, the Watcher would show up in all-black. She predicted that the guy was some normal guy from Tokyo who had managed to sneak into Matsuro's library, discovering all their identities. The guy probably also worked for some computer or internet corporation; thus, he was able to do a little research to contact them. Or, it was all some stupid hoax by someone they all knew. She and the others would show this guy what he had gotten himself involved with.

As for Hanshin, he was relieved that the Watcher had finally made his appearance for the meeting. However, the moment he laid eyes on the man, something in his heart told him something wasn't right. It was a sense of dread, hatred and fear. It was a familiar feeling, but he couldn't remember when or where he had felt it before. And, yet, he also wanted to know who the Watcher was. Here was the man who knew about their destinies and who would lead them all to their greatness and glory and digi-destined.

"I see you've all made it," the Watcher said, as he finally stepped out of the shadows so the afternoon sunshine shone on his face. "It is nice to see you all, again."

"Tsuyoikou Sensei?" Shireika whispered. She closed her eyes and reopened them, just to make sure this all wasn't just some crazy dream. But, sure enough, it was Kousei. That dark brown hair, those brown eyes, that face. But, why? How was this possible?

"What the hell?" Hanshin shouted angrily. "There is no fucking way that you could be him! No way!"

"Him? You mean the Watcher?" Kousei replied with a grin.

Hanshin was stupefied. This couldn't be possible. This ordinary, dipshit pervert who chased after high school skirts, including his sister's, was the Watcher? It could not be possible that the Fates would associate with this guy. He wasn't anything more than just some stupid soccer coach who now had a job thanks to his father's clout as president of a major corporation. So, why the hell were the Fates giving him information about the digi-destined?

***

Shouki held on to Kirimon almost like a teddy bear as his eyes kept darting back and forth around all of them. Periodically Kirimon had to tap Shouki in order for him to loosen his grip on the ghost cat.

Hanarei was tapping her foot impatiently while the group waited for the Watcher. She checked her watch to see what time it was. "Figures that this guy is late," she said. "Probably just wanted us to get here before he does so we don't jump him or something." She glanced over at Shouki. "Oh don't worry. If he was going to kill us, he would have done so already."

"That's not a very comforting thought," Shouki replied.

"She has a point you know," said Kirimon.

"Please don't start," said Shouki.

"Will you three be quiet," Himotomon interuppted. "Someone's coming." Everyone's head turned in the direction Himotomon pointed to.

As the Watcher came closer, Kirimon and Hanarei both agreed with Shireika. "Corny," they both mumbled. But when the Watcher showed who he was, Hanarei and Shouki had to do a double take. "What a second. You're Him?" Shouki asked feeling completely baffled.

Hanarei was shocked too. She was ready to pound a stranger into the ground, but this? She figured there had to be a mistake. "No way some... idiot like you could be the Watcher!"

"Well, you've heard of the phrase 'expect the unexpected,' right?" Shouki added.

Hanarei stared at Shouki for a moment in silence. "Are you always a downer?" she said. She turned her attention back to Kousei. "Figures. Only my dad would hire some crazy guy with ties to a possible dark entity for a teaching job although that may explain a few people at school." Even though this was a serious moment, Hanarei couldn't help snicker at a certain thought. "Everyone's thinking it, I'm just saying it; the Dark Substitute has emerged," Hanarei giggled.

***

As soon as the Watecher began to emerge from the shadows, Asayake felt gooseflesh prickle to life across the skin on her arms. Now, however, it felt as if it was almost coverng her entire body. Her hold on her bag tightened so dramatically that Rogishimon gave a squawk, and poked her head out of the bag.

"'Sayake, ouch! What-?" Whatever Rogishimon was going to say had drifted off at the strange look on Asayake's face; it was a mixture of fear, surprise, and rising anger. Rogishimon swiveled her head, and realized why. The Watcher was a teacher at Asayake's school. Asakaye had called what he did being a sustiboot, or something. "Asayake?" The little bird cooed. Asayake instantly snapped out of her little trance.

"Kousei. You ignorant fuck!" Asayake shouted, glaring daggers at him, "You know, you could've saved us a whole lot of animosity if you'd had the balls to tell us who you were, um, oh, I dunno, AGES AGO?! Do you have any idea what's been happening?! Were you aware that, entirely because of you, we've been divided since you first told us about that God-damned key!? Had it ever occured to you that we might've been a whole lot less sneaky and underhanded -- which, by the way, I now abhor you for -- had you just come out and told us who you were, what you wanted the key for, and answered our fucking questions?! Or has skirt-chasing occupied too much of your brain to allow for intelligent conversation?!" Breathing heavily, Asayake simply stared at Kousei; if looks could kill, the sub-turned-Watcher would've died about five minutes earlier. "AND HOW THE FUCK DID YOU GET INTO MY ROOM, YOU PSYCHOPATHIC PERVERT?!"

***

It had been fifteen minutes, and Tomeo paced around with Parumon curled around his shoulders so she could see who the Watcher was for herself. Everyone was getting impatient, and if it took any longer he thought his nerves would get to him. To think, the Watcher was endangering them all in this part of town, the guy should have a watch so he'd know when to turn up on time. Unless he was really a coward, or had lured them all into a trap...

