"Glad to hear the jerk finally got what he deserved," Hanarei mumbled to herself but was loud enough for others to hear. "After everything he did, he could rot where he is for all I care."
"What was that, Hanarei?" said Himotomon curiously.
"Hmm, I didn't saw anything."
"Yes you did," Himotomon puffed out her cheeks. "Your lips were moving and I could hear your voice. Therefore, you were talking."
"I don't know what you're getting at but I didn't say anything." Himotomon was about to say something until Hanarei picked up a book and placed it standing up in front of Himotomon. "Guess I found a good use for these after all." Hanarei payed attention to Hanshin as he mentioned where Shireika was. "She went there by herself?! And for a moment I thought she was smarter than that. Seriously, that guy gives me bad vibes." She closed the book she was holding after finishing it. "Still, almost anything is better than this. I'd rather be out doing something than stand here all day." She threw another book on the table, nearly hitting Himotomon, and picked up another one.
"Still nothing over here. If anyone happens to find future lottery numbers, please share."
***
"Third Age...? I guess that's a possibility," said Shouki. "But like you guys said, what counts as an Age and if so then when did the other two happen?"
"Don't know, don't care," said Kirimon. He jumped away from Shouki and took one of the books from Shouki's pile. "I'll just borrow this since you seem to be having the lucky pile." He opened the book and started to skim again. "Hey, just because you happened to find something by going slow doesn't mean spped reading won't work either." ***
Tomeo and Parumon both looked up from their books concurrently as Hanshin spoke. "She what!?" Parumon spat out, surprised.
Tomeo looked back down into his book. "Don't sweat it, Parumon. If Hanshin trusts her enough to go alone, then we all can. I trust she'll be able to get more information out of that love-sick Kousei without us there breathing down his neck. I'm just more worried what Kousei will attempt to do to her... but I'm sure Alatusmon is there to stop him if he gets ideas. Whatever decisions she makes, we'll be behind her one-hundred per-cent of the way."
In case anyone said otherwise, he changed the subject quickly. "Parumon, can you keep flipping through this book for me? I'm going to take up Hanshin's offer and look more up on this 'White Dragon' and Kousei for a bit." He stood up and held the page as Parumon walked onto the book of 'History of the Human World', then pushed his chair in and headed towards the shelves. "I have a few theories, guys; I think maybe this Akurei and the White Dragon could be the one and the same. White doesn't always stand for purity and goodness, remember. Maybe his mark was a white dragon, or one of his godly powers was to shape-shift into a white dragon, or something weird like that." He started scanning the shelves that Hanshin had pointed out, pulling off books that caught his eye that he thought would be vaguely relevant, even if it was about dragons, monsters or animals. He was really getting caught up in his work - sure, he wanted to get outside and be active too, but there wasn't much point doing so at the moment if they didn't have a direction to go in. He gave his thumb a short lick to seperate the matted-together pages of the first book, and started scanning through the paragraphs again.
***
Asayake picked up another book, adding the one she'd just read through to her now three-book pile. After skimming fairly far into the new text, her eyebrows shot up; she looked at the cover, and chuckled. "Hey, Naoko, it seems this series of books is a well of information. 'Who's Who in the Universe'. This one is 'W', and it's got our mystery friend the White Dragon in it." Licking the tip of her thumb, Asayake flipped through to the page she'd found the White Dragon on, and cleared her throat.
"'The White Dragon: a powerful being who has remained a powerful and influential force in the history of the universe. He wields the strongest and greatest powers in the universe and constantly has close ties with the Fates. He has been a powerful ruler and the leader of the Protectors. He later became known as Akurei when he turned again his fellow Protectors.'" Asayake wrinkled her nose at the book, and looked over the other books on the table. "Does anybody have volume 'P' of this thing, because I have no clue who the hell the Protecters are. Were. Whatever."
"Well, maybe they protected something," Rogishimon cooed, perching herself on Asayake's shoulder and squinting at the book, "Since they're called the Protectors."
"..." Asayake stared at the little bird, but held back the sarcastic retort that had popped into her mouth. "Yeah, I'd say that's a safe bet, Rogishimon. But what did they protect? How many are, or were there? Where are they now? That's probably important information."
***
"...or it could be 'Third Age'..." Enma muttered under her breath. She turned to Asayake frowning. "So...Akurei and the White Dragon are the same entitiy." She rolled her eyes.
"And...Akurei was bound by the Fates and Kousei works for the Fates....anyone see where I'm going with this..." She pursed her lips together. "Just a theory." she said, smirking almost maliciously.
Mitkomomon had fallen asleep on Enma's latest pile of non-read books. She picked him up and put him down on the book she had found the information about the White Dragon in, before picking up a new book. "Well...this is pure and utter bull..." she said, making a face. "This book's in French! Who puts a French book in a Japanese library!" She put it down with disgust, before picking up a new book.
***
Cold rear or not, Naoko got off Tegiwa's lap enough to lean across the table and grab a random book. Tegiwa turnrd a bit red as her skirt, which didn't cover much anyway, slid up a little higher.
"Naoko, you'd be warmer if you wore clothes."
"I'd be lonier too. Have Robotmon help Suzy with the pages. He doesn't have much for hands."
"Suzy?"
"Suzumon."
The tinfoil canine spoke up, "Yeah, boss, this page was getting boring. Thanks."
Robotmon made an mechanical huff and popped the toy rayguns outof his chest.
"I never agreed."
"Please help Suzumon. It won't kill you."
Naoko was still rummaging through books and her ass was right in his face. He tried to keep his eyes toward the ground but it wasn't doing much good. As she moved around she was in constant danger of coming in contact with his face. Then he spied a book on the floor. Maybe, that would hold his interest. Naoko was so... distracting.
***
Tegiwa was reaching for a book by his feet as he muttered, "Asakaye, Tomeo, would you stop with the mental telepathy act. Please...OI!" He brought his head up sharply again the edge of the table as the rest of the group chattered about Shireika. "She's done what? She went there alone? How could she... She wouldn't.... Oh, gawd..." He tried to stand up too fast and ended up sprawled in his chair. "Wow, okay, my head is still attached I think. Look, Kousei is obviousely working for this White Dragon/ Akurei bum at the very least, right? Shouldn't we go check on her? I nominate me." He started to rise and Naoko sat back firmly in his lap. "Ow! Naoko, that hurt too."
"Sorry, but you were about to do something stupid. I hope it will recover right?"
"Why would you care. It's not like I'm ever going to touch you again."
"And, you are assuming I'd let you...Well, I might if you as nicely. But, I'm just going to drive you crazy right now."
"Look, we have to save....have to let her know..."
"We have to find more infomation, besides. If any one of us needs a good lay it her. Kousei is a hunk."
"I don't understand you Naoko. She could get hurt or die or..."
"I told you, he has a major hard on for her. He wants her as much as he wants the key. Maybe more."
"But...."
"Sheesh, use phone if it will aid your conscience."
Tegiwa whipped out his cell and Naoko took it away from him. She caught his hands firmly between her thighs. "Ok, you dicate and I'll write. Struggle all you want too...it feels really good." She winked at him.
"Okay, tell her to be careful because Kousei is likely working for this villian called Akurei or The White Dragon. It's Akurei's powers that were sealed away with the key. I doubt they were meant for anyone but him. I don't think we can use thim at all. Don't be fooled by Kousei. Don't do anything stupid or anything. We can always come running...."
"Enough, sheez, you talk alot with out saying anything. I'll send this. Maybe, she'll have time to read it.. Gah."
What Naoko wrote was:
[Shireka,
Tegiwa wanted to ruin your good time by sending a blubbery, paniced meassage. I stopped him. But, if you can pry yourself away from the stud there, ask him about the White Dragon and The Protectors. Thanks. Oh, I'm screwing Tegiwa tonite. Ja na. Naoko.]
***
"Hmm... so the White Dragon was part of whole group of powerful entities? That's interesting" Yuu mused after listening to Asayake's passage. These Protectors sounded like they might be at the root of this whole affair. She began sifting through her own stack of books looking for the 'P' volume of the series, but didn't find it. Remembering that she'd handed a few books to Kuinamon for him to flip through, she slid off the table she was sitting on and peeked underneath to check his pile.
Of course, he was fast asleep on top of it. Yuu sighed. Really now, weren't fish suppose to never sleep? He should be awake at least half of the time then. He slept more like a cat, really. She pulled the pile out from under the table, scooped him off gently, set him back down on the floor and went about checking the books. No 'P' volume, unfortunately, only a 'T'. She was about to prod Kuinamon awake with it when she remembered Hanshin's suggestion to look for information on Kousei. Well, she thought, looking at the book, it couldn't hurt to check. She sat back on the table and opened to the appropriate section.
"Wow, he is in here" she murmured. "Listen to this, it's from another of those 'Who's Who in the Universe' books. 'Tsuyoikou Kousei: born in TA 2669. He is the son of Tsuyoikou Kazuo and Yukiko and an employee of the Tsuyoikou Corporation. He is the agent of the Fates called the Watcher, and his purpose in the Human World is unknown.' Well, that might have been helpful a while ago."
But something else about the passage struck her. "There's that TA again..."
***
"If the White Dragon and Akurei are the same person, what the hell does it have to do with Kousei-san?" Hanshin asked. "So, we've got this key that unlocks the seal of some of the greatest powers. Kousei still remains this agent for the Fates, but that leaves us no better than where we were at the beginning of all of this." He crossed his arms. "There is something strange about Kousei. He knows far more than he was telling us. He might be working for the Fates, but why? Why would he, of all the random people, be the one that the Fates choose?" He wondered if maybe Shireika might be able to get answers out of Kousei. Maybe he'd just tell her everything.
While he didn't like that she had gone off to see him alone, he didn't seem to have any powers. He was just like everyone else, only he had connections with the Fates. And without the other digi-destined around, he might reveal everything to her, unless they could find it all here. It had to be here. How else did anything get done before?
***
Shireika turned to look at Kousei. With a trembling hand, she touched his cheek and chin.
"Believe what?" she whispered.
"That what I intended at the beginning of the school year is no longer what I want from you," he replied. "How could I use you like that, when I care so much about you? I want to take care of you and to protect you. I want you to feel safe with me." He paused as he leaned his forehead against hers. "Because I think I love you, if this is what you call love." Gently, he kissed her on the lips.
Shireika's mind was in a blur, somewhere between pushing him off and pulling him closer. This was all so very wrong. She had come here to get answers not a first kiss that was making her head spin. He was an adult. He had been a coach, a member of the faculty at her school, and she had been one of his students. This was terribly wrong, but she couldn't bring herself to protest.
She wasn't sure how a first kiss was supposed to feel. She wasn't sure how any of this should feel, but it certainly felt wonderful, incredibly wonderful. She had heard that a kiss with the right guy was out of this world. It would make you lose sense of time and forget everything else in this world. Or at least, make you not want to care about any of it.
And, that was how this felt. It was soft but still present. She felt as though her whole body tingled each time their lips remet. He wasn't holding back, but he wasn't forcing her to go beyond her comfort zone. Just a kiss, a wonderful and long kiss.
Then, she heard her computer beep and ring.
"I think that's for you," Kousei said with a slight chuckle in his voice.
"Right," Shireika replied as she blushed. How long had they been doing that? How did that even happen in the first place? She grabbed her computer from her bag and pressed various buttons to read the message that Naoko had sent through Tegiwa's account. A confused look came across her face. Her eyes locked onto three words: the White Dragon. "The White Dragon?" she gasped. She looked up at Kousei inquisitively.
***
Hanarei glared at everyone in the library whie she turned a page over in her book. It seemed like everyone was finding something about Akurei or the White Dragon or something while Hanarei might as well be whistling songs she remembered. Himotomon bumped into the book that Hanarei stood up in front of her which caused it to fall over. The small gust from when the book landed flat on the table caused several pages of Hanarei's to flip over. "Himotomon! I wasn't done with..." Hanarei shouted but stopped. Something had caught her eye as she looked at the new pages. Hanarei skimmed the passage and smiled before standing up and happily announcing to the group. "I found something."
"It's something from," she checked the front of the moldy book, "Book of the Fates. Looks like I picked a good one. It says here, 'Scarred by revenge and hate, He who was once was great, Shall return in rebirth, To find a place on earth.'" The smile that was once on Hanarei's face had now vanished. What replaced it was a look of disbelief. Hanarei dropped the book which landed with a thud on the ground. "Oh dear god," she said. She looked stunned and grasped her heart. Something in her mind was practically shouting at the top of it's lungs that something was serious wrong at the moment. Again, the images were at work.
***
"Hang on a second," said Shouki after Yuu had read her passage. "That passage tells us that Kousei was born on 2669 TA. But the passage I read said the Dark queen would come during 2674 TA."
"What are you getting at?" said Kirimon.
"Well, if TA years are the same length as our years, then that would mean this Dark Queen has already come, wouldn't it?"
Kirimon looked at Shouki as the digimon tried to process this. "But the text said she would bring death and such."
"Maybe so, but that doesn't mean she could bring it immediately. Maybe she's waiting for the right time to 'awaken' I guess." Shouki leaned back on the couch and stretched out his arms. "If it already happened, I wonder what happened that was so special in 2674 TA."
"Someone was born," said a voice from across the room. Shouki looked up to see Hanarei walking closer to the center of the group. It wasn't until she changed course that it became apparent who she was heading for; Hanshin.
Hanarei stood in front of Hanshin and placed one hand on the book Hanshin was looking to get his attention. The look on her face showed that she was serious. "Call your sister," she ordered in a stern voice. "Get her out of there, tell her a lie, order her to come home, anything. If this little play date of hers is what I think it is then we could be in serious trouble already."
***
Enma watched Hanarei for a moment, before picking up another book. "This is getting redundant." she said to Mitkomomon.
"No it isn't!" He said as he tried to open a book. Enma opened it for him, skimming through the book she had.
"Oh, so you find opening a book, reading it, and finding no information whatsoever to be the most thrilling thing in your life, eh?"
Mitikomomon shook his body. "No, but you found information before, so why not find more again!"
Enma put down the book she had been reading and looked at the pile she had, bored. She let out a 'hmmm', before pulling the middle book out of the pile. "Hey, I found Volume P of 'Who's Who in the Universe'." she said. She opened it up, before she found what she was looking for. "Here we go. 'The Protectors: beings granted with special powers by the Fates. They are assigned to maintain the world order and peace of the universe. Their reign began at the end of the First Age and has continued to this day. Members of this group exist in nearly ever world of the universe.'" She looked up, shrugging. "That was...semi-helpful..."
***
Tomeo listened to the paragraph that Asayake that read aloud, an incredulous grin spreading across his face. “I knew it! I knew that Akurei and the White Dragon were the same being. It seemed a bit weird that two references were conflicting with each other. Well done, Asayake.” He heard Tegiwa’s comment about them, and he felt his face flush from embarrassment a little, turning away to face the shelves so no-one could see him. When he was sure no-one had noticed him, he sank back into the table to continue investigating his pile of books.