He turned around when he heard sounds of the others spotting the Watcher, and waited until his face loomed out of the shadows. Yes, the Watcher had been a male all of this time... but Sensai Kousei? He wasn't expecting the Watcher to be anyone he knew. He felt surprised, and couldn't recollect any thoughts of how he felt from being so shocked.

"Well well, look who it is..." Parumon called out loud, after she too had registered surprise on her face. "Why, it's Shireika's little stalker friend! Couldn't get enough of her, so you decided to take up this sick little charade of pretending to be someone who could help her as a digidestined? You're no seer. You're just a love-sick little kid in clothes too big and too black for you. Pathetic."

Tomeo didn't say anything to stop Parumon this time, his eyes narrowing at Kousei as he remained silent. He didn't feel any sudden anger like he could hear the others say, but the Watcher had been the one who had been deceiving them the whole time. And the fact that he had been using his alias as a teacher to spy on them... that made him even more deceitful. In fact, now that he thought about it, his obvious attraction to Shireika had probably been an act all along. Why would he - ? No, there was no possible way he could know that Shireika would end up getting the key. She had to have been chosen for a reason for the ends of his means, though, out of all of the girls. No matter the reason, his infatuation for Shireika was now more dangerous than ever.

When Asayake had finished, he couldn't believe her hatred towards Kousei; this was a side of her he had never seen before on this scale, and he didn't dare try to calm her down right now. But she was right, he didn't realise it until now, but the Watcher had informed them all about being digidestined. Could he have been the one distributing all the digimon to them, via the Fates? The thought that he had been in Asayake's room, maybe even while she was asleep, suddenly sparked renewed distaste and hatred in him. And the thought he had been in everyone's place and wondering around, doing whatever the arrogant bastard wanted to do, made him even madder. But no-one had asked the question yet. He calmed down, unclenching his teeth as he though about it. They hadn't looked past their emotions. No-one had thought of asking the obvious.

"Kousei... why? Explain yourself." he finally said, in a calm but cold and threatening tone, clenching his fists tightly against his side.

***

Enma had closed her eyes while she was waiting for the Watcher to finally show up. She heard a commotion and a vaguely familiar voice. She didn't open her eyes, however, until she heard Hanarei's crack about a 'dark subsitute'. She looked around, slightly dazed for a moment, before her eyes focused on Kousei.

"Oh...it's you." She said, shifting her bag onto her other shoulder. "I always knew there was something wrong with you." She said, her eyes narrowing. "You've always seemed the stalker type, but this just proves it - man, stalking a group of teenagers...you realize that if someone just makes one teeny tiny phone call you'll never work with kids again?"

"I don't think he cares Enma." Muttered Mitikomomon.

***

Naoko's eyes lit up when Kousei was revealed in the light. "Hot damn! The Watcher /is/ a cutie. I knew I picked the right side."

Suzumon look at her. "You'd be on a side without Hanshin?"

"No, of course not. I knew the side where Hanshin was would be forever blessed though."

***

Tegiwa was exasperated by the other's comments. All this really told them is they had no idea who Kousei was or who The Watcher was. They were both roles this guy was playing. He knew that no matter how close a normal person followed them or how much money that person had No one could know what the watcher seemed to know without being up to his ears in the Digtal World and the Fates. The Fates used people as well; his mother had told him. All the appearence of Kousei did was create more problems.

He whispered to Shireika. "I wonder if he is another Child of Fate. He'd be too young to be before your Grandfather...Could there be a digidestined group between us and our parents?"

One of those problems was he liked to hit on Shireika. Another was Shireika didn't seem to be as adverse to the idea as she let on. How was he going to compete with a guy like this. Vexing...

"Um, Kousei-san, two things: was all this BS like really necessary? And, do we call you Coach Watcher?"

***

"Maybe," Shireika replied softly. "Who knows. He's the one who has the answers."

"I knew you had divided up, but the Fates didn't tell me anything to do about it except that you guys would find those key fragments," Kousei replied to the group. He glanced towards Asayake. "I have never been anywhere near your home, let alone your room. I don't even know where you live. The Fates merely told me that if I contacted the digi-destined, the key would be recovered." He looked around the group. "Fighting was never the intention. I only did what the Fates advised me to do. They gave me the information."

"I don't believe this bullshit!" interrupted Hanshin as he began to step forward towards Kousei, ready to pound the guy.

"Let him speak, Hanshin," Shireika said as she grabbed her brother by the arm.

"You knew that my sister and I would fight over anything and everything because you were one of the soccer coaches," Hanshin spat as Shireika pushed him back a little. "You knew that she and I wouldn't agree on this because we fight about almost anything, and you used that as a fuel for us to divide and become more determined to retrieve that key. And I bet you were hoping that if you got Shireika to like you, she'd convince us to give you that damn key. Don't deny it. You've been chasing after her ever since you arrived at Tokyo Academy this year, using her for your little plans. Isn't that it?"

Kousei stood in silence as Hanshin made the final cut at him.

"Well?" Hanshin demanded, but the former substitute teacher and coach wasn't answering. "So, all this time, you've been after this key. Someone told you that the key was connected to some great power, and you are just some power-hungry scum. You come from that kind of family: wealthy, powerful, and manipulative. You'll do anything for more, and this, this was just the thing to put you above the rest. And somehow, somehow, you managed to figure out how to use all of us in your dirty little plan. So, get the hell out of here, or do we have to beat it into you that we're not people you should want to "

"Hanshin," Shireika said.

"Oh come on, Shireika! He's been chasing your skirt since the beginning of soccer season. I bet he's always known that you were a digi-destined, so he knew that you would be useful to him. He's just using you, just like the rest of us. He has pitted us against each other, and, well, it managed to get the key fragments. In fact, he was able to collect two in one night that way."

"Shut the fuck up, Hanshin," Kousei ordered coldly. "I have no reason to explain anything to people like you, since you have no desire to listen to me. You won't believe a word I'll say, so maybe I should go?"

Shireika smacked Hanshin in the arm.

"You really are an idiot," she grumbled.

***

Hanarei was gritting her teeth over a thought that had been gnawing at her. Ever since the digimon came, Hanarei's been able to find out more about something possibly relating to her with all these images coming to her. And to get these images, Hanarei had to fight to get more. If the Watcher left now, Hanarei thought that would be the end of things and she wouldn't know what the final piece to her mental puzzle was. The Watcher would have left without explaining anything, leaving this whole mess a mystery.

Feeling as though she should have been the last person to do so, Hanarei raised her hand to Kousei. "Wait," she mumbled. "You're not going anywhere. We'll listen to you explain once, patiently." She glanced over at Hanshin. "But if we don't like what we hear and we think you've left something out, rest assured that at least five of us will be ready to jump down your throat and pull it out to get a straight answer from you."

***

Shouki heard what Hanshin had said about Kousei and was shocked. "Wait, what's the age difference here?" Kirimon asked.

"From Hanshin's tone, I'd have to say Kousei's too old for him to be okay with it," Shouki answered. Shouki now turned to Kousei and stepped closer, having gotten over his shock. "Please tell us Wa-, I mean, Kousei. We went through a lot of trouble to get the key pieces and everything and we just want to find out what it was all for."

***

"You heard us. Explain yourself." Tomeo said again, eyeing Kousei shrewdly. He was almost relieved from what Kousei had said to Asayake, but he couldn't tell if it was truth or not. He wasalmost ready to pound the Watcher himself along with Hanshin, but Kousei couldn't give them any information if he was beaten unconcious. From the way he talked to Hanshin, he didn't like his tone, but he wasn't surprised by the way Hanshin had reacted. "After all the cryptic messages you sent us, you've got a lot of explaining to do. Don't expect you're going to walk out on us, not now that we know who you are, and not since we've come this far. True, we all have our reasons not to trust you, but we'll be the judges of that, not you. If you be honest and give us facts only, then we might let you walk out of here without shoving your fucking arm up your arse. So start talking. Now."

"Spill the beans." Parumon added in from Tomeo's shoulders. "And if you want to give us more silent treatment, bucko, then we'll just have to beat it out of you, and how you contact these 'Fates' of yours. We have good reason to give those all-mighty god-wannabes a piece of our minds, after having almost killed each other, thanks to your e-mails that seperated us."

He was willing to judge what the Watcher had to say, but that didn't mean that Tomeo could trust the Watcher any more than he ever had. The way he hadn't answered Hanshin's question when he was confronted Shireika - he would have said something if it wasn't the truth. It was obvious that Kousei had gone after Shireika with for some reason, at least. Whether his intentions were true or not, Tomeo doubted it, but what mattered most was that they got some information they could check out and act upon.

"Go on. We'll listen. But don't expect us to hang on every word you say. We weren't born yesterday." Tomeo warned, his body tensing up. "And you'll live to regret your mistake if we've found out you've been lying to us."

***

Tegiwa was trembling. Everything seemed out of whack to him. "Kousei, if you leave now will you promise to never come back and to leave Shireika alone, man....Didn't think so. I'll hear you out as well, but so far all we've have had from you is words, and we need way more than more chatter. We don't trust you at all dude, so can you give us a reason to? Something to hang our hats on? I /so/ don't think an endorment by Fate, Inc. will play well either."

What was Tegiwa thinking? Did he expect Kousei to pull out some sort of galactic defender license? A receipt for the Digimon? Still Kousei had to do something to prove his goodwill; Tegiwa had no idea what it would be. Maybe, Kousei was just a person caught up by the fates like the rest of them. Perhaps the group's suspicions had caused all the fighting alone. He felt stupid.

"Tell us how you got invlved in all this. Then tell us what you want with us and what you want with Shireika?"

***

Naoko shook her head. "I don't know about the rest of it, but it is obvious to me he was chasing Shireika because he had hard-on for her. And, he must have liked her alot because he kept trying little things al year. If he just wanted a girl, well, there's no shortage of us at the school who would have had him in an instant. But, no, only Shireika was good enough. He must really like her because under that cool attitude I could see him trembling. And, shesh, guys he's only a four years older at most. He was using a fake id less than a year ago [note: for drinking, kousei seems 21-22 to me]. Of course, I'd never let him near my sister either..."

Suzumon spoke up: "Yeah, lets not confuse one thing with the other. Let's calm down. Naoko isn't being bitter, and she got turned down flat by him twice."

Naoko blanched, "Suzu, that has nothing to do with anything either."