“Kousei is in that book?” Parumon looked up with some interest at Yuu. “But he can’t be any older than thirty of your human years… hey, do you think that we’ve all been written into a book like he has, or will be?” She giggled, liking the sound of the idea and started quoting what she imagined would be written about her. “The great and beautiful Parumon, the mighty dragon queen and commander of the deep oceans, and sworn upholder of truth and justice… has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, sure Parumon… at least we know now that ‘TA’ must stand for some age, if the paragraph from Enma’s book about the First Age is true. I don’t get the age system, but if Kousei was born five years before the dark queen was supposed to be here, and now he’s twenty-something years old, then Shouki’s right, the Dark Queen’s arrival should have already happened…” Tomeo looked for a moment on the same page he had left Parumon on, the one in ‘History of the Human World’ with the passage about Akurei. We thought of what Hanshin had said about what Kousei’s role with Akurei was, and tried to think of a connection. Recalling something that Naoko had read from her book, realization suddenly dawned on him as well.
“Akurei – he had his powers stripped by the Fates…” He said aloud as he bolted upright in his seat, coming to a similar conclusion Hanarei had. “I have another theory… I don’t think Kousei is working for the fates or Akurei. I think Akurei is Kousei! Think about it guys, the Fates probably distributed him to a position where they could keep an eye on him. Naoko’s passage said that the Fates stripped him of his powers and left him completely powerless, leaving him possibly with some unimportant job. What better way than to work for them as the Watcher, where they can keep him under their thumb? And then there’s…” He was almost sure of it, but was hesitant to say it. Naoko and Tegiwa had brought the subject up again, so he decided to go for it while it was up in the air. “We all know it’s obvious that Kousei has a… a thing for Shireika. Hanarei, Asayake, remember the time we were all talking before the meeting? Tegiwa, you told us that story about the previous digidestined separating into their darker halves. And Akurei wanted Hanshin’s mother’s darker side, Seiyumi, to be his queen when he was in power. Akurei, Kousei. Seiyumi, Shireika… does anyone see a pattern? It obvious. Akurei and Kousei – they have to be the same person, and they’re attracted to the Ishida women. Kousei probably sees something in Shireika that reminds him of her mother…ugh. Sorry Hanshin, I know, it sounds kind of creepy, but it fits!”
“There’s just one little flaw in your big, grand ‘ol theory, Tomeo.” Parumon piped up again. “The text in Yuu’s book says that Kousei had a mother and father. How is a maniacal, evil, all-powerful entity, who by the way could have been some bad-ass white dragon, supposed to have been born from two humans?” She shuddered as a different thought crossed her mind. “You know Tomeo, as a man and digimon, we will probably never fully appreciate the human birth process. It’s an atrocity of nature. That precious little critter that you buy squeezy toys for basically starts out as a parasite! Yuck, I don’t see how human females can withstand it. I’m just glad digimon re-incarnate.”
“I’ve been letting you read too much, haven’t I?” Tomeo suspected with some embarrassment, eyeing a book in Parumon’s pile that read ‘Biology of the Human Body.’, discarded it off the table, and side-stepped the rest of the topic as he looked back seriously at Parumon. “Focus for a moment. It didn’t say he was born from them. He could be adopted or something, and the Fates could have done something to incorporate him into the real world when his power was stripped. He could have been reborn like you said digimon can, and the passage that Hanarei just read supports that idea.” Tomeo reasoned calmly, looking towards Hanarei and Hanshin as he got up. “Or maybe he doesn’t have parents at all, and it’s a lie that got mixed up with the truth so he can protect himself from people sniffing up his past. Pick and choose. But I agree with Hanarei, I think we should pull Shireika out of there until we learn more about Kousei. I knew there was something I didn’t trust about the guy.”
***
Asayake felt 'Who's Who in the Universe, Volume W' slip out of her hands, but made no move to catch it; she was too busy staring directly in front of her, like something had captivated every shred of her attention and refused to let it go. The part of her brain she usually reserved for school was whirring into motion, and suddenly things started to make sense; Kousei, Akurei, the prophecies they'd found were staring to form a puzzle she prayed was put together wrong. The book thudded to the floor, breaking Asayake at out her mini-trance, and she went pale almost instantly. "He who once was great will return in rebirth... The only thing missing is a date-of-defeat for Akurei, but if Akurei was defeated the same year that Kousei was born..." Almost immediately, Asayake's brain went into overdrive. A million theories filled her head, and she felt the overwhelming urge to expel as many of them as possible a quickly as she could.
"Oh God, what if Kousei is the reincarnation of Akurei? And Seiyami, she was half of Sutako, Shreika's mom, right? So what if Akurei, reborn in Kousei, thinks Shireika is Sutako and tries to make her his Queen? Seiyami was part of Sutako, so couldn't Seyami become part of Shireika? And the key; Kousei would need the key in order to regain the powers that the fates took from him, and then he'd be Akurei again, and he'd make Shireika his Queen and we'd... Oh God, Rogishimon, find me Volume D of that Who's Who thing, RIGHT NOW!" Nearly civing off of her chair into the stack of books beside her, Asayake began tearing through the books she'd picked from the shelves. Rogishimon, startled out of her wits, flew down onto the table to help. She nudged one of the books over, and spotted familiar writing on the front cover.
"Asayake, Volume 'D'!"
Mumbling an almost incoherent thanks to her digimon, Asayake snatched the book off of the table and flipped through the pages, found the part she was looking for and read it aloud. "The Digi-Destined: the Protectors of the Human World. They began in the late Third Age when Fates transferred their power from a parallel world to the Human World. The former digi-destined had ecome vengeful and corrupt, and the Fates also wished to grant their power to the Human World. The digi-destined of the Human World are known for their defeat of Akurei. " She let go of the book and stared off into space again, her eyes wide, "That's why we have digimon; we're meant to defeat the reincarnation of Akurei, and the Dark Queen he brings with him. If Kousei is Akurei, and he makes Shireika his Queen and takes the key from her, he'd be at full power again, and he could MAKE Shireika be his Queen. If he gets the key, we'd have to destry Kousei ...And we'd have to destroy Shireika to get to him." Standing up so abruptly she knocked her chair backwards, Asayake looked at Hanshin. "I agree with Hanarei. I don't care how we do it, we need to get to Shireika, and we need to do it NOW."
***
"Whoa, let's think about things for a second, okay.....Now, that's long enough. Let's go after her! We don't have any time to lose, lets all go down there in the express pods." Kousei's place was in the middle of downtown where all the business action happened., so Tegiwa figured it would be easy to get to via the transport system. They could likely be there in minutes. "Naoko, please get off."
"I planned to later, with some help from you" She wiggled in his lap. "TA what a great age to be N."
"Naoko, I have no intention..." He was trying to push her away, "Of doing anything with you or to you."
Robotmon piped up, "Tegiwa, if you would pause your mating ritual for a moment, then you would have time to get some more information before you go running off."
"We've been searching for answers who else should we ask?"
"Your mother and the other digidestined would have some info."
Tegiwa wsn't thrilled with that idea. He could see himself saying: hi mom, remember that key we stole....but, still it may save them. He dialed up his mom and placed her on holographc projection. As usual she seemed to have been up most of the night working on something. He gave a quick synopsis of what they found and their speculations.
Shoorei's image peered at the group with crimson eyes. Her long white hair framed her pale face. "Sound's like you guys have been busy. Good work. We defeated Akurei and handed him over to the Fates in 2035 CE. I don't know what that is in TA, but that birthday is a good clue. Akurei never had the hots for Seiyami. She was his general and his daughter. He wanted Sutako really badly though. Sutako became one with Seiyami at the end, and that helped us rejoin our worse selves. I can't see Shireika as Seyami though. She's not like her at all, any more than you are Jin. Still, it might be a good idea to check on Shireika for the usual reasons. Any other questions."
***
"Shireika," Kousei replied.
"I need to go," Shireika replied as she got up. She could tell that the White Dragon rang a bell with Kousei. He knew something about Akurei and the White Dragon, and there was somethig about it all that made her instantly afraid.
"Shireika, wait," he pleaded as she bolted for the door. He ran after her. "The White Dragon is -"
"I don't need your lies," she interrupted. "They've been doing research on you. I should probably find out what they've rooted up about you."
"But, I -"
"I'm going," she said as she let herself out. "If we need to see you, I know how to reach you."
She hurried down the hallway and impatiently waited for the elevator to take her down to the ground floor. She had to find out what they knew. Akurei - she had heard the name before. He was the evil being who had tried to kill her parents and the other digi-destined of that generation. It couldn't be. She had to find out the truth. He had to know what the others knew, if they knew anything.
***
"The fucker," Hanshin muttered. "How the hell does he get reborn in this world?" He glared at the image of Shoorei. "But, I bet that creep named Kousei sees something similar between my sister and my mother. You know as well as I do that people comment on how much Shireika resembles her mother." He paused. "If Akurei didn't have the hots for Seiyami, I bet he did for my mother. And, if he failed to win my mother, then he's going to go after my sister, right?" He pounded the table and pulled out his computer. His digivice landed on the table as well. He could see a lone blip moving quickly through Tokyo. He grabbed the digivice and prayed that she was alone and on her way to the library.
Masturo stepped in, hearing much commotion coming from the group. He had overheard that they were worried about Shireika now that they believed that Kousei was Akurei. He leaned against a bookshelf as they looked at them.
"You mustn't forget that Akurei had previously been called the White Dragon," he said. "After all, it appears that the White Dragon was his name before the other Protectors referred to him as Akurei, right?"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Hanshin asked. "Akurei was evil. Uncle Matsuro. We have to destroy Kousei. He was Akurei - you have to agree with me on that, right?" He looked at the others at the table. "What do you guys think? We should get rid of Kousei before he can do anything, like turn Shireika into his queen. I bet he wants to do what he's always done. As long as he's alive, he's dangerous, and now we have the chance to send him back to the Fates because he is completely powerless."
***
"But how can we send him back to the Fates?" Tomeo asked Hanshin, leaning over to pick up the dropped copy of 'Who's Who in the Universe, Volume W' and placed it back down in front of Asayake. "We don't even know how to contact them. Unless Tegiwa's mother knows a way how, I think the best thing to do is to do now is seperate Kousei and Shireika as soon as possible." He up at Masturo as he entered the room. "It doesn't matter what he was before he was Akurei. Akurei was evil, and if Kousei was after the key the entire time to regain his powers, it only proves he hasn't changed." He thought about the new plan that had been raised, considering if they had enough evidence or that they were putting information together wrong. Could they be going after an innocent man? All the evidence seemed to point back to him, but he seemed hesitant for one reason. The choice of words used to describe what they were going to do to Kousei didn't seem to fit.
"So, this is what it's come to." Parumon said she scrambled towards Tomeo, as if reading her partner's thoughts herself through his guilty expression. "We're going to kill Kousei. So, what are we waiting for?"
"But Kousei is only human... isn't he?" Tomeo reasoned, looking doubtful. "We can't justify killing a human, no matter what terrible things he's done. We should be more civilised than that by now. I'm not saying we shouldn't do anything about it, but there has to be another way... we can only hope to send him back to the Fates and let them deal with his mess properly this time. That seems like the best way - give him a punishment worse than death. Shoorei, do you think there's a way we can contact the Fates?" he asked, looking at Tegiwa's mom. "If not, then we're on our own."
***
"Well it's good to see that everyone's brain is working in proper order," Hanarei said sarcastically. "It's obvious. If TA years are one year like Shouki already pointed out, that's a five year difference. Naoko, you yourself said Kousei was only about five years older than Shireika, and I'm willing to bet anything that Shireika and the Dark Queen being born on the same year is no coincidence."
Hanarei glanced over at Shoorei for a moment then did a double-take. She tilted her head at the red eyed lady but not because of her looks but because something seemed to register in Hanarei's mind. "D-didn't you break a leg or something a long time ago?" She scratched her head. "How do I know that too?" She quickly tried to ignore the off topic comment and proceeded.
"Hanshin," she said, actually saying his name to him, "believe it or not, but I'm with you on getting rid of Kousei. I just know Akurei was suppose to die a long time ago and he shouldn't be back here. I want to see Kousei lying down on the ground with as many cut and bruises his body can take and his blood on the floor." Rage was coursing through Hanarei's blood. After figuring out that Kousei was Akurei, she wanted nothing more than to see Kousei vanish off the face of the Earth.
Somehow, when Hanshin said the part about Kousei making Shireika his queen, a mix of fear and complete anger consumed her. "Believe me, Kousei is after your sister. For some reason, I even called her Sutako just like that time I called you Tommy before those names rang a bell for me so there's no doubt about the resemblance. I don't know why I know this, call it a six sense, but Kousei will do anything and I mean anything to get your sister just like Akurei did to get Sutako. And when those two are together, there's no telling what could happen. If I have to I'll personally see to it that he doesn't make her his queen again," she growled, then glanced over at Tomeo and Parumon, "even if it means coming to THAT." To release some of her anger, Hanarei slammed a fist down onto the closest table.
She notice Hanshin looking at the digivice showing where the Shireika was. "I'm willing to leave right now and bring her here if anyone wants to come with me."
***
"Whoa, whoa, easy with the killing, now," Asayake said, paling slightly. She was worried about Shireika, sure, but she didn't think actions THAT rash were of value at this point in time. "Before we do anything but avoid Kousei whenever we can, and keep him at least thirty feet away from Shireika, we need to get some concrete answers. We need to find out just what the Fates told Kousei about that key, and we need to find out what Kousei knows about Akurei, or the White Dragon, or even the last time Akurei was powerful. I don't want any mistakes to be made because, reincarnation or not, Kousei is human right now, and we'd be murderers if we were wrong about his connection with Akurei. Somehow, we need to get him talking, and I REALLY don't want to use Shireika as a mole. Maybe if we can get him to think that he's earned our trust, he'll tell us what we need to know..."
She looked at Matsuro hopefully. "Unless Matsuro-san knows another way, other than pouring through all of these old books, that we can get some answers about Kousei. I think there's a reason you have this library, Matsuro-san; whoever left it to you obviously suspected something like this would happen, or they wouldn't have thought the library was important. They wouldn't happen to have left you some way of contacting the Fates in all these old textbooks, would they?"
***
Sho-rei kept up a cheerful tone, like the tone one uses in front of children, though the mood had darkened. "Killing is usually folly in these cases. Kousei was reincarnated apparently with full blessings of the Fates since he works for them. Kill him now and he'll just come back, don't you think?" Shorei asked. She wsn't sure if they could kill someone the fates had plans for, but she decided to leave that that out. "Matsuro is the expert on the Fates. If anyone can contact them, it would be him. But, I seriously doubt the Fates are unaware of the situation; they caused it." This was a good example of why Sho-rei hated the Fates. They thought it was great fun to mess with one generation so that another, far off, generation could beneifit. Or, perhaps it was just fun for them to screw with people. The Fates brought hardship far more often than blessings. "Yes, yes the books contain everything the Fates want you know; they guided Gennai afterall. I think you'll need to find out more than that though."