***

"Right," Asayake growled quietly, mostly to herself, "So Rogishimon and my digivice just popped into my room like magic." She straightened up, and pinned Kousei with the best glare she could muster. "The Fates can go fuck themselves at this point, Kousei. You're the one who got us all mixed up into this, you're the one who's been trying to pull the strings backstage, and you're the one who needs to spill. First off, here's a question; who do you work for? And another; who is this dark queen person, and why do we have to fight her? And don't give me some bullshit answer about justice and saving the world; we're not the Justice League, or some comic book super-group. Third, what is the key for? Does it open a door, a box, or is it something totally different? What does it do?"

***

As the black-clothed figure of the man who was evidently the Watcher came into the afternoon light, Yuu simply stared.

He sure looked awfully familiar.

It wasn't until Shireika mentioned the name "Tsuyoikou-sensei" and Hanarei made her quip about the dark substitute that Yuu remembered. She had seen him before at school -- he was a substitute teacher. He was the Watcher?

She tried to stay out of the exchange, but when Hanshin began making threats she felt like she had to do something. Stepping forward, she placed a hand very lightly on his arm and said "Hanshin-san, I think we need to hear what he has to say." Then she turned to face the Watcher directly, her expression resolute. "I think we have the right to know just what we've been fighting for these past months" she said. "Please, Tsuyoikou-sensei"

***

"What I wanted was the key," Kousei admitted. "The Fates contacted me first and told me that if I wanted to find the key, I needed to get you guys to do it. They told me that the fragments were under the protection of the former digi-destined, but a certain group of students at Tokyo Academy would be the ones who could find them for me. Your receiving the digimon and digivices were a doing of the Fates - I had no part in it. They told me what to write and tell you. You know as much as I do about the dark queen, but all I wanted was that key." He looked towards Shireika. "And, then I met you." Beautiful, strong, intelligent - he couldn't say that aloud. He wanted to. "I thought that maybe I could use you somehow. If I got you to trust me, then you'd try to get them to grant me the key. You were different from the others." He left out the part that he actually ended up falling for her in the process. She wasn't like the other girls and women he knew. After a while, it wasn't an act. It began to feel so natural: leaving her those roses, checking up on her, talking with her. "And, then, eventually, I emailed all of you, basically relaying the message that the Fates had given me. You know what happened next."

"You piece of shit," Hanshin spat as Kousei. "After the key and its power all for your own purposes. I still don't believe that crap that the Fates contacted you and how you don't know about that dark queen. Whatever the case is, you're still full of shit. So, now you can go and leave us alone. We don't need you and your lies."

Kousei turned away from most of the group to head back in the direction he had come from. Before he began to walk away, he glanced back towards Shireika. She looked hurt, and, yet, her eyes seemed to beg him for more information. She seemed to know that there was more to this story than he had told them, but Kousei wasn't going to tell them. It would only cause more anger and hatred; this was not the place or the time to tell them.

They were angry because of the fighting that had occurred. However, Kousei had no idea exactly how he had been the cause of so many problems with the group. All he had done was what the Fates had told him to do, and he told them that. He told them that he only did what the Fates told him to do if he wanted that key, but only they had the power to decide if they wanted to believe him about that. The books of prophecy wouldn't tell them about the role the Fates play in anything. The Fates had a way of getting their hands in everything, but their involvement was never mentioned.

"If you don't want to believe, do a little research," Kousei said softly before he finally left the location.

"The fucker," Hanshin grumbled. "The bastard."

"We still don't even know why he wanted the key," Shireika said.

***

"Wait, that's it?!" Hanarei shouted at Kousei even after he left. "He dragged us all the way out here to tell us that?! He could have saved us a lot of trouble by telling us all of this maybe, I don't know, several months ago! I don't know what kind of role he hoped to play in all of this but from what I can tell he did squat. I can't believe he even expected us to hand over the key to some... #&($&#(%&=!"#"$ stranger!"

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm in favor of pounding the creep into a pile of twitching flesh the next time I see him. Anyone who wants to join in, raise your hand." Hanarei and Himotomon raised their hands or in Himotomon's case, body.

***

Shouki didn't raise his hand at Hanarei's request by Kirimon raised his tail. "Kirimon," Shouki moaned."

"What? You know how I like fights every now and then. I might be a bit one sided against him but I could stay in this form to make it fair."

"That's not what I'm getting at." Shouki looked back to where Kousei walked off to. "Hmm, I wonder what was with the last look he gave us?" Shouki mumbled. He turned back to the group. "I don't mean to support him or anything, but he did kinda give us a hint on what to do next. Maybe we should do a bit of research on this and everything. We may come up with something or completely prove him wrong."

***

"Most likely, he wanted the key for power." Tomeo answered Shireika, watching Kousei walk away. "I mean, the key unlocks an evil power, what more can you do with it? The Fates thought they could trust him with the information, but obviously they picked the wrong guy and he manipulated the opportunity given to him. Or maybe they picked the right guy because they knew he lusted for power, and the Fates knew they could tempt him into contacting us. Either way, the way things have gone didn't plan out for Kousei, which is why he hasn't shown us where the keyhole is. I don't think this has changed anything - if anything, we've learned who the Watcher's identity is, and that the key is safe from him. We know indefinitely now that he’s not going to give us any answers easily – I vote with Shouki. We need to hit whatever books talk about this so-called prophecy if we’re ever going to get some solid answers, or at least something which contradicts something Kousei said. I’m a little curious to see the texts, myself.” He looked back at where Kousei had left, anger fading away to brainstorming. There was something else in his voice he could tell that Kousei wasn’t telling them, like he was suppressing something back… he still didn’t trust him. The way he had spoken and looked at Shireika… or maybe he thought whatever he knew wasn’t relevant at the time, or that the group wasn’t ready to hear it. Or maybe it had been Hanshin’s aggressive attitude. Either way, Kousei was being as cryptic as his role as the Watcher in his e-mails, and what he wasn’t telling them, wasn’t helping them. He stood there and thought deeply for a while, as the others talked amongst themselves about what to do next. He hadn’t raised his hand at Hanarei’s request because of this, but Parumon had her attention. “Well, I’d put my hand up too if I had one, but even if I did I don’t think I’d even bother. That guy wouldn’t put up much of a fight; I don’t think he’d be worth it.”

***

"Minna, I'm just way weirded out by that dude," Tegiwa said, "He calls us here, yells at us, says he wants the key, but the dude never asks for it. Then, he takes a powder. What gives. Something isn't right with all that. Uhm, Shireika, you do still have the key right? He didn't pull some kinds fast one did he?" He turns to Tomeo and Shouki. "Yeah, I guess we should spend some time in the Library. I'll meassage mom. She put alot of those books on her computer a long time ago. She might be able to suggest some good places to start diggin in Matsuro's ol' tome tomb."

Tegiwa felt that pounding Kousei now would be a bad idea. They needed answers first, and he felt they only got more questions. "Back to SquareOnesville"

***

"First we come to the bad side of town for no reason, then he sends us to do a research project. That is just like a teacher. All work and a waste of time. " Naoko carped. "I think I'll pass on the pounding too. Hmmm, Tomeo,Tegiwa and I can handle the research, but Shouki has a concert. Anyone else want to come with?"

***

Fighting the desire to let out a frustrated scream, Asayake glared off in the direction that Kousei had disappeared. That hadn't answered anything; it was about as useful as the fucking emails he'd been sending them! Her hands twitched, attempting to curl themselves into fists, but she brushed the feeling off roughly. Asayake gave herself a brisk shake, and caught the last few snippets of conversation she'd apparently missed while trying to kill Kousei with her eyes. Apparently, Naoko was going to play librarian with Tegiwa and Tomeo. Somehow, Asayake didn't quite like that arrangement, considering how Naoko had been throwing herself at both boys in the past. "I'll come as well," She said curtly, giving Naoko a brief but uneasy look before edging over to Tomeo, "We'll get it done faster with more people. Besides, history is my best subject; researching is in my blood. Matsuro-san might be able to give us some information the books he's got don't have, too, so it's like a double-bonus."

***

Enma raised one hand at Hanarei's question. "Except exchange 'twitching' with 'limp'. She said, deadpan. She listened to everyone else, and rubbed her neck with the hand she had had raised. "Maybe we should go back to the library; even if we couldn't find information about the key before, general knoweldge seemed to have been running amok in those books, so I'm sure we could find something."

***

"I agree" Yuu put in. "We need to find out as much as we can about this, and the library seems a good place to start" Even after the meeting with the Watcher, she felt like they hadn't learned anything. It was almost an anticlimax. They needed to find out what was really going on behind all this. "I'd be happy to help research, if you'd like" she responded to Naoko's offer.

***

"I still have it," Shireika said as she pulled out the key from inside of her shirt. She let it hang from her neck on its chain as she crossed her arms. "We've got a lot of information to find though. It seems that Kousei-san was leaving out a lot that we needed to know." While everyone wanted to do their research in Matsuro's library, she wanted to get answers directly from Kousei. She did trust him, despite the fact that he had hidden his identity as the Watcher. The trouble that had been caused wasn't his fault. He hadn't intended for that to happen. She and the other digi-destined had brought the fighting upon themselves because they were in disagreement. Then again, the mystery of the Watcher had been partly the cause of it, but wasn't he only doing what the Fates wanted him to do?

They wouldn't miss her. They would succeed without her, and no doubt, Tegiwa or Hanshin would catch her up with what she missed at the library. She wasn't betraying them. She was just looking somewhere else for answers. These were questions that only Kousei would be able to answer; no book of prophecy would have it written down.

"The more hands and eyes the better, especially with that library," Hanshin added in regards to researching Kousei. "I personally don't want to be left out of this, and I doubt Shouki wants to either. So, tomorrow. Besides, we'd probably want my uncle there to open up his private library in the first place, and he could also help out too." He assumed there weren't going to be objections to that. "So tomorrow afternoon, all right?"

***

Hanshin grabbed a book and dumped it on the table where the others were sitting around, looking through the old pages for clues on anything relating to Kousei. Finding information about the guy was harder than they had expected. Some were researching the key itself, which Shireika had given to Hanshin for the afternoon.

He was annoyed that Shireika had chosen not to join all of them at the library. She had told him that she was going to talk to Kousei, and she was going to do it alone. He was worried what Kousei might do to her, but she seemed confident that everything would be just fine. As long as she didn't have the key with her, Kousei would do her no harm. She seemed to trust the power-hungry bastard, but she was her own person. She made her own decisions, even if it was different from everyone else.