"Hanarei, I did break a leg along time ago. Did Nikko mention it?" Then her gaze narrowed like a laser on the girl. "You've become too much like your father. Be careful of your anger. It will control you if you fail to control it."
She lightened up a little switched to Tegiwa. "Anyway, I think you all understand killing is wrong in any case. It makes problems go away, not solves them.... Uhm, Tegiwa, who is that in your lap?" Shoorei recognized the girl who had questioned her about the key and knew her by "reputation" as well. The stupid girl was becoming a legend at the school. Shoorei wanted to add: "And, why are your hands between her knees" but she thought better of it.
"Well, mom, this is Naoko....child of Loyality? She's usually with us now that we all work together..."
*squick* Naoko was just staring at the scary lady hologram. She felt Tegiwa's mom could look like through her. It was a feelin that left her feeling cold and naked. She usually didn't mind having no clothes on, but that gaze seem to strip her all the way to her soul. Perhaps, it was only Naoko's imagination though. She mustered her courage enough to speak up. "Oh, don't mind me. I've known Tegiwa for awhile. He's like a childhood friend. I hang on him all the time 'cuz I just love him to death. He's sooo cute when he gets embarassed." What the hell was she saying? She came off sounding more awkward than Tegiwa.
Tegiwa wasn't embarassed; he was white with shock. First, his friend wanted to kill Kousei then naoko and his mom....this was a nightmare. "uh...yeah. We need to get Shireika.
***
"You know, I'd personally love to terribly maim Kousei, too, but it isn't the best option at the moment; we could still use him. " Enma said. She turned slightly in the direction of Shoorei's hologram. "I think we should keep on our toes, though. Itoh-san," she looked at Matsuro quickly, "Yasuragi-san," she went back to the hologram, much more comfortable with her mother's friend than with Hanshin's uncle. "If Kousei is the reincarnation of Akurei - and that 'if' is very small since I think he is - even if he's working for the Fates, isn't there a chance, no matter how small it may be, that he could be using us to unleash his powers...we need to get Shireika away from him, but we also need to make sure he doesn't suspect us." She shrugged. "I know it's basically what everyone else is saying...but everyone else is already lighting torches and sharpening their pitchforks. I think we should hang back...what we need is a surprise attack, not another Somme."
"Enma?" Mitikomomon asked. She looked down at him.
"Yup?"
"What's a 'Somme'?"
"It's a River, in Europe."
Mitikomomon's eyes narrowed. "What does a river have to do with Kousei and Akurei?" he asked, frowning.
Enma groaned. "I'll explain it to you, later, Mitikomomon, okay?"
"Okay!" The blue digimon perked up and cuddled closer to Enma. She sighed.
***
"If the Fates want to talk to you, they will find you first," Matsuro replied softly. "If there was something specific that they wanted you to know, they would have already told you. But, you are right that Kousei is a reincarnation of Akurei - I can affirm that."
"He's Akurei?" Shireika asked as she burst into the library. She looked at her uncle in shock.
"They can show you the information they found," Matsuro said. He looked at the other digi-destined in the room. "Akurei was last in power when my generation was your age. If you kill him again, his spirit will be directed to the Fates. That is how death works for the Protectors. They have eternal spirits, which are controlled by the Fates. As far as the library goes, Gennai left it in my hands after he disappeared years ago. Since then, I have been the one with the most contact with the Fates, despite how little it is." He began to walk out of the room. "Whatever you decide is your choice." Matsuro bowed his head as he left the room.
As Matsuro passed her, Shireika grabbed her mother's cousin by the arm.
"Can it be?" she whispered softly. "Why?"
"The Fates have their own reasons, which they will never reveal," Matsuro replied as he left to return to his office.
"I don't care if he's human now," Hanshin declared. "I don't care if he's 'innocent.' He's still the same being, spirit, whatever that Akurei was. The same evil man who wanted to destroy some of our parents and all the worlds. I know some of you think this all might be rash or a bad idea, but what else are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to let him live in our world, so he can continue to threaten to steal the key? He was capable of contacting us because we are Protectors, so he could contact others to fight us for the key. Then, he'd have the key again to regain his powers, and he could definitely succeed in turning Shireika in his queen and destroying all of us."
"His queen?" Shireika asked the group as he joined them. "What the hell are you talking about?"
***
Hanarei quickly turned around as Shireika entered the library. Instead of making some comment about finally arrving, Hanarei walked over to Shireika and grabbed the girl but the collar of her shirt. Hanarei looked Shireika straight in the eye as she slowly spoke. "Stay away from that monster!" she growled. She then let go of Shireika. "I don't care who he is as a human, I don't care about his personality, and I don't care about how he feels about you and what you may feel about him, but stay away from him!"
Hanarei now changed her attention to Shoorei. The girl glared at the hologram before she walked over to it and stood a few inches away from Shoorei's face. "Like my dad?" Hanarei asked Shoorei. "I'm nothing like my dad. The only times I've seen him angry are when I'm around him and he thinks I did something bad which translates into every waking moment I'm with him. What makes you even think I'm like him? Other than that, I hear he's nice which I'm never around to see." Her temper was rising with all this talk about Akurei and Kousei and now Shoorei mentioning Hanarei acting like her father. Hanarei didn't reply to Shoorei's other question though. Hanarei knew Nikko mentioned to her about someone breaking a leg when he explained the digimon to her but he never said who or a description of the person.
***
"Please, I really don't like the idea of killing!" Shouki stated. "If you saw someone die, you would think the same thing I do. I don't care if it solves any problems, but killing is killing anyway you look at it." By now he was slightly trembling and had small tears forming in his eyes. Death was always a sensitive topic for him to talk about or even listen to. "Nothing good comes from someone dying." His prayer beads where moving slightly as he spoke.
"Easy there Shouki," Kirimon said softly. The digimon floated over to Shouki and patted him on the back with his tail.
Shouki turned to Shireika after Hanarei seemed to have threatened the girl. He wiped his eyes for a moment to clear them. "It's really hard to explain, Shireika. We think Kousei is Akurei and from the sound of it, you know who Akurei is. But we also think he wants you to, um, that it, he may want to...."
"Do what Tegiwa and Naoko will probably be doing in the next ten minutes," Kirimon added.
"Kirimon!"
"Well it's true but I would give them five."
Shouki blushed at the comment that seemed inappropriate at the moment. "Anyway," he continued, "we were told that Akurei may have reincarnated as Kousei. And before that, Akurei loved your late mother. So we think Kousei is trying to get to you now."
***
"Akurei tried to seduce your mother," Asayake said, looking at Shireika softly and reseating herself now that Shireika had found her way back to them; it made her far less tense, "And somehow, she ended up splitting into two diffferent entities; Sutako, your mother, and Seiyami. Seiyami became Akurei's... I guess you'd call her a little warrior doll. Seiyami and Akurei were kind of like master and apprentice, and from what I understand, Akurei wanted Sutako to be his Queen. So, we think that Akurei -- who was reborn in Kousei -- is trying to seduce you, and make YOU into his Queen for his, um... uprising. I think would be the right word. That's pretty much all of the conclusions we got out of our research." Carefully, she pulled Rogishimon off of her shoulder, hugging the little bird to her chest and scratching her head absently.
"I'm not really sure what we're meant to do now, though. Matsuro-san said that since Akurei is a Protector, he'll keep being reborn, so even if we defeat him, he'll just come back. And what about the key? How do we keep it away from Kousei? It won't break apart again, and hiding it while it's all in one piece is a really bad idea. I feel kind of useless right now, I guess; we can fight to keep Kousei away from the key, and away from Sutako, but he won't really go away. We'd have to find a way to keep him from coming back if we wanted any good to come out of... whatever it is we're meant to do next."
***
Tegiwa was about to thrust Naoko off his lap when Shireika came in, but he had quickly decided against that action since something had come up, though not unexpectedly.
Naoko leaned back and whispered in his ear, "I love sitting in your lap Teggy. There's always a lump right where I need one...Just perfect."
Tegiwa wasn't sure how much more of this he could take in front of Shireika and his mom, not to mention his friends, but he damn sure wasn't going to get rid of Naoko until the others left. "Get used it. I'm not letting you go for a bit."
Shoorei was ignoring her son's antics. They'd have words at home. "The worst thing is: the Fates are involved in this. They are the ones who told Kousei about the key in the first place. He might not know who he was in that former life. If you must kill him, then you must. But, those Fates are behind all this. It won't be easy to go agaist their wishes. I really hate the idea of harming someone who might be innocent, but the notion that the Fates may want you children to act as executionors is unconscionable.
"Shireika, did he seem to know more than he should? Was he still Kousei?"
Suzumon spoke, "Sonne was on of the worst battles in World War I. Under command of Gen Haig, British forces threw themselves against a hardened enemy line. There were over 50,000 causities in one day."
"Wasn't that the war where they played in dirt ravines?" Robotmon asked boredly.
"Yeah, thats the one. Humans are weird."
***
"I suppose you could say he was still Kousei," Shireika replied to Sho-rei. She brought a hand to her mouth and touched her lips with her fingers slowly. She could still feel his lips on hers. "He never mentioned anything about queens or Akurei." She hadn't asked either, and she had no intention of telling them what she and Kousei had talked about. Well, what Kousei had told her. She hadn't really talked much when she was with him. "But -" she murmured as she sat down. She seemed to daze off into her own world.
"Shireika," Hanshin spoke sharply as he walked over to her. He grabbed her by the arm. "Listen to us. Kousei isn't just the nice soccer coach at our high school."
"I get that," she replied.
"He is Akurei, the same bastard who tried to kill Mom and Dad. He tried to seduce Mom. Now, he wants to do the same thing to you. He wants to make you his queen, so he can do whatever he wants. He wants to be powerful again." He grabbed the key off the table. "And, he just wants this key because it unlocks his powers! He's using you and all of us to regain his power. We have to stop him and get rid of him before he gets what he wants."
Shireika bit her lower lip as she considered what Hanshin was telling her.
"What are you thinking about?" Hanshin asked. "This should be completely obvious to you. Don't tell me that you actually remotely like the guy! Shireika, that's what he wanted all along. He wants you to choose him over us. He wants to use you against all of us. He'll turn you into that queen so you can destroy us, as he always wanted."
All their words ran through Shireika's mind. Stay away from that monster...make YOU into his Queen...We think Kousei is Akurei...he wants to be powerful again...tried to seduce Mom.
"So, is that what you guys want to do?" Shireika asked after she had thought for some time. "Kill him?" She looked around at the others. "If Akurei is so dangerous, then we have to get rid of him, right?"
***
"If it means keeping that creep from ever coming to power, I'm willing to do what needs to be done," Hanarei stated. She didn't care if she had to do it alone, but the idea of Akurei coming back to power along with Shireika as his dark queen was something Hanarei never wanted to have happen. It seemed as though the very thought brought images to her that were beyond unpleasent. If fact, they felt done right painful. "Listen, Highness, Kousei is bad news. Stay away from him if you know what's good for you or else I'll come after you as well."
Somehow those words sounded familiar to Hanarei. Maybe not the same words exactly but the idea it brought forth.
Shouki stepped over to Hanarei and timidly placed a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. "Please stop," he pleaded. "Why do you want to kill anything even another human." He pulled back his hand after the look on Hanarei's face scared him.
"What are we suppose to do then, huh? The guy's bad news and could very well kill someone with this power of his. And if he's still evil, even after the whole reincarnation thing, I'm not going to sit back wait for one of us to die first."
Shouki was about to leave the debate there but Kirimon seemed to have other ideas. He bumped Shouki's leg and pointed to Hanarei as though saying 'continue.' "But we don't know if he's evil. He may be good right now as far as we know. And if he is, then there would be no point in killing him."
***
"You know," Yuu said quietly, "I'm not sure we should do anything about Kousei-san right now. I mean, no matter what he was before, he's a human being right now. We... we can't kill him. We just can't. It wouldn't be right" She sat back down on her table, trying not to look at anyone, especially Shireika. "Maybe... maybe he really isn't bad anymore. He hasn't done anything to hurt us, and Matsuro-san is right, he used to be good. Even Akurei's entry in that encyclopedia said he was harmless now. Maybe if we just keep him away from the key and Shireika-san, he can just go on with his life."
Even Yuu knew that none of this was very convincing, but what else was there to say? All of this had been so much easier when the Watcher and the Dark Queen and Akurei were all just distant names, distant threats or distant memories. But when the living, breathing reality of it all came into play, what were they suppose to do with it? Who was the enemy now?
Yuu hugged her crossed arms tighter to her chest as if she were cold. None of this was simple anymore.
***
“Shireika!” Parumon said with a start, as she walked back in, making Tomeo turn his head around. “Thank god you’re okay. We were all worried about you.” He told her, and looked around at the others. “Look, Hanshin and Hanarei, I agree with you guys that he definitely can’t be trusted. I also agree that we have to do what we can to stop Kousei from getting his hands on the key. But, Asayake and Shouki are right. Hasn’t anybody learned from the pain we’ve inflicted on each other, fighting over the key? We can’t kill another human being – unless Kousei isn’t completely human, and has only shown us the side that is. But we’ve yet to prove that. And Enma’s right too, there has to be another option that just slaughtering him. Unless Shireika has what we need, we could use him to find out more information about his heritage, the dark queen, and maybe the Fates. And you heard what Sho-rei and Matsuro said – killing him won’t do anything, at least not now. Doing so would just put his spirit back under the Fates control, and they’ll just send him back in another shape or form forever to have him do what they want him to do. We could kill him to stop it temporarily, but then we’d just be giving ourselves false hope.” The situation looked hopeless – how could they get rid of Akurei/Kousei for good, without resorting to murder?
“I have an idea,” Parumon suggested, standing on top of a book to give her some height. “The Fates keep sending Kousei back for a purpose, right? So, what if we let him complete whatever purpose it is? Then when we kill him, the Fates won’t send him back, end of story.”
“I don’t think so. His purpose most likely is to rise back in power, and if Matsuro was right about Akurei being in power in his generation, then killing him back then that way won’t be as any good as killing him now.” A scowl crossed his forehead, and then he suddenly clicked his fingers, as if coming up with an idea. “The Fates. They’re the cause of all this, it all comes back to them. Contacting us whenever it’s appropriate for them – they’ve had too long making their power play.” He uttered disdainfully, with some contempt in his voice. “We should take the fight to them. They probably aren’t human; they should be the ones we should be killing! Then they wouldn’t be able to send Kousei back. Screw the fact they’re the ones who sent us our digimon partners, we should show them they can’t control us.” he said ominously.
“…I was going to say; maybe we could seal him away like his power has been sealed…” Parumon said, looking up at Tomeo with an admiring glint in her eye at him. “…but then again, digi-destined after us might be fooled by some other Watcher and fight over some dumb fragments to awaken him, too, repeating the whole stupid cycle. Anyway, I like your thinking better. Let’s send Kousei off away somewhere, and rip the Fates a new one. They oughta know by now that they can’t treat us like lab rats.”