"So, anyone find anything?" Hanshin asked as he sat down again. He hoped that they would have gotten somewhere. They had been at this for a couple hours by now, and the sooner they got information, the sooner they could do something about Kousei.

***

Shireika clutched her umbrella tightly as she stood outside a large apartment complex close to downtown Tokyo. She checked the card which she held in her other hand. It was the same card that Kousei had given her when he left Tokyo Academy several weeks ago. She had emailed him, expressing that she wanted to talk to him. He agreed to see her during the afternoon - she didn't mention that the others were doing research and had no intention of ever telling him. He told her to meet him in the lobby of his apartment complex.

She took a step forward to enter the building, and the doorman graciously opened the door for her. She bowed her head and thanked him as she passed him into the lobby. The interior was stunning and absolutely beautiful. It was like a palace with the crystal chandelier, marble floor. This was the apartment complex for the very wealthy of Tokyo, filled with successful executives, lawyers and celebrities. As she looked around, she concluded that her mother probably didn't like the place.

It had a cold feeling. Residents and guests walked past her quickly without smiles, and the lobby was not exactly a place of socializing. There was one group gathering to talk about business in one corner, but they proceeded to leave. Many were checking mail. The other women here were so beautiful and sophisticated as well. Shireika felt out of place, wearing plain black pants, black boots, a dark red button-down shirt and a light brown blazer.

There was no way Kousei would have actually been interested in her. He was from one of the wealthiest families in Tokyo: the Tsuyoikou clan. They were reknowned for their grand hotels and apartment complexes, and she was from a somewhat ordinary family. Even with her mother as an actress, her mother avoided the public eye as much as possible. Her mother was probably the least interesting of actresses for the tabloids.

Shireika felt someone tap her on the shoulder, and when she turned around, she found Kousei standing there.

"Hi," she said softly as she looked away from him.

"You wanted to talk?" he asked.

***

Hanarei picked up another book and started to skim through the pages. From the look on her face, she was either indifferent about this whole thing or she was bored out of her mind. Not yet finished with that book, she placed it down on a table, took off her sunglasses, and rubbed her eyes. "If I'm gonna be looking at all these books all day, then I really will need perscription glasses," she said. "Why does everything have to be in small print? Ya find anything in yours, Himotomon?"

"No, can't say I have," said Himotomon. She was using her mouth to flip the pages of books Hanarei handed her. "The closest thing I've found is a book that mentions the word 'mon' in it a lot but it also had something to do with pockets."

"Not our problem then," said Hanarei. "Nothing over here," she shouted to Hanshin. She turned back to her book and mumbled. "I've really got to come up with a new nickname for him." Now that the group had rejoined and everyone was on friendlier terms, Hanarei figured "Pretty Boy" didn't have the same zing on Hanshin. "Court Jester" came to mind but Hanarei didn't like it.

"I still can't believe her Highness didn't want to join in on all this fun," Hanarei said half sarcastic, half angry. "Where could she be if she didn't want to take care of this?"

***

Shouki sat down on one of the couches in the library with a book in front of him and a pile of books on both his left and right. The left pile was books he had gone through, three, while the other pile was books he planned on going through, about 13. Kirimon had his own much smaller pile of books next to him and used his tail to flip the pages. Kirimon looked up at Shouki after he turned a page.

"You know, if you go any slower, about half of these prophecies will already happen," said Kirimon.

"I'm just trying to look carefully," Shouki explained. "Kousei said there would be some information in these books. Maybe it isn't a whole book or chapter but my just a small passage or paragraph."

"Shouki, look, we have a bunch of books to go through in here." Kirimon made a sweeping motion of the room with his tail. "If we all started to go at the pace your going, we'd be here till...." Kirimon sropped talking as he noticed Shouki's face. "What's with the look?"

Speechless at first, Shouki placed a finger on a page of the book and slowly looked up at the group. "... ... I found something."

"What?" Kirimon floated over to Shouki and looked over his partner's shoulder. "You're right, that is!" Shouki stared at it for a moment before Kirimon hit him with his tail. "Well cut the suspense and tell everyone what it says."

"Right, right," Shouki said as he fumbled while picking up the book. "It's something from," he checked the bind of the book, "the Book of Prophecy. To quote, 'An ancient queen of great power and strength shall arise from her ashes to return to her place in the universe in 2674 TA. She shall bring much destruction and death upon her rebirth in the universe, and only the greatest of powers can tame her wrath and vengeance.' End quote." Shouki looked worried after he read that.

Kirimon on the other hand was his usual self. "Sounds like a cheery young fellow, don't you think? Oh, stop worrying Shouki. The text says she'll come in 2674. That gives us enough time to prepare."

"2674 TA. But what does TA mean?"

"Don't know. Maybe it's a location name. Something like 'Tokyo Airport' perhaps."

***

Tomeo sat at the table with the others closest to Asayake, with the pile of books next to him that had been provided by Shireika. He had gone deep into reading ever since he had opened his first book; not only was he determined to find something that could prove invaluable to the group, but he was glad for once to be given the chance to read all about the facts that related to him being a digidestined. It was a relief to read something solid for once, instead of hearing rumors and prophecies about the dark queen and the evil power the key unlocked. He had only gone through only five and had about twelve more to go through for the moment, and the task seemed rather daunting with all the books as thick as encyclopedias, but as bored as he was reading paragraph after paragraph, he wasn't willing to give up just yet.

"Hey... I think I found something." he answered Hanshin, and read after Shouki had finished his recital. "This is in the..." he paused, checking the title of the book on the cover. "...from the book called, ' History of the Human World'." he continued, remembering picking up the thick, old musty volume beforehand. He had been skeptical he would find the information he hoped to find, but mystified somehow by it's strange phrasing of the title.

Parumon perked up, who had been sitting on the table in front of Tomeo and flipping through books with her stubby fins. Now that her partner had found some information to read, she was more than happy to stop reading every single blotted word of ink in the smaller, thinner books Tomeo had given her. He listened in intently, knocking over a pile of books she had gone through absent-mindedly in the process.

Tomeo turned back to the page he had bookmarked with his fingers, before he started reading out loud for the group to hear. "This passage says, 'In 2033, the digi-destined of the Human World defeated an evil entity known as Akurei, also the ruler of the Depths of Darkness. After his defeat, the Fates sealed away his powers and granted the key to the digi-destined to be protected until further notice.' Hmm..." He frowned, sounding a little disappointed, reading it over again in case he'd missed something. "That's all there is, for the moment. I already knew that part, but maybe some of you that didn't hear the story can get something out of that. I'm going to keep reading through this book, and see what else I can find... there's bound to be more if it's history."

He glanced over at Shouki on the couch before he started reading again, his short period of focus off the text long enough to recall what he had read. "TA? I don't think it's a destination, it has to be something to mark the time period. We all know that BC stands for Before Christ and AD stands for... After something-in-Latin, that slips my mind right now. Maybe TA is an abbreviation for indicating an era that was before or after a certain historical event; an epoch of sorts that was of some significance to the author. What it is we can only guess. I don't think it's as easy as it being an abbreviation for Time After, for example."

***

Enma was rubbing her forehead as she read one book after another. Well, actually, she was only on her second book. But she still had a headache.

"There's way too much information in these things; maybe this was a bad idea after all." She said. She closed the book and picked up another one as Shouki, who was near her, read the prophecy he found. "Umm....Tough Adoration?" She shrugged. "Don't listen to me, I'm just...me."

"What's this book say?" Asked Mitikomomon, as he tried to read the bindings on the book Enma had just put down.

"How to Hurt A Disobediant Digimon Partner." Enma said as she flipped the newest book open. Mitikomomon's eyes widened. "Really?"

"No."

"Oh." He puffed up and bounced his way over to another book. Enma opened to a random page. Her brows furrowed and she flipped the page back to the one previous. "This may help us, I think..This thing's a dictionary of some sorts; I'm not sure what. But this is what it says...'Key of the Digi-destined: This key seals away the powers of the White Dragon and is under the protection of the digi-destined.'"

"What book is that?" Mitikomomon asked. "I know the word 'dictionary' and that wasn't on the side."

"Huh? Oh...the book is...'The Book of Treasures'." she made a face. "Little, oh, I don't know...deceiving, don't you think...I'm sure not every treasure known to man's in here." Mitikomomon jumped onto her shoulder and looked at the book. "Is there anything else in there?" he asked.

"Beats me, I was just lucky enough to open to the 'K' section."

***

"Anno Domini" Yuu said absentmindedly, looking up from the (very interesting) pile of books she had been going through. "'In the year of our Lord'. And I agree, it sounds more like an abbreviation for an era than for a place." She thought about it for a moment. "Hm... it could be something in a old language, like AD is... or maybe it stands for something like... Third Age?" she speculated, then shook her head. "In any case, it sounds like it won't happen for hundreds of years... unless they're counting in something other than years" Not a terribly comforting thought. She listened to Enma's definition closely. "White Dragon?" she pondered aloud, "But Tomeo-san's book just now said that the powers belonged to some being called Akurei... is he the White Dragon then?" This was getting rather complicated.

***

"Akurei?" Asayake wrinkled her nose up, tearing her eyes off of the ancient yellowed pages of the book she was flipping through to peer over the top of it, "Sounds like some sort of wanna-be horror film name. I'm sure he was a lovely person." She went back to her book, catching only snippets of conversation. Even so, the snippets of information she caught didn't really help them, mentioning strange dates and weird dragon things, but giving them any more information.

"Is there anything interesting in that book, Asayake?" Rogishimon said, sitting on the growing pile of books that Asayake had already looked through. So far, the stack consisted of one rather large tome that was twice as big as the little bird currently using it as a chair, and nothing more.

"Nope; just crap." Mumbled Asayake, shooing Rogishimon from her perch to add the smaller book to her pile. She pulled another book from a stack she'd pulled from Matsuro's shelves, and flipped through it. Rogishimon sighed dramatically; good Lord, this was BORING.

***

"Third age makes the most sense so far....but, when is or was this Age or any Age? Whose calender are we using? Like guys, I swear cryptic meassages and obscure dates are a prophet's bread and butter. Uhm, Robotmon, what do you have here?" Robotmon was dragging a small stack of books across the table with the aid of dental floss."

"I have located these anomolous books in the stacks."

Tegiwa storted through them: "World Domination for Losers" by K. Aos-Mann, "Hints from Heloise," "Unspeakable Cults, Abriged Edition with Color Photos" And "Mien Kampf." "Robotmon, we need to tell Matsuro about whoever he has shelving his books. They be whack. Or should be."