Tomeo listened to Shouki for a second after Parumon, considering something. “Hmmm… you have a point there. What if I’ve got it all wrong… maybe the fates are trying to help us? Possibly, Kousei might be a good reincarnation of Akurei, and the Fates sent him back to help us in the battle against something even worse… like the Dark Queen. There may come a time in the future where we might be grateful for not killing him. Then, it even makes more sense to keep Kousei alive. If only he wasn’t so ambitious to get the key… until then, we have to presume he’s evil.”
***
Enma stretched and stared at the others. "So...you think Kousei is being forced into some sort of karmic retrobution?" She shrugged. "I guess you could say so. But still - killing a human is murder and I'm not up for that either way..." She looked at Parumon. "Maybe we could do something akin to that..."
Mitikomomon looked at Suzumon and Robotmon. "...is 50,000 people a lot?" he asked.
Enma covered his mouth. "In one day? Yes." she muttered.
***
"I don't WANT to kill him," stressed Asayake, a crease appearing in between her eyebrows, "I mean, reincarnation or not, he's still a person, and he didn't ask to be made one with an evil entity; but if Akurei somehow takes over his judgement, and the lives of other people are at steak, we'd have to. think about it; if he tried to kill one of us, or all of us, we'd have to defend ourselves, and the only way we could do that is to kill him." She made a sound that sounded half-way between a scoff and a groan, and crossed her arms over her chest. After remaining silent for a moment, Asayake picked up on her rant again, though her voice was much quieter.
"I've never thought I'd kill anyone. I've sometimes thought people didn't deserve to live, and I still say they don't, but I'd never thought it would be asked of me."
||'Come on, sweetie; I'll show you a good time.'||
||'Let go of her! Fuck off and let go!'||
"If I was just defending myself, I don't think I'd have the guts to actually kill anybody; but when you involve other people, you've got a whole new part to the story. If someone else gets involved, and their life is in danger, then I don't think I'd think twice if it was the only possible way to keep them out of harm's way."
||'Damn it, that hurt! You little bitch!'||
||'Don't you touch her again! Get the fuck away from us!'||
||'Aw, what'cha gonna do about it, Red? You gonna smack me again?'||
"That sounded rather morbid. It's true, though; if there was absolutely no other way to protect other people, then I don't think I'd hesitate." Aasykae gave a little shiver, then pushed her memories back into the corners of her mind again. She didn't want to think about that any more.
***
"Damn straight, you kids better not kill someone with ample reason. It's the Fates who set everything up, so you'll have to be very careful. Just keep one eye on the coach and another on that key. It should not have ever been remade in my humble opinion, but there nothing we can do now. If Shireika wants to see Kousei again, thats totally up to her. She's a big girl Hanshin. Kousei should be a normal guy, not to say thats without its hazards." Sho-rei had shifted her gaze slowly from Shireika to Hanshin as she spoke. "I guess we can trust the brother with the key." Her tone seemed to imply something like: "I'm glad I don't have a daughter."
Tegiwa spoke up, "I don't like the idea of killing...sounds pretty sad coming from me...I know we may have to, but it souldn't be the first thing we try. We don't know if Kousei /is/ Akurei just because he was Akurei. It's entirely up to Kousei reveal what he is to us, so we've got to watch his every move." He was glaring at the image of his mother, his dark face turned upward her pale one. "But, I can't agree that is safe for Shireka to hang..."
"Hush, she can decide that for herself. If she does it may be the best way for us to find ou what is going on. And, don't worry, Akurei didn't try to seduce Sutako; it was more like attempted rape. Kousei is different as far as I can judge. I'd be the last person to hold someone to the sins of a past life or a dual one. Just keep vigilant."
"Ok...mom."
"Sure thing Itoh-san. Is it ok if I choose to hang around Tegiwa since I'm a
big girl."
"No. I'd prefer if you didn't touch my son. Shireika isn't my child, but Tegiwa is. Parents can hold double standards."
"Triple Mom, Kaze gets to do what he wants."
"I have higher hopes for you than whats in your lap. I'm a mother, and no mother likes to see her son used"
"Obasama, I'd never use him. I'd just borrow him for a bit." Naoko was red with laughter.
"Naoko! I can't believe you think you are funny. You need severe help."
"Pooh."
Tegiwa wanted to crawl out from beneath Naoko and hide under the table. He knew Shireika was going to take a swipe at him like she always did. First mom, then her.
***
Shireika looked around as the others spoke. Some voted that Kousei should be stopped, but they didn't want to kill him. Except, what else could they do to stop him in his tracks? They believed him to be evil, so they had to stop him. They had to do something about it.
"Then, what do we want to do with him?" Shireika asked. "We can't exactly ignore the fact that he is Akurei, even if he is reborn and reincarnated. While the Fates may have sent him, he still makes his own choices. We all make our own decisions independent of whatever the Fates wants. They simply provide the choices we choose from." She paused. "Anyway, he probably chose to go after the key. He told me he wanted the power. It wasn't because the Fates told him to do it. He wanted to gain that power, and it turns it out that it was his former powers, right?"
"Right," Hanshin replied. "Since so many of you are opposed to killing the bastard, then what do you guys think we should do? We can't just let him get the key, and most of all, we can't let him continue to think that he could ever get it again. All of his efforts need to end now."
"So, what are you saying we should do?"
"We should show him what we'll do if he ever tries to get the key and his powers again," Hanshin suggested. "He still has yet to show us the location of the lock for this key." He held up the key. "It's kind of useless without something that needs to be unlocked, so we still have reason to see the bastard. Then, we have him swear to never do anything again to get the key." And to leave his twin sister alone. She was better without the manipulative creep, who wanted nothing more than power. He couldn't believe that the bastard even considered using her for such evil purposes.
"And how?" This all made Shireika worried. Were they going to threaten him? Nearly kill him? How exactly were they going to get him to promise to never want his powers again? Could they even do that?
"He's powerless, and we're not," Hanshin explained. "What do you guys think? We'll keep him alive, if that's what the Fates wanted, but we'll get him to beg for our mercy in exchange for an oath to remain powerless for life."
***
Hanarei puffed out her cheeks at all the protest about hurting or even killing Kousei. "Hmmp, fine," she said. She kicked the air in front of her from being annoyed by the protest. "But if the creep does try to kill anyone one of us, I want a full fledge apology from everyone who protested and that includes getting down on your knees and begging."
Himotomon hopped over to Hanarei and now bumped the girl to get her attention. "Hey Hanarei, I have an idea."
"About how to kill Kousei without the others knowing?"
"Not exactly." Himotomon looked over at the albino girl on the screen. "She seems pretty smart, don't you think? Not only that, but she was a previous member of the digi-destined. Why not ask her a few questions about what it was like and, while you're at it, maybe ask her about those images of yours."
Hanarei recoilded at the idea for a moment before glaring at Shoorei. "I don't know. I don't like the idea of someone knowing about something like this. It was a challenge just to tell the others about them."
"If you don't question anyone, you won't get any answers. Which would you like; guesses or complete answers?"
Hanarei now stared at Himotomon for a moment. "You can be so annoying sometimes," said Hanarei as she walked over to the image of Shoorei. "I take it you heard all of that? Mind if I stop by sometime to ask a few, um," she glanced behind her at the others then lowered her voice, "personal questions?"
***
Shouki breathed a sigh of relief as Hanarei left the debate between them. He always felt nervous around that girl. "I just don't want to see another dead body," said Shouki. He clasped a hand over his mouth as he said what he thought was a slip up on his part. He didn't mean to leave in the word 'another.'
Shouki had listened to Asayake's speech and knew just how she must have felt. If he had the chance, he would have done anything to save his sister, even if it put himself in danger. But somehow, her story seemed slightly different from his as though she had almost done something she regretted.
Wanting to change topics, Shouki continued the main topic everyone else was talking about. "Let's just leave him alone like Yuu said. Let's try to keep a distance from him just to be safe and avoid any contact with him. It isn't the best plan out there but it's the safest out there for us, right?"
Meanwhile, Kirimon floated over to Tegiwa and Naoko, listening to there conversation with Tegiwa's mom. Unable to resist the temptation, Kirimon decided to join in the conversation. "Tegiwa, if you're looking for your pride, I think it shriveled up and rolled behind that dust bunny over there."
***
"Something akin, huh?" Parumon grinned, looking over at Enma. "How about knocking the guy unconcious, and sending him to some hospital? That should put a dead-end on his plans for a while."
"As much as I like the idea, Parumon, it won't last forever." Tomeo said. "More likely, he'll come out feeling extremely pissed at us. Unless he goes into a coma and he spends the rest of his life as a vegetable... again, the idea's appealing, but then we don't know if the role the Fates gave him is meant to help us."
He listened to Asayake's reasoning, and still couldn't help that he, too, couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more behind her ordeal that no-one else knew about. He looked over at Shouki, too, as the mention of another dead body. Everybody seemed to have a dark past, and he wished he knew what they were.
"The 'threaten Kousei within an inch of his life' sounds like a good idea." Parumon said. "Maybe we can get some info out of him in the process that we didn't get the first time we let him walk away... intact."
"I still think Yuu, Enma, Asayake and Shouki are right." Tomeo disagreed. "If we just block Kousei out of our lives and avoid contact, we won't need anything to worry about. We might not know where that keyhole is, but Kousei can't do anything with it without the key anyway. Shireika," he paused, facing her, "I think it would be better if you entrusted Hanshin with the key for a while. That way, we'll know what Kousei's true intentions are. If he goes after Hanshin, we'll know without a doubt he wants his powers back." He stopped there, not planning on saying anything else. He knew Kousei was infatuated with Shireika in some way, but whether that was true or not he wasn't sure. Even if he came to Shireika, knowing how Kousei was secretive as the Watcher, he could try to seduce Shireika into getting the key back at him. But he wasn't entirely worried about it - he was certain even if Shireika was remotely interested about Kousei, she would have second thoughts now she was warned he was Akurei's reincarnation.
"So, you just want us to go back to the way things were?" Parumon said abruptly. "No battles, no digivolving, and pretend we don't know Kousei is pure evil reincarnated?"
"Yep." Tomeo said simply. "That's the plan."
"You're no fun." Parumon said, and curled around to rest on top of the book she had been standing on, watching Kirimon, Tegiwa and Naoko with some interest as the discussion went on.
***
Asayake let everyone's commentary sink in for a meoment, before adding another two cents of her own. "I'm not saying we pretend none of this happened, and move on with our lives; that would be like painting our asses red and waving them in front of a half-dozen hungry bulls. What I suggest we do, after listening to everyone's ideas, is that we confront Kousei about what we know now. There's a slim chance that he doesn't know about Akurei being a part of him, and maybe learning that will knock some sense into his head -- you know, that's probably wishful thinking. Anyhow, if we can tell him what we know and warn him of the consequences of persuing the key -- and possibly Shireika, depending on how you feel about this whole thing," she pointed at Shireika and gave hre a slightly worried look before continuing, "Then we can at least say we've done something. I agree with Itso-san in regards to doing anything rash that we can't nessicarily disregard in the future, because we have information and theories, but little fact at all. I say we settle for warning Kousei about what we are prepared to do to protect the key, and then watch him closely and see if we can't find out what the key would allow him to do, and just what he'd do with whatever it would give him."
"But Asayake," Rogishimon cooed, her head spinning slightly from the intake of information, "What exactly are we prepared to do about the key? What if he decides to try and take it by force?"
"Then we force him right back," Shrugged Asayake, trying to sound either-or about the issue, "It's all we can do until we know more about Akurei, his connection with Kousei, and that damned key."
***
Sho-rei was a little taken aback by Hanarei’s request. She had no idea what the girl could mean by personal questions. “Sure, Hanarei. That would be ok. Just come by when you are free sometime. I’m usually home. I’ll send the boys out for something if they happened to be around.” She tried to make that come out in a natural tone. Since Nikko was the school conselor, she guessed she couldn’t talk as freely with him as she had with Sho. Sho-rei would have to wait for Hanarei to show up before she’d learn more.
***
Robotmon finshed doing some calculations. “Fifty thousand people, dead, could fill a volume of 36 feet cubed. Or, graphically…”
Suzumon sighed, “We don’t need graphically with this topc.”
“Graphically, could fill this room and the rooms like it for three floors. Or, in your terms: its a lot.”
***
“Hanashin, I like the idea of scaring him away,” and Tegiwa added under his breath, “from Shireika.” He smiled at the idea. “We could….tar and feather him and run him out of town on a rail? No….to western….make him cut off part of finger if he troubles (shireika) us….no, to eastern….What could we do to scare him. He maybe human but he was Akurei.”
“The Wild Stallions could rent the apartement next door and rehearse. That would send anyone running.” Robotmon hypothesized.
“You take that back, His band is the greastest!,” Suzumon said.
“How do you know? Heard any others”
“A few and they were worse…plus Naoko told me.”
“I thought so”
Naoko thought of something, and nearly slipped off Tegiwa‘s lap. “If we can scare him within an inch of his life we can guess he at least fears death…so, maybe he won’t come back another time. That woud be good news.”
Tegiwa tighten his gripe around her waist. He actually enjoyed her attention occasionally when she wasn’t a pain. His legs were getting numb but he’d deal. “Naoko, I don’t think that’s something he has any control over.” He wished she was right, though. It’d be a relief to know they could deal with him in a normal fashion.
***
"Look, letting him just run around in this world and ignoring him isn't going to do anything," Hanshin said. "What are we? Apathetic losers who are just going to pretend nothing is a problem and, therefore, nothing bad will happen? He will still be on the loose, whether it's under the control of the Fates or not. Whichever it is, he is still around. Akurei isn't just a part of him. Kousei is Akurei, 100%. Reborn, reincarnated - he's the same guy. You heard Shireika. He told her that he wanted the key. He wanted that power because it belonged to him." He pointed at the books and then picked up the volume that had information on Akurei. "Akurei wanted the digi-destined dead. He wanted generations of digi-destined before us dead, and he didn't give up, did he? I don't think he's just going to stop now because we're going to pretend that we have no connections to him whatsoever. If he really wants that key, he's going to do whatever it takes, just like we did when we didn't know that the Watcher was the reborn Akurei." He paused as he put the book down. "I know you guys think I'm doing this just because Kousei's chasing after my sister, but this is serious. We cannot ignore what has already happened. Pretending that we never had anything to do with the Watcher won't do anything but let him believe that he can just continue what he has been doing. It will signal to him that we don't care about the key. If we're going to put an end to this, we have to get him to swear it."
"If we make it clear that we will meet him with punishment for trying to gain the key, he'll stop," Shireika added. "He was stripped of his powers because he was dangerous and threatened the order and safety of the universe. Ignoring him won't keep him from wanting his powers back. I know that you guys would rather just leave it all alone, but we're digi-destined. We're beyond that. We don't just ignore problems. We are here to protect this world and the universe, so we have to do what it takes to do that. Kousei can still go after the key, even if Hanshin holds onto it. We have to make it clear to him that he should never try to get his hands on it again, or this may never end."
***
"Good, I'll give you a call when I have the chance," Hanarei said to Sho-rei, leaving off the 'thank you' as usual.
Turning her attention back to the main discussion, Hanarei heard snippets of it but gathered the general idea. "And now the twin brats say something that I wholly agree on," said Hanarei. "He's going to do whatever it takes to get back that key. I bet all of these books don't even describe a one tenth of what Akurei is capable of. Why give the guy a chance to squish us first? But Tomeo, you have a point about giving the key to Hanshin for awhile. He could throw it into his room and no one would find it for years I bet." Hanarei glanced over at Shireika. "Plus, it'll eliminate the possibility of her Highness get too cuddly with the guy and handing it over to him on a silver plate."
"The problem is what do we do that's enough to scare the creep away? He was once the most powerful being on... wherever. I doubt it'll be more than a simple 'boo!' to stop the guy."
***
Shouki was glad to have some support on his idea of leaving Kousei alone and avoiding him but it seemed as though Hanshin and even Shireika were strongly against it. Shouki quietly sighed and diverted his gaze slightly downward at the floor without moving his head.
"I just didn't want there to be more fighting if we could avoid it," he said. "I just don't see why we should suddenly pick a fight with him because of theories on what he's going to do next. But since Shireika is the one who seems to be in the most danger, and she wants to go through with it, then...." He didn't know how he should have finished that sentence. He seemed to be backing down from his statement. "If we do have to do something, can we please just keep it to talking and leave fighting as the last of last options?"
Meanwhile, Kirimon seemed to still be focusing on Tegiwa and Naoko. "Well," Kirimon said to Tegiwa, "you could go somewhere in the middle and send his cut off, tarred and feathered hand on the rail or whatever you said."
***
"Thanks, Hanarei." Tomeo said gratefully, feeling appreciated for his idea. "I'm not saying you're untrustworthy, Shireika; but sometimes as much as we will it, emotion can get the best of us and catch us off-guard, or make us miss details. To steel ourselves from Kousei getting the key, I think it would be best if it went over to Hanshin for the time-being." He considered the Asayake and the twin's ideas for a moment, and then said, "Y'know, perhaps you guys are right. I just didn't want to justify the thought that we had to kill another human being. But you know, that's just it; Kousei is human, reincarnation of prime evil or not. Aware or unaware of it, we should treat him like a human being, instead of hiding or trying to kill him." He looked at Shouki.
"There's no need to pick a fight. We can just approach Kousei in a reasonable fashion, tell him everything we know about the research we've done. Get him to reveal what he knows and what his motives are, and no matter what he tells us, we say we've come to a unanimous decision. He's not to touch or go near the key, or have someone else get it for him. Say that it's punishable by death... I know, but if he's going to break it and become something else other than human with the evil power, then eventually we'll have to stop him regardless. Anyway, lay down some sort of punishment if he breaks the rule. Then, we give him a choice: walk away, or... or else."
"I like the 'or else' part." Parumon smirked, crossing her forelegs in front of her as she rolled onto her belly as she stretched. "Then we can show a demonstration of our powers... and hope it scares him, rather than tempting him."
"It's the only humane way to deal with it; I don't know why I didn't think of it before." Tomeo shrugged. "I guess I was just sick of having to deal with the little weasel without resorting to murder. But he is human now, we have to give him the benefit of the doubt." A thought crossed his mind, the thought Asayake had said earlier about having to kill a person if they threatened a life. A sudden image popped into his head of Kousei turning on the digidestined, with a knife at Asayake's throat as he held her hostage. Would he justify killing Kousei then, after he had mercilessly slit her throat? Yes, he decided, he definitely would.
***
"If we're going to do something, we need to do it soon," said Asayake, tuging lightly on the end of one of her pigtails, "Just sitting here arguing about it isn't going to get anything done. If we need to threaten him in order to keep him at bay, then I say we do it; I just didn't want anyone all gung-ho about bashing his head in or something, until we know just what he wants with the key. If he wants world domination or something, I say we beat it out of him, by all means, but until we know that for sure we should at least be slightly reserved about it."
She gave Shouki an indistinctive look, before snatching a piece of paper and a pen out of her bag and scribbling something down on it. She read it over quickly, nodded once, then scrunched it up into a ball and tossed it at his head.
***
Naoko yawned loudly and stretched her arms causing her high cut top to rise even higher. Her electric tatoo currently read "Aijin" in kanji/kana. "If Hanshin thinks he should be tortured, tarred and feathered, or just bounced off the wall until he's bloody, its fine with me, but I'd rather not kill him since then we would be out of a job."
"Trite reasons." Robotmon grumbled.
"I'm a trite girl."
The little robot shrugged. "If we just want to scare him... lock him in the closet with Naoko. That would scare anyone."
Suzumon rolled into a ball and flung himself at Robotmon. "You hang out with Shireika and Tegiewa too much!"
Tegiwa ignored Kirimon as best he could although he wouldn't mind shriveling up and rolling behind a dust bunny himself. Unforunately, having Naoko hanging on him meant nothing was likely to be shriveling. "I don't think we should pound him for mistakes he's made because of the Fates. He's an innocent pawn in most of this. (*whispered* though if he touches Shireika...I'd pound him along side Hanshin.) It's the Fates fault; he was set up."
Shoorei looked at her son. "You can't excuse everything in life on the Fates, meddlesome though they are.Kousei had to make choices to get the key. Those choices included setting all of you up and lying to you. Just avoid killing him, whatever you deicide."
***
Matsuro had returned to the room with the digi-destined upon realizing that maybe he needed to help them more. It sounded like they weren't getting very far.
"Sho-rei's right," Matsuro said as he interrupted. "As influential as the Fates are, the Protectors still have their own lives. They make their own decisions based on what choices the Fates give them. The Fates merely sent him here. Everything else is history, all based on his own choosing. They gave him pathways. Not a path, but pathways."
"Exactly," Shireika added. "The Fates give us choices as beings in this universe. We can either do what they want or not - it is our choice. We're not sure whether the Fates put him up to finding the key." He glanced towards Tegiwa. "We won't kill him, but we should make it clear that the choices he made were wrong."
"That liar," Hanshin grumbled. "He pretended to be a coach to us. He pretended to not know anything. He's been lying to us. He claims to be the Watcher, when that's all just a name so that we'll do what he wants. He's been playing us from the start and caused us to fight each other. That should be enough to want to punish him. And we have the means to do it." He pointed towards Parumon and at other digimon. "We digivolve and show him our strength - not enough to kill him, but enough to make it clear that if he wants to cause trouble, he won't get away with it. So, what do you guys say to that?"
***
"Hmmp, I guess," Hanarei said to Hanshin's question. "Since I can fly as Hanabimon I wouldn't mind dropping him into the ocean or something like that. I just have one request before I fully agree to this rule; we go by the one strike system. That means if he steps out of line once, even a toe, it's an all out battle royale on Kousei."
***
Shouki nodded as everyone seemed to come to some conclusion on how to deal with Kousei. His attention was diverted when a wad of paper hit him in the head. Maybe it was Kirimon's imagination, but Shouki let out quiet scream that sounded like a cat meowing. "Nyaa!"
Even though it didn't hurt, Shouki still rubbed the spot where it hit out of habit. He looked down at the piece of paper, picked it up, and unfolded it to read it.
[I think we've got more in common than most people would like. If you ever want to talk about something, use that diary I got you, or give me a call at this number: 086-7457-8561. I know what it's like when you feel like you've got no one to talk to.]
Shouki glanced over at Asayake and before looking back at the note. Folding it back up, he stuffed it into one of his pockets. 'It would be nice to talk about it with someone I guess,' he thought. 'But I'm not really good at explaining this to people. How am I going to tell her then?' Trying to remember everything in the note, Shouki suddenly came up with an idea how to do it.
***
Sho-rei was rather surprized at just how unstable this group was. They'd need each other when things got tough, but they still might be the largest of dangers to themselves. "I've got to go. Remember you digimon might not fully evlove if there isn't a pressing need, so be careful. Oh, and Akurei would know exactly what digimon could do; he had an army of them and other things. He wanted to march them across the worlds just do get to us.....Take care kids" the room went dark as she faded.
Tegiwa nodded. "That's a plan Hanshin. Let's get the freak and teach him some manners, man."
Naoko shrugged. "It's fine with Hanshin, so I'll do it. Now, what do we know about this guy and where he lives so we can plan?"
***
"He has yet to show us where we take this key to unlock his powers," Hanshin said. "We can contact him and ask him to meet us to show us what to do with this key. Saturday, so it looks like we took our time to decide what to do." He glanced towards Shireika. "Can you contact him and set something up?"
Shireika nodded as she got up from the table.
"You'll hear from him about a time and place," she said as she pushed her chair back in.
"And then, we'll do whatever we have to do," Hanshin continued. "As long as he gets the idea that he better stick with being normal like everyone else in this world and forget about trying to get the key. He no longer deserves to have power. While it was a past life, he's still the same man. He is still Akurei."
"We got it," Shireika interrupted as she turned away from the table. "If that's all, I'm off." She glanced back at Hanshin and pointed towards the key in his hand. "Keep track of that thing. I don't want to hear that it got lost in your room." She looked around quickly. "I'll see you all later." Her eyes stopped at Tegiwa briefly before she finally left Matsuro's private library.
Hanshin followed after her, stopping outside the door to Matsuro's office to watch her walk out of the building. He knew she wasn't happy that she no longer held onto the key, but it was better in his hands. Kousei could try to do something absolutely horrible to his sister to get the key. But, this was the only thing they could do. They had to stop the reborn Akurei from bringing destruction to the universe again. Isn't that why they stripped him of his powers?
Though, why the Fates allowed Akurei to be reborn at Kousei was still a mystery. Whatever the case was, Kousei clearly was still Akurei. He hadn't changed despite being reborn and stripped of his powers. He would use whoever he needed to get what he wanted, including Shireika and all the current digi-destined.
***
Shireika stood outside the building on Tokyo University's campus. She held onto her umbrella tightly as it protected her from the rain that was coming down all day. Was Kousei planning to just use her? Was she just another tool to get his powers and to what he always had done? But, he said he loved her. He said that he had fallen in love with her, despite all his initial intentions. Was that all a lie too? Matters had to be so complicated as a Protector. Why couldn't things just be simple, like for everyone else? There was always something that made matters worse.
***
"Looks like her Highness is upset," said Hanarei sounding indifferent. She looked around at the others and grabbed Himotomon and the rest of her stuff. "It's been a barrel of fun, but I'm going to see if I can have a talk with your mom, Tegiwa." Without a second glance back at everyone, she waved once and left the library.
***
Hanarei stood outside the door to Tegiwa's residense. Hanarei called Sho-rei before she came to give her a heads up. She kept hoping Sho-rei had the time to answer a few questions.
"Aren't you going to knock or ring the doorbell?" said Himotomon.
"Y-yeah," Hanarei replied. "I'm just a little...."
"Afraid?
"No!" Hanarei snapped back. "It's just that... what if she doesn't have the answers I need or maybe answers that I don't want to hear?"
"You won't know until you try," Himotomon reassured her. "Now, why don't you try?"
Hanarei nodded. She raised her hand up and pushed the doorbell.
***
Shouki was reaching into his backpack and pulled out the diary Asayake handed him and a pen. He found a quiet part of the library away from the others and sat down. He kept thinking over how to phrase things and was slowly writing at first. As he continued to write, he was pausing less and his speed was increasing.
Kirimon noticed his partner writing in the diary and floated over to Shouki. He peeked over Shouki's shoulder to see what he wrote but Shouki moved to hide what he was writing. Still, Kirimon was able to see how much Shouki had already written. "Whoa, Shouki, are you writing a novel?" said Kirimon.
Shouki remained quiet and continued to write. After several minutes, he put down his pen and closed the diary. Kirimon noticed there were a few small tears in Shouki's eyes. "Are you okay there Shouki?"
Shouki used a sleeve to wipe the tears away and nodded. He walked over to Asayake and handed her the diary. "Please... don't let anyone else see this," he said.
***
"Digivolving?" Parumon said, as Hanshin pointed at her. "Um, well, I don't know if I could put up a bigger impression than most...but yeah, we'll do it."
Tomeo watched the interaction between Shouki and Asayake, and couldn't help but feel his gut lurch, as if being grabbed by an invisible hand and pulled upwards. He couldn't help but feel as if he was missing out on something he wanted to know about, but realised how stupid he was reacting. 'It's not about me, not everything is about me...' he thought to himself, and stirred out of his own thoughts as he realised that some of the others were leaving, indicating the meeting was over.
"Oh, it's raining! I love this weather..." Parumon smiled, scattering up Tomeo's shoulder. Finding an excuse to leave, he grabbed his things and waved briefly to the others. "We're going for walk, to clear our heads... see you soon." He turned around quickly, not even casting a look at Asayake. He couldn't bear the thought of the expression on her face, or even if she had one at all. He felt stupid, unable to pinpoint why he felt strange everytime he saw Asayake. What was he thinking? He knew what the group had to do and their plan was set out, but his mind still felt heavy and aching. He felt like he wanted to be alone for a while to clear his head, but he felt rude if he didn't bring Parumon with him. Forgetting to bring his coat, he looked out from the library at the pouring rain above, deciding to risk it and go as he was. He felt cold rain trickle down his hair and neck as he started walking, hurrying briskily past Shireika.
"See ya, Shireika!" Parumon waved with her tail as she lay wrapped around Tomeo's neck like a scarf, then looked down at her partner. "Okay," she said at last with a sigh accompanied, when she realised Tomeo hadn't greeted her as well. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Tomeo lied, and kept walking. He didn't have anything to say to Shireika that he had already said in the meeting, and he was sure she wanted to be alone, too. Parumon fell silent, unsure what to say, and soon started to notice the soothing effect of the rain dappling her water-absorbing, scaly skin. She stretched out lazily on Tomeo's shoulders, like a lizard in the sun. Tomeo didn't see any other people out in the rain who could catch a glimpse of her, and even if they did they probably couldn't make him out well in the downpour.
He didn't know what to think of anymore - so much was going through his head. He felt like he had been going on for miles and miles, and he just needed to vent his thoughts by stepping back from them and relaxing for a while. And more than anything, walking helped him relax, and get his thoughts back in order. "We're just going to go around the block," he informed Parumon. "Maybe to the park... I dunno. Somewhere." He hadn't planned it, but he didn't care. He never used to when he usually decided to go jogging. He just went wherever, throwing caution to the wind. He joined Parumon as his head felt soothed against the cold of the rain, looking up peacefully at the stormy grey sky.
***
Enma listened to the rest of the conversation, not particularly paying attention to the others. She heard bits of conversation, mostly about luring Kousei or something to that effect, but nothing registered. "Enma?" Enma looked down at Mitikomomon.
"What?"
"A lot of people have left already. Can we go now?" he asked.
"Sure." She picked him up and nodded to the others that were still left. "I've got work anyway." she left the library and walked through the university until she was outside. She saw Shireika, and came up to her. "Hey." she said, before realizing she really had nothing to say to the other girl. "Um...I know...that this is probably hard for you...y'know, because of Kousei and everything and...no matter what your feelings towards him are he is still human and it's...well...I just wanted to make sure you were okay." She said, wincing at her own stuttering. "Look, if you ever need anything - like either moral support or just someone to talk to or whatever and you can't talk to Tegiwa, just give me a call, if you want. I know we haven't been on the best of terms ever, but my mom's a grief concellor; I must have picked up something, right?" she checked her watch. "Shit, I'm late, Kou's going to kill me!" She looked back at Shireika. "Sorry, gotta fly."
Enma started to jog towards the shop, hugging Mitikomomon to her chest. "Latelateshitlatedamnit..." she muttered over and over. She turned the corner leading to the shop, and slowed, out of breath. She walked towards the building, humming to herself.
"What's that?" Mitikomomon asked. Enma looked around.
"What's what?"
"What you were humming, what was it?"
"Oh..." Enma blushed slightly as she reached the door to the shop. "It's called Superlover, it was written a long time ago - like when my grandmother was a teenager - It was sung by a woman named Ramona Keller."
"Oh." Mitikomomon smiled. "Okay!"
"Now shut up! Kou thinks you're stuffed, remember?"
"Right." Mitikomomon became stiff as Enma entered the shop.
***
Asayake looked at the diary in her hands, then back up at Shouki's face, then at the diary again. He wanted her to read what he'd written? That wasn't quite what she'd meant by talking in her note, but she figured it was a rather large step for the boy. Smiling encouragingly, she slipped the little diary into her bag and pulled out her little collapsable umbrella. "Don't worry, Shouki; your eyes only, unless otherwise stated. I should probably head home before this rain comes down any harder, so I'll read it there away from everyone else. I'll get it back to you next time I see you, okay?" The redhead thought Shouki looked a little like he was on the verge of tears, so she did the only thing she could think to do; she pulled him into a short hug. It was the most intimate gesture she'd given anyone in years, and she suddenly remembered why hugging made people feel so special. She smiled at him again before heading out of Matsuro's library, and heading home.
She was rather disappointed to note that Tomeo had already left.
***
[It's hard for me to talk about what happened so I am writing it down. What I am about to write is both personal and explains why I am the way I am today.
It all started 9 years ago. I had a big sister back then. She was called Hikaru and was 5 years older than me. I deeply loved my sister and thought she was an angel. She was one of the top students in school, had a beautiful personality, was loved by many and hated by none. To me she was perfect in every way and I loved being her younger brother.
But that all ended 9 years ago. I was with her that night. We were walking together to the station on a foggy night. I ran ahead of her over the crosswalk and onto the other side of the street. I called to her to hurry up. She was on the crosswalk when an out-of-control car came by and hit her before my eyes. I called out her name but she wasn't moving. I knew what had happened.
Since then, I've been trying to be just like her. I've kept my prayer beads with me since then as a reminder. But it feels like no matter what I do, I can never be like her, not even a tenth of what she was like. I feel like I failed myself and her memory. That is why I am like this and why I haven't smiled since that day.]
Asayake closed Shouki's diary slowly, still staring down at it for a suspended moment after it had closed. Rogishimon looked at her, slightly worried, but she just shook her head sharply and pushed back from her desk. She hurried around her room, pulling a raincoat out of her closet and grabbing the slightly dusty case for her seldom-used acoustic guitar. "I'm going to the park for a bit," she said blandly as she flitted around her room, "You can come if you'd like." Rogishimon only nodded, and hid in the hood of Asayake's jacket.
Trudging through the puddles in her wake, Asayake headed over to the park she always used for karate practise. As the rain came down around her and Rogishimon, she walked a short way through the wet grass of the park and through the little nature trail only a short way from the sidewalk.
It was always relatively dry here in the rain, as long as it didn't get too heavy, because of the thick canopy the little grove of trees created above the secluded little park bench in the middle of it all. Not many people knew about this particular bench, as the nature trail was right through one of the overgrown portions of the park gardens, and it was always very private. She set her guitar case down on the bench and pulled the hood from her head, and Rogishimon unburied herself from the crook of Asayake's neck. "Can I come out?"
"Sure," said the girl, opening the case to her guitar, "No one usually comes here, and there's enough branches and things to pretty much hide us." She found herself a seat beside her guitar case, and strummed an open note on her guitar; she winced slightly, as the guitar was so seldom used that it was out of tune. After a bit of tweaking, however, it sounded fine.
"Why are we here?" Rogishimon asked, curiosity getting the better of her. Asyake didn't answer, but stared down at the strings of her guitar. Rogishimon began to feel slightly unfomfortable, and perched herself on top of the case beside her digi-destened. Only a few more moments of nothing but rain followed before Asayake began to strum out a melody, and soon Rogishimon was swaying softly with it. Rogishimon noticed that it was still a sad song, but it wasn't the same sadness in most of Asayake's songs. The little white bird was startled out of her swaying when Asayake began humming along, and then began to sing.
"You'd never know my love for you; you'd never hear me say, that everything I am, and all I want to be is what you are today. As if the sun refused to shine, my world became so grey, when every single smile, and each and every minute, was so harshly snatched away..."
***
Naoko slid off of Tegiwa's lap, pulled him up by the hand and led him toward the door. He followed as if in a daze, not noticing much of anything. Naoko paused behind Shouki long enough to grip his shoulders in an almost sisterly fashion, more sisterly than she'd probably been to Mariko. "Call me." She didn't add her usual flirt with the statement, but sounded serious for a change. The seriousness left her when she turned back to towing Tegiwa. She gave him a smile. "Let's get out of here."
"What? Why..."
"The meeting over, lame-brain. I'm bored. I gotta haul someone along with me to have some fun. Shouki looks like he needs some alone time, so it's you."
Robotmon was stashed in Tegiwa's pocket. "Sounds like Naoko to need a guy for fun."
"Hey, I can have fun with girls too. None of those are really my type though. Well, Enma's kind of cute...Asayake has that wonderful lip ring...and Yuu... Well, never mind that. I can't believe I'm speaking with a pocket toaster. Anyway, Tegiwa, you get to hold the umberella."
"Naoko, are you serious about..."
"The umberella, yes....the girls...you can figure it out for youself." She lead them down the hall and out the door to the Quad and into the rain. "We better summon a car. It's realy coming down."
Tegiwa had been hoping to save some credits and walk to a platform, but not even a duck would appreciate this weather. Or a fish. Tegiwa watched a few imanary salmon swim up the drive to the library, as they waited for a public car to appear at the summons.
***
Sho-rei answered the door. "Please, Hanarei. Come in. What can I help you with?"
***
Shireika pulled out her computer and typed a quick message:
{Enma: thank you. I'll try to remember that. -Shireika]
She sent the message and put her computer away. She had wanted to write more, but she realized that probably wasn't a good idea. There wasn't anyone she could talk to about it anyway, and if anyone knew, it was far more dangerous than anyone could imagine. Well, at least, she believed it to be.
She spotted Naoko and Tegiwa out of the corner of her eye - why they were standing together was beyond her comprehension. Why Tegiwa even associated with the slut was more of a mystery, but her good friend was like that. He pitied many, and he tended to get sucked into things like this. But, Naoko had her ways - just like she had with Hanshin. Beyond wanting to pry Naoko away from her closest and dearest friend, Shireika wanted to clear her head. She knew Tegiwa had been avoiding her for most of the past two weeks and maybe the past month. She needed his support.
She approached them and tapped Tegiwa on the shoulder.
"Take a walk with me?" she asked.
***
Hanshin kept his distance as he followed Shireika around campus for a bit. She had been partly in that thought-dream world of hers that she would wander to occassionally, but she seemed aware of other people around her. He wasn't sure whether to pity her or to just let her be that way. Kousei's lies were probably bothering her, and she probably needed time to digest it all.
He was glad to see that Shireika was talking to Tegiwa. At least, she was going to talk to someone that she trusted. It would have been terrible if she had kept it all to herself or had exploded to the meeting, which he had feared.
Still, there was something else to all of this. He didn't have any idea of what it was. Maybe the Fates had a purpose for Kousei, a good purpose. No, that couldn't be. The Fates wouldn't just let an evil man get away with it all. Akurei had been terrible. There was no way that the Fates would just let his sins be forgotten.
***
Hanarei nodded to Sho-rei and entered. She ran a hand through her hair to brush off most of the rain from her. Her bag was tightly closed and was now wiggling.
"Can I come out now?" cried a muffled voice from Himotomon. "Are we out of the rain?"
"Yes, we're out," said Hanarei. She unzipped the bag and Himotomon instantly popped out.
"I hate the rain," Himotomon panted.
"Big surprise." Hanarei looked over at Sho-rei for a moment. "She's made of fire but doesn't actually burn things. No need to worry." She set her bag down and Himotomon started to roam around the room. "Well, I guess I should get started, huh?
"I know you were a member of the previous digi-destined," Hanarei started off. "This may seem a bit personal to ask or difficult to answer, but c-could you tell me what my father was like when you were all digidestined? I tried asking him to explain the whole digimon thing to me but I feel like he's been editting out parts for me, specifically parts relating to him. My other question is a little... odd."
Hanarei rubbed the back of her neck and started letting her eyes wander around the room for a few seconds. "The thing is--lately, I've been seeing images; images that I don't know about but explain things to me. They've been telling me things like who Shireika's mom is, an explanation for who Akurei and an intense sense of loathing for him, and even telling me about you breaking your leg in the digital world even though I didn't know about those things before." Hanarei was glad to get out the difficult part of this meeting, her telling Sho-rei about the images. "You-you seemed really smart and I've heard a few things about you so I was wondering if maybe you could... ... theorize?" She knew she was asking a lot, but it seemed like the only option she could think of.
***
Shouki's insides felt as though they were shocked as Asayake pulled him into a hug. Sure, he'd been hugged before by his family and such, but it never felt like that before. It also felt nice to feel Naoko's grip on his shoulder. Talking about his late sister was always difficult for him to discuss. He figured it really showed on his face that time. He watched as almost everyone left the room and then looked down at Kirimon.
"You see that?" said Kirimon. "You're not as alone as you think you are."
Shouki nodded his head slightly in agreement. With most of the group gone, Shouki figured it was his time to go as well. He picked up his things and threw them into his backpack. Kirimon hoped in before Shouki lifted the backpack over his shoulder. Shouki took one look outside and frowned (well, more-so than usual). He had brought an umbrella with him but from the looks of it the umbrella would only do so much against this much rain.
"I'm going to wait out the rain and see if it lightens up a little before I head home," he announced. He walked toward the door and said, "See you later, Yuu. Mr. Matsuro." Shouki left the library and soon found himself standing next to the exit of the building.
The lighting gave the scene an interesting feeling. That part of the building wasn't well lit and cast it mostly in shadows while the doorway allowed a dull light to enter the hallway. Shouki waited there, not sure when he would move on. He looked around at the scene around him and sighed. "Stuck between the shadows and the light."
***
Lightning crashed in the stormy grey sky overhead, and Tomeo found himself looking up at the sky more and more as he walked the dark, empty streets. By the time he realized where he was, he had found himself in the park. Shivering suddenly, he began to regret his decision for staying out in the rain for so long, and decided that he should seek shelter as soon as possible.
"You're cold." Parumon said from his shoulder, as he shivered again, and spoke as if she had reached the same conclusion. "You should get out of the rain. Humans don’t last very long in the water, remember? Look, your fingers are wrinkling up again."
"Yeah..." Tomeo nodded and shivered again as he walked down the main path, looking for what options he had for cover. Spotting a nature trail up ahead, he decided that the trees would at least offer some shelter from the rain and help him regain some warmth. As he reached the shelter of the trees, in between the clashes of thunder, he thought he could hear something through the downpour of rain around him that was out of the ordinary. He stopped, listening to determine what it was.
"What's the matter? Let's go." Parumon said, who obviously hadn't caught on.
"Okay..." Tomeo said, but he did not move. If he hadn't stopped to listen, he would have missed it, but he was sure he could hear music coming from somewhere in the trees. His curiosity rising, he followed the nature trail towards the sound. At first he could only hear the strumming of an instrument that could only be an acoustic guitar, and then he could hear a girl's sweet voice. There was a kind of beauty to it as the song seemed to echo some of the feelings he had right then in his heart, and he felt a very strong inclination to skip the path and walk through the trees straight towards the sound. The path curved away as he followed it, and right then he felt he had no choice but to plunge straight into the trees.
"What are we doing?" he heard Parumon ask pointedly, noticing her partner step unexpectantly off the path. "Has that cold you've got gone through to your head?"
"Can't you hear it?" Tomeo demanded, crashing through the undergrowth as he looked ahead to see if he was getting any closer.
Parumon listened for a moment, and then said, "Oh, that? That could be anything, Tomeo... we could just be sneaking up on someone listening to music. Let's go back, please?"
Tomeo shook his head, resisting. "What did I expect? You've got slits for ears, Parumon... listen."
With the branches that kept snagging his clothes, he was quickly covered with cuts and scratches, but he felt mesmerized towards the music, entranced as if the song was speaking to him somehow. Finally reaching what looked like a small clearing, he stepped forward only to snag his foot on a fallen sapling, and tripped, stumbling onto the grass awkwardly as he made his entrance.
"Oof…hello? Is... oh." he halted, and realized he had just not only interrupted someone in mid-song sitting in a little grove of trees on a park bench, but also realized this person was Asayake. He must have looked quite the sight; soaked, cut and shivering slightly, and he realized this as well, and looked awkwardly at Asayake, then himself, then at the view that could be seen adjacent to the bench, although the latter was much more instantaneous. Combined with the memory of how he had left the library earlier, the words that came out of his mouth didn't come out as he had planned them to until he realized they had half a second later.
"Asayake... um, hi. Um, sorry... I, um…" he said, looking consciously down at his rain-soaked clothes, and shuddered from the wet clothing subconsciously. He looked around for anything to take the focus off himself and, with some surprise, realized why he had been drawn here in the first place as he spotted Asayake's guitar. "Hey, I didn't know you played the guitar... that song you were playing just now... I... I liked it." he blurted out, hating himself for the poor choice of words he had picked.
"Heya, Asayake, Rogishimon." Parumon said blankly, trying to ignore her partner's obvious embarrassment. "Nice weather, isn't it?" She nipped at Tomeo's ear fondly and pointed with her front webbed toes at the seat next to Asayake.
Tomeo got the message, his eyes darting towards the empty seat and hissed a quiet 'no' back to a confused Parumon. He had almost half-expected to see Shouki sitting there, and then mentally kicked himself for his own stupidity. 'Don't be jealous, you can't assume anything... why am I jealous? What's wrong with me...!?' he thought quietly to himself. He couldn't bring himself to move, as easy as it was it was difficult for him; he felt rude and wrong somehow taking the seat on the small bench uninvited. Paralyzed to the spot, his eyes moved instead back to the view in front of the bench, trying to conjure up words to fill the stunned silence.
"So, your song... does it have a title?" he wondered, and shivered again. He felt horrified, knowing how stupid and drenched he must have looked, and wished he could have stumbled upon Asayake in a different way.
***
Asayake strummed a sour chord on her guitar as Tomeo came crashing into the small clearing, and choked on the lyrics she'd been about to sing. Dear God, he'd heard her! He'd heard her singing! She felt a wave of heat fight it's way up the back of her neck and across her cheeks, and attempted to beat it back; it only half-worked. "Tomeo, uh... Hey," she breathed, trying to get her heart out of her throat; half of her was still startled from Tomeo's grand entrace, but the other half was suddenly overly warm and rather nervous. There was a rather good reason she'd chosen to sit all by her lonesome where she'd thought no one would find her, as she found a lot of her music very private, and embarrassing to sing in front of other people. "It... it doesn't really have a name yet. I was just... writing it." As she stared at the ground awkwardly, still fighting the blush in her cheeks, Rogishimon smiled at Parumon.
"Hello, Parumon!" she chirped happily, ruffling her feathers. Rogishimon looked at Tomeo, and did a sort of birdy double-take. "Wow, Tomeo, you look kinda bad." Asayake's head shot up, and she hissed at her digimon.
"Rogishimon, that's not very nice at all!"
"It's the truth, 'Sayake!" Protested the little bird, puffing up indignantly, "He's a mess. He's all wet, and he's got a big cut on his cheek and everything!"
"A what?" Her head snapped around, and she finally got a good look at Tomeo. He really DID look a bit of a mess, and the cut on his cheek was mixing a small trickle of blood with the beads of rainwater on his face. Asayake could've sworn she saw him shivering, as well. "Jesus, you're bleeding!" shouted the redhead, tugging the shoulder strap of her guitar over her shoulder and setting it down in her spot on the bench, "And you're soaked through, by the looks of it. What did you do, go for a frigging walk?" Wishing she'd brought a towel, but not sure why she would've thought to in the first place, Asayake unzipped her raincoat and threw it over Tomeo's shoulders. Placing her hand on his cheek, she turned his head so she could get a better look at the cut on the opposite side. "It's not very deep, but it's sure is bleeding pretty good," she mumbled, wiping a bit of the watered-down blood from his cheek with the pad of her thumb, "My house is a two minute walk from here, if you want to go get warm and grab a towel or something. And a bandage, too." She noticed a few smaller cuts on his hands as well, and gave him a half-smile. "Okay, a couple of bandages."
***
Yuu bowed to Matsuro respectfully and headed out of the library, but her thoughts were still on the meeting. She had agreed to Hanshin's plan to reason with Kousei and perhaps intimidate him, but she still felt apprehensive about it. What if he wouldn't listen, no matter what they said or did? What if one of them went to far? She couldn't get it out of her mind that they would all be better off just letting Kousei live out his life. But still, the others were right. There was to much at stake to just do nothing.
She sighed softly, and began to pull on her coat. In a mild lapse of judgment she hadn't brought an umbrella, but the coat did have a hood and it was more or less waterproof. Besides, she didn't have to far to walk.
Even as she neared the door, Yuu was still so preoccupied with thoughts of the meeting that she walked smack into someone, nearly dropping her bag with the still-sleeping Kuinamon in it. She swung it quickly back onto her shoulder and looked up hurriedly to see who she'd collided with.
"Oh! Shouki-san!" she exclaimed, "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention." She looked away, her face a little pink in embarrassment, but then looked back. "Um… are you okay?" The question had a tone that suggested it wasn't only about just now.
***
Naoko gave Shireika a black look. "Get your own friend. Tegwa was goin somewhere with me now." The autocab pulled up and opened it's door. "I suppose you could come with us if you wanted. But, I doubt you'd like it."
Tegiwa looked slowly from the cab he rented, to Naoko, to his friend, and back. Being with Naoko was always better than standing in the pouring rain, but the look on Shireika's face face told him she need to talk, and she was willing to walk in the rain, correction: downpour, to do it. No way on earth could he abandon Shireika. He'd go with her, unless of course she wanted to come with them. No, that would not, could not happen. He wiped the sudden preverted image from his mind before it was even formed. Besides, Naoko most likely want him to haul packages while she shopped. He was one of the few males on the planet Naoko wouldn't sleep with at the drop of a hat. That girl took sadistic pleasure in revving him up just to taunt Shireika, then not following through untill much later.
"Sure, Shireika, I'll walk with you. But, did you mean here? now? in this delluge? Perhaps, there is a better place?" He was watching the rain splatter off the pavement and onto the nonabsorbant material of the cab seats. "I can leave the cab for Naoko if you really want me to." He didn't sound particularly enthused about walking in a rain so cold its cats and dogs were falling refridgerated. "I'll do what you want."
Naoko kissed Tegiwa right on the mouth. "Fine, I'll fend for myself. But, don't let her say mean things about me or my Hanshin. You know she will." She gave him a goodbye grope, "You know where to find me later. Ciao, you two. Don't exhaust him before my turn.... She walked away as she whispered "Bitch."
"Uhm, yeah." Tegiwa had consider gluing his hand behind his head he was so regularly embarassed. "Shireika, anything you want is fine.."
Naoko cursed her luck. She had really been in the mood for a little rendevous with Tegiwa. He was just so nice it made it different. Well, that idea was screwed by the dark princess, as Hanarei had called Shireika.
She walked over to Shouki and Yuu. "What's up. You guys want to hit the mall? Tegiwa might stay here with his object of worship. If, so we can use a cab that's paid for. If not, I'll call another one. You guys can't lose." She was smiling large and friendly by the time she finished her jabbering.
***
Shireika watched Naoko walk away and grabbed Tegiwa by the arm as she led him around campus.
"How can you even stand being around her?" she asked softly as they walked around campus. "I mean - all she does is use you like a coat hanger and a temporary replacement for my brother. Seriously, she really only wants my brother. She doesn't really care about any other guy. She only needs other guys, so she imagine getting screwed by my brother." She stopped and looked at Tegiwa in the eyes. "And what's the deal lately? You've been avoiding me - a lot."
***
Hanshin could see Naoko walk off and talk to Shouki and Yuu. Those two were getting along just fine - they didn't need to be bothered by Naoko. Besides, she had spent all the meeting bestowing her attention and affections Tegiwa. If Tegiwa was getting any attention from any woman, it was going to be his sister. Shireika needed a normal boy, not some creepy-stalker man who was a reborn evil king. Beyond all that, he was in the mood for it.
The rain felt good. It was refreshing, and the downpour seemed to wash away his bad mood. Kousei, the reborn Akurei bastard, would be dealt with appropriately. Perhaps he was back for his real punishment. Perhaps the Fates wanted their generation to teach Akurei his lesson.
[Naoko: ever wanted to do it in the rain? - Hanshin]
***
Naoko's phone beeped out "Bolero" as she was addressing Shouki and Yuu. "Gee, just a sec guys. Always something isn't?" She opened her palm to see Hanshim message overlaying her palm. She couldn't help smiling. She tapped out a quick affrimative before returning to the two. "Oh....oh, I'm sorry. I have to meet with a friend. Just came up. But, feel free to use that cab if its available." Oh, boy. This was going to be fun. Only thing better would be if she could get shouki to join her someday. Well, Hanshin was all she needed, so she was happy.
***
Naoko had wandered around campus, following the various dots on her digivice. Hanshin was on the move somewhere specific. Always such the thoughtful man when it came to things like this. Her clothes were soaked after walking for ten minutes across campus. She had left her umbrella with Tegiwa, with hopes that it would keep them from touching each other. She wanted to get her hands on that boy later, but being completely wet wasn't a big deal.
Finally, Hanshin's dot stopped moving, and she found herself approaching a parking lot. She weaved through the cars as she hurried towards a certain blonde waiting by a very familiar car at the far end of the lot. She found him dumping a jacket into the trunk and wrapped her arms around him. Her hands wandered down the front of his chest to his waistline.
"In the rain just sounds so sexy and hot," she whispered as she tugged at his belt and unbuckled it.
"That's because you are," Hanshin replied as he turned around. He rested his hands on her hips and pulled her up against him before he leaned down and kissed her roughly.
She didn't hesistate to respond with the same intensity as she ran her hands through his soaked hair. She moaned his name softly as he kissed down her neck and began to pull up her thin white shirt. Walking backwards as he led her to the hood of the car, she pulled the shirt over her head, letting it drop to the ground. Suddenly, she found herself pushed onto the cold hood of the car. She shivered when her bare back touched the wet, metal surface, but she soon felt Hanshin's bare torso on her stomach. He continued to kiss her neck and chest as his hands worked to remove her excuse for a skirt.
"Hanshin," she whispered as her hands wandered over his sculpted shoulders and arms. Only Hanshin would ever make her feel this way. Only for Hanshin would she do anything.
***
Sho-rei watched Hanarei carefully as she spoke. The girl was clearly uncomforrtable revealing this, nervous and confused. Sho-rei knew the girl was a source of never-ending mischief for Nikko. She doubted this was a trick. Hanarei had some real problems only a Chosen Child could have. She listened very carefully, trying to make sense of the different pieces. The images and feelings-- what could be causing this? Somewhere in the back of Shoo-rei mind a red flag sprung up and waved vigorously, but she deicided to start her tale anyway
"Your father was a nice guy most of the time, but his power brought out the very worst in him." She looked distracted for a moment. As if collecting memories she had pushed aside. "Yeah, we had powers then, in the digital world; I've not heard of others who had them. You father could be very strong in many ways. We relied on him. But, he wasn't very open.I'm sure you've met that type. As a power his strength increased in combat or when we were in danger. He kept his rage, or someone's, bottled up most of the time; however, his super strength caused it to emerge. He was almost like a demon at times.His eyes flashed fire and his teeth looked like fangs....Oh, this must be upseting for to hear. He never hurt us, of course."
She tried to lighten the mood by smiling a little "I hope I'm not springing this on you too fast. I don't know how much of this you might know already." Or how much I should tell you now she thought. That flag was telling her to keep a watchful eye on Hararei. And, not to turn her back either.
She looked spaced out again, but her focus was on the text screen in her eyes. She was writing a hasty message:
[Nikko, can you tell me much about your power---and your darker half. I'm concerned, but I don't have time... I need to ask my Dad about Ese....sorry to pry. I'll see that Hanarei heads home soon. Sho-rei.]
***
Tegiwa studied his shoes. "I tried to kill your brother. I almost killed Naoko. I violated my personal code against violence. I let everyone down. I haven't been avoiding you...I've been avoiding everyone. I would have avoided me if it were possible, so I've just been dealing with things by throwing myself into work. Some things it's hard to talk about until you work it through yourself." He slowly looked up and smiled. "I'm sorry I didn't come to you sooner."
"Naoko is another matter. I can stand just about any one. She's not that bad when she's not putting on her whore act. She has other sides. I just tolerate her when she's being, well, like herself. She's a normal girl sometimes. Rarely. But, still... ...yeah, she does love your brother. way. too. much. She cares for other guys, just not the same. I think she's been good for Shouki." She had been good for him too. He regretted it though. And, once Naoko was in sex mode she was impossible... He doubted he'd really be able to recover his friend of a few years ago. Stupid move on his part. Now, he was treated as just another lay.
"I have to resent being a fill in for Idiot boy. Clothes horse and pack mule are ok though. I feel like an ass." He laughed. "So, what did I miss. You look like your burden needs lightening, so spill."
***
Shouki felt someone bump into his back as he waited for the rain to let up. He stumbled a few steps forward before regaining his balance. He checked who bumped into him and saw it was Yuu. "Oh, um, Yuu," he said sounding surprised. "No no, it's okay. I wasn't hurt." Shouki seemed to miss Yuu's tone in her question but Kirimon picked it up. As usual to that question, SHouki responded with, "Yeah, yeah I'm fine."
Kirimon slapped himself in the forehead with his tail. 'This boy is clueless,' he thought. 'Has he learned nothing?'
"Instead of giving the automatic resonse," said Kirimon, "why don't you actually say how you feel."
Shouki turned his head slightly away so he wasn't looking directly at Yuu. He was right with what he wrote, this was hard for him to talk about it. "I was just... thinking about an old memory," he finally said.
Just then Naoko came and talked to them. And just as fast, she vanished. Shouki had a very good guess who she was going to meet with. He looked back and Yuu. He was mulling over the idea of taking the cab Naoko suggested to them. "I was thinking of waiting for the rain to lighten up," he explained.
"Shouki," said Kirimon, "take a look outside." At that moment, there was a flash of lightning followed by thunder. "From the looks of things, you could be spending the night here before it lightens up."
Shouki was starting to think the same way too. He glanced down and noticed Yuu didn't have an umbrella with her. The cab idea was sounding better by the second. Slowly, Shouki opened up the umbrella. He glanced back at Yuu, then the rain, then Yuu again. "Shall we, um, do you want to...."
"Care to make a run for it?" Kirimon interrupted.
***
Hanarei tried her best not to show it, but she was stunned by Sho-rei's explanation of Nikko. It was hard to tell what surprised her more: the fact that he had powers in the digital world, he could become super strong, or that he could become something of a demon. Looking back on her own memory, Hanarei could remember the times when she snapped at someone and felt something inside her. She remembered spacing out and waking up to find herself strangling Tomeo after knocking down Enma (she figured).
None of this was making sense to her. Had she inheirited Nikko's powers? But why only her? There were others in the group who had parents who were digidestined and they didn't have any powers. Plus, Sho-rei mentioned they only happened in the Digital World.
Perhaps Sho-rei was right; Hanarei really was becoming more like her father. "When you say someone's," said Hanarei, "what do you mean by that?" Thoughts of the images came back to her. "Did this someone hate Seiyami? Or did my father?"
***
Nikko was quietly sitting at his desk with some of papers from the school on his desk and a mug of tea in his hand. He was in the middle of a short break he was taking when a message on his computer appeared. He set down the mug and quickly read the message. "You need to know more about my darker half?" he repeated to himself. He was also curious about what she meant by Hanarei coming home soon. Nikko knew she was with a meeting with the digidestined, but figured Sho-rei was there as well.
Nikko remembered months ago when Hanarei had suddenly become his dark side but nothing has happened with her since then as far as he could tell. He couldn't figure out what was going with his eldest daughter. Perhaps Sho-rei had an answer. He quickly typed a message back to her.
[Hi Sho-rei. I guess I can use the phrase 'here's an eye-full for you' with this message. I'm not sure why you need to know but I'll try my best. My power increased my speed and strength when I used it but at the same time it allowed my dark side to come out. I became someone who wanted to hurt people who were against me and my friends and wouldn't let anything in my way. But this usually caused me to lose my lapse of judgement and only want to cause pain. I became practically invincible when I used it which allowed me not to stop fighting. When I stopped using my power, I would feel every wound, scratch, cut, etc. that had hit me during that time. My dark side was someone who I could talk to in my mind. It would be similar to you talking to Jin but privately. He was usually sarcastic and sadistic. At times he was downright annoying. When he came out and called himself Jin, I was able to see his other traits. He seemed to be by himself a lot and quiet. When he hated someone or had a grudge against them, it would last forever it seemed. That's all I can think of for the moment. Say hi to the other digidestined for me. -Nikko]
Nikko pressed send an leaned back in his chair with his mug. He was quiet for a moment until Yume came in. "Hey daddy," she said cheerfully. She skipped over to him and did a mock tackle. "Whatcha' doing?"
Nikko smiled and looked back at the computer screen. "I was just wondering how your sister is doing."
"I'm sure she's fine. My big sis can handle anything."
Nikko nodded silently. 'I guess we'll see soon enough,' he thought.
***
Enma sighed as she sat down. "You look happy." Kou said sarcastically.
"It's been a long day." She said, picking up a rag.
Kou looked up at his younger sister. "You look tired though; like moreso than usual. Are you sure you can work today?"
Enma threw the rag at him, hitting him in the face. She snickered. "I'm fine." She pressed.
"Whatever." said Kou, before motioning Enma over to the engine he was working on. "So, how's mom?"
Enma blanched. "No comment." She said. "She keeps telling me I'm going to end up doing something I'll regret - she's acting like I'll become one of those unwed teen mothers. Feh."
Kou looked at her hesitantly. She rolled her eyes "I'm not going to be one, Kou, don't give me that face." She wrinkled her nose and went back to work.
***
Tomeo nodded, feeling the warth of the blood on his face as he considered Asayake's offer, feeling another shiver coming across his body and pulled the raincoat tighter over himself with his other hand. "Yeah, I guess I need a few bandages here and there… you’re right. If you don’t mind, taking me back to your house… I’d really appreciate it, thank you."
"No problem!" said Asayake, hurrying back to the bench to pack up her guitar, "Mama and Papa went to one of Papa's function things, so they're not home right now. That means less explaining why I brought you home to cover you in bandages and towels." With her guitar in one hand and Rogishimon perched on hre shoulder, Asayake took a hold of Tomeo's hand and tugged him through the nature trail. "No more shortcuts, okay? I won't have enough bandages for another trip." She stopped shortly before the canopy overhead ended, then pointed across the street at a set of iron gates. "That's my house, behind there. I'll have to open the keypad, so keep that jacket on your head or else I'll be feeding you cold medicine, too. Ready to make a break for it?"
A pang of panic and excitement swelled in Tomeo's stomach as Asayake grabbed his hand without warning, following her out of the park as Parumon started pushing her way out of the raincoat to get to the cool rain. He looked with some awe at the gates in front of Asayake's house, and almost didn't answer her. "Yeah, okay..." he said, sounding unsure and looking awkward about entering the house.
"Good. Now!" She tugged him across the road with her as she ran, skidding to a hault in front of the gates. "Shitsuji, Asayake and guest. Let us in!"
"Please enter your codeword." The gate answered, producing a keypad from the ground near the left of the gate. Asayake hurriedly typed in the codeword, and the gates swung open. "Welcome home, Asayake."
"Thanks, Shitsuji!" Asayake called, tugging Tomeo up the driveway to her house. It was rather large, with tall windows and two floors, and large wooden doors in the center of it all. After climbing the steps to the front door, Asayake finall dropped Tomeo's hand, and unlocked the door with the keycard from her pocket. One of the door swung open, and she gave a little bow and ushered him inside. "Welcome to Asayake's house! Just leave your shoes on one of the mats, and I'll grab you some slippers." Once they were both inside the door swung closed behind the, and Asayake kicked off her boots. She hopped into a pair of fuzzy black slippers, and took off down the hall. "Be right back!"
As Tomeo stood there, alone for the moment with Parumon, he took in the surroundings of the house. He couldn't believe how well off Asayake was... he had a two-storey house as well, but not as big and with this much security, and it put his house to shame. "Hey, this girl's got some pretty good digs, eh Tomeo?" Parumon said from his shoulder, whistling. Tomeo shot a look at her. "Parumon, shush."
After a little while, Asayake shuffled down the wood-floored hallway, carrying a pair of dark green slippers and a fluffy red towel. "That took longer than it should have; it took me forever to find a pair of slippers that weren't pink. Mama seems to forget that guys visit, too." She flicked the towel off of her arm and over Tomeo's head, and handed him the slippers. "Come on in! We've got a first aid kit in the bathroom, so have a seat in the kitchen somewhere," she pointed to a room down the hall, "And I'll be right back. Again."
Tomeo was almost relieved at the thought of not wearing pink slippers; his masculinity had already taken enough of a hit with the raincoat over his shoulders. He bit his lip and didn't say anything about this, instead giving Asayake a nervous nod as he put on the slippers. He looked ridiculous enough with the towel over his head, placing it around Parumon as he took a seat in the kitchen.
"Okay, now I'm back." Asayake called, plodding into the kitchen and setting the first aid kit down on the island in the kitchen. She opened it and peered inside before pulling out a large box of bandages and antibacterial spray. Spray in hand, she made her way over to Tomeo and squirted a little bit on to his cheek. "Did you want a coffee or something? Shitsuji can get it for you, if you ask him to."
The antibacterial spray stinging at his cheek, again Tomeo tried not to express his discomfort, and endured the pain until it subsided. Parumon, getting her chance to get off Tomeo's shoulder, leaped off Tomeo and onto the island's surface. "No, it's okay." Tomeo shook his head, pulling the towel around him more comfortably. "You've already done enough, but thanks anyway. So... who is Shitsuji?"
"Mama decided to get an electronic butler," Asayake explained, peeling the backing off of a bandage and putting it on Tomeo's cheek, "She said he was helpful or someting. He is actually quite handy, though; he's connected to almost every single appliance in the house, and can turn it on or off when you say to. Here, lemme show you." She grabbed the entire box of bandages, and smiled at Parumon. "Shitsuji, would you fill up the main sink please? Warm water, no suds. Oh, and I'd like a hot chocolate. You know my prefrences for that?"
"Certainly, Asayake." The largest sink suddenly sputtered to life, and was soon filled with softly steaming water. Asayake jabbed at it with her thumb.
"Test it before you get in, Parumon. Shitsuji can adjust the temprature for you." Turning her attention back to Tomeo's other shallow cuts, Asayake decided to make small talk as a steaming mug of hot chocolate announced its arrival with a soft 'ding'. "So, why on Earth did you decide to go wandering around in the pouring rain without an umbrella, or anything?"
"Warm water?" Parumon sulked, as if in protest, then remembered Asayake's suggestion. "Hey, uh, Shitsuji?" she said uncertainly, wondering who she was meant to be talking to. "Think you could turn the sink water into ice-cold temperature? Uh... thanks." She poked one of her toes into the sink, then sunk into the cold water. "I'm a creature of the ocean depths. We sea dragons love the cold."
Tomeo smirked a little, then turned back to Asayake, unsure what to say. "I… I’m really sorry I interrupted you." He finally burst out saying in apology instead, feeling like he owed her an explanation for disturbing her. "I was just really curious to see who was out here playing music like that… it was beautiful, I mean." At that point he appreciated how nice Asayake's kitchen was, looking away.
Asayake flushed insantly, looking up from a cut on Tomeo's hand and staring at him, wide-eyed. She wrestled with the heat in her cheeks, and tried to answer in an even tone. "It's okay, really. I just... It's not often that I let other people hear my music. It's just really personal for me."
"All of Asayake's songs are pretty," Rogishimon said, perching herself on the faucet above Parumon and peering down at the other digimon, "But all of the songs I've heard are really sad."
"Rogishimon!" Asayake hissed, this time thoroughly embarassed. She quickly bandaged the last of Tomeo's cuts and busied herself with repacking the first aid kit. "I'll be right back," she said hurriedly, avoiding looking anywhere near Tomeo, "I have to put this away... Yeah." Face red as a beet, Asayake rushed from the kitchen to stash the kit away in the bathroom. Rogishimon looked severely guilty, her feathers drooping slightly.
"I forgot about that. Asayake doesn't really like to TALK about her songs, either."
Parumon had been submerged at the time, so she hadn't heard anything. Tomeo, however, almost felt like he too wanted to find a small space to crawl up into and die, feeling very out of place. Suddenly remembering something Rogishimon had said, he turned to look at her while Asayake was absent. "Is... is there any reason Asayake's songs are sad?" he asked with concern, looking curious.
"I asked her that once," Rogishimon answered, still looking downcast, "She didn't answer me. She just cried."
In another part of the house, Asayake was staring at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She had to calm down; all Tomeo had done was ask a question, there was no harm in that! She ran the water and splashed some on her face, taking a deep breath as the water dripped off of her nose. "I'm such an idiot sometimes." the redhead sighed, grabbing a hand towel and scrubbing her face dry. She made her way back to the kitchen, but spotted her guitar on the way. She picked it up and turned on her heel, deciding to take it upstairs to her room.
Tomeo held his breath, looking in the direction Asayake had disappeared, almost expecting her to come back at any moment. As a result, his conversation towards Rogishimon was calm but hurried. "I see..." he sighed, looking down and back up again. If anyone should know if there was something wrong with Asayake, it would have been her digimon. "I'm worried about her too; I wish I could help."
"Help with what?" Parumon wondered, emerging out of the water.
"Never mind." Tomeo hushed at her, then looked at Rogishimon. Before he had been worried there was something Asayake hadn't been telling him, but he felt relieved that Rogishimon seemed to be in the same boat. "I hope she tells you her problem soon, Rogishimon. Even if I can't help her... you can be there a lot more than I can."
"You can what?" Asayake asked, poking her head into the kitchen. There was a blinking ball of fluff around her neck who, when he spotted Tomeo, wriggled free of Asayake's graps and bounded over to the boy, scaling his leg and sitting himself in Tomeo's lap. The little ferret sat back on his hind legs, front paws in the air, as he sniffed at him. "Yuuki, don't be rude!" chuckled Asayake, but she just earned herself a look from the feret before he went back to sniffing Tomeo. after a few more sniffs, Yuuki crawled up Tomeo's arm and shoulder, and curled himself up in a comfortable ball on the boy's head. "I think he likes you," smiled Asayake, saking a seat beside Tomeo. "So... What were you talking about?"
Feeling a little stunned after feeling Yuuki claw up to his head and resting in his untidy, wet-matted hair, Tomeo took some time to consider his responce. He didn't like the thought of lying to Asayake, but in this case he felt it was in her best interests not to hurt her feelingsany more than he had. "I was just saying that Rogishimon can be there a lot more for you than I can... in battle." He leant down towards the counter-top island, so that Yuuki could crawl back down safely without hurting himself when he was ready. "Now we know what we know about Kousei, I don't know what we'll be up against if he ever rises to full power. If we have to fight him, I'm just glad you have Rogishimon to protect you when I can't, that's all." He gave Rogishimon a wink, hoping she'd catch on.
Yuuki let out an insulted squeak as Tomeo moved from his original seated position, and leapt on to the island. He gave him his best little ferret glare before running over to Asayake, and securing himself around her neck. Asayake stroked his head absently, and stared hard at the island. "Kousei gives me a bad feeling," she mumbled, pausing to take a sip of her hot chocolate, "He reminds me a lot of... someone I knew. The person I knew seemed nice at first, really nice, but it was all just a facade. I'll never make the mistake of trusting someone like him ever again." She turned to Tomeo then, and smiled. "You're different, though. You're not like him at all."
It was Tomeo's turn to feel a scarlet flush up his face; he heard Parumon giggle before she splashed underwater, and watched her for a moment until he felt the rest of the color drain from his face. "Well, you're a lot different to people I have met, too." he admitted sheepishly. "The people I knew didn't stay friendly for long, either." He didn't want to elaborate more, looking sorry at Yuuki.
"I guess there are always people like that," Mused Asayake, poking at one of the melting marshmallows in her hot chocolate, "But that's why I have a motto." She smiled, pulling the chunky silver ring off of her finger and holding it up. "'Be Blind to Light, Deny the Darkness, and Walk the Centre Line.' My friend Suki used to say that all the time when she had a problem to solve, and it always worked. Walk your own path, and nothing can stand in your way." Slipping the ring back on to her finger, she looked at Tomeo seriously. "Are you sure you don't want some tea or something? You looked pretty cold before we came in."
"Sounds like a good motto... don't be influnced, and be true to yourself... no, that's okay. Thank you, I'm fine now." Tomeo replied, as he realised he had stopped shivering. He also realised the time, and deposited the raincoat and the towel on the countertop. "I better be going... thanks for everything. Parumon? Let's go." Parumon shook herself off, looking at Asayake.
"Thanks." she said. Once she was dry she scuttled back over the countertop, crawled back up Tomeo's arm and rested on his shoulder. "What is THAT?" she said, finally noticing Yuuki.
"It's called a ferret, Parumon." Tomeo informed her, then looked at Asayake again. "I can't think of anything else to say about Kousei I haven't already said; I'm going to sleep on it. I'll see you soon, though, okay?"
"Yeah, I'll see you." said Asayake, finishing the last of her hot chocolate. A thought dawned on her then, and she stood abruptly. "Wait a second!" she hurried over to the hall closet and began rummaging through it. A triumphant "AHA!" sounded through the house and she shuffled back in to the kitchen, holding a black raincoat. "Here, you can wear this home. I'd just lend the one you were wearing, but you've got wider shoulders than I do, and it's way smaller than this one. This one was always too big for me, so it should fit you better." Smiling brightly, he held the coat out to him.
"I... I, I couldn't..." Tomeo resisted, feeling guilty about taking something that didn't belong to him, but a suttle yet sharp nip on the ear from Parumon made him consider otherwise. "Oh, okay... thank you, again. I promise I'll return it next time I see you, really, I don't want to feel like I owe you anything." He took the coat from Asayake, and waved to Rogishimon and Yuuki. He would have waved to Shitsuji as well if he had a body, but he wasn't exactly alive to begin with. Parumon clambered onto his head awkwardly as he pulled the raincoat over him, a perfect fit. "Next time I leave the house, I'll remember to look at the weather." he smiled, and turned to leave. He stopped, then turned back. "Asayake... I'd... I'd love to hear one of your songs again, sometime."
Asayake felt another blush spread over her cheeks, but she didn't bother fighting it; she never won anyway. She just smiled softly, almost sadly, and nodded. "Sure," she said, speaking softly, "Maybe sometime." She opened the door for him, and was suddenly