Robotmon shuffled over to Tegiwa's stack. "I see you have 'Edgar Casey for Idiots' and the 'Hidden meanings of Calculus.' Are those supposed to be helpful?"

"I'm leaving no stone unturned, dude. The Prophecy thing is new to me. I want to get an angle on it. It's not like it's a well defined study like Feng Shei or palmistry.'

***

"Yahoo! Guys! Akurei is listed here in this book. I know we know some stuff about him but this is the offical registery. He's a registered villian."

Naoko shifted the book some and sat on Tegiwa's lap. He yelped in surprise, but she just stuck her tongue out at hime. She began: "Who's Who in the Universe - Volume A- Akurei: a being who ruled the Depths of Darkness for many centuries. He rose to power with his Armies of Darkness and sought to concouer all the know worlds. He made two attempts before he was stopped. Along with his conquest, he ultimately sought to destroy the digi-destined, but he was defeated and sent to be judged by the Fates. The Fates stripped him of his powers, leaving him completely powerless. His present whereabouts are unknown, but be could be working humbly at some unimportant job like a store clerk or parking attendant. Ranking: Mostly Harmless (was: Demi-god)"

"Sounds kind of sad that a once great being is now pushing squishies or flipping burgers. The Fates are cruel"

"Yeah," Tegiwa reponded, "But, didja read the bit about killing the Digidestined? And, get off my lap please."

"I read it. That was then. This is now. And, no I'm sitting here. Your lap is warm and my butt is cold. So, deal."

***

"Shireika went to go talk to Kousei-san," Hanshin said as he picked up the key that lay in the middle of the table. "She should be here to help, but she claimed that she wanted to talk to the guy herself. At least she left the key with us instead of taking it with her." He examined it closely. "So, this thing unlocks the power of Akurei, or was it the White Dragon?" This certainly was confusing. Tegiwa's findings clearly indicated that the key had locked the powers of Akurei. Akurei had been defeated by the digi-destined and then stripped of his powers. "Okay, so whatever the case is. We've got this key to this great power. Well, we're closer to figuring out what the whole deal is, I hope. It belonged to Akurei or the White Dragon." He pointed to the shelves. "Someone should look up the White Dragon and Tsuyoikou Kousei in those books. The White Dragon will certainly be in there, and if Kousei-san is indeed working for the Fates, he'll probably be in there too. Most importantly, we have to figure out who that creepy Kousei-san is."

***

Shireika hadn't answered him, but Kousei knew she wanted to talk. He knew she had questions after yesterday, and he knew he had to give her answers.

"Would you like to come upstairs to my apartment?" Kousei asked. He sensed that she was uncomfortable in this setting, so perhaps getting away from it would help. He grinned when she nodded in agreement.

In silence, they rode the elevator up to his floor. It was a long, awkward trek, but Kousei knew he couldn't force her to speak until she felt more comfortable. The elevator doors opened up to a small corridor with a couple doors. He opened his and pointed in towards the spacious living room.

Shireika followed him in and took a look around. It was bigger than she had expected, but she concluded that his family probably had given it to him. The kitchen and living room were one large room, separated by a breakfast bar and counter. She could see stairs leading upstairs to bedrooms, and there was much more to the apartment that she couldn't see.

"Sit down, please," Kousei said. The two sat down at opposite ends of a long couch. He sighed when she didn't speak. "Are you mad at me?"

"What for?" Shireika replied.

"For thinking that I could use you. For wanting that key so badly?"

"Was it all an act?" Shireika looked up at him, eyes ready to burst into tears any moment. "Was I simply a tool to a goal you wanted?"

"At first," Kousei replied softly. How could he? How could he have done this to her? He knew she was different from the other female digi-destined. Something about her made her different, and he wasn't quite sure why. The moment he first knew about her he was fascinated by her. Beautiful like her mother, intelligent like her grandparents, strong like her father. She wasn't interested in dating or relationships either, so he thought she'd be more useful. But, like everyone else, she had a heart that could be broken.

He slid towards her when she had turned her head away from him. He couldn't bear to think that she was upset with him. He also feared it. She could get the digi-destined to destroy him at the drop of a hat, if she said that he deserved it. Maybe he did.

"At first, I thought I could use you to get the key," he whispered as he touched her long black hair. "You didn't suspect me, like the others did. You trust your teachers and coaches more than most, so it was easy to talk to you. And then something terribly wrong happened." He tucked his hand under her chin and turned her face towards him. "Giving you those roses, going to your games, substituting in your classes, being with you - it all started to feel so natural."

Shireika tried to turn away from him, but he wouldn't let her go that easily.

"I think I fell for you," he said as he leaned closer to her.

"Don't tell me lies," she replied as she looked away. "Don't give me words. Words don't mean anything."

He could tell that she was hurt. He had played a knight in shining armor for her. He had done all the things any girl would have wanted, and he had planned to use those feelings to get what he wanted. And what for: a stupid key. And he would lose the trust for someone he cared deeply for. If she asked him for help, he would have helped her, and it would have been because he did indeed want to help her, not because he needed to gain her trust. If she needed anything, he would have been there. Anything for her.

Maybe this was love.

"I can't give you anything but my word," he whispered. Slowly, he leaned towards her and softly kissed her cheek. "All I can do is try to make you believe me."

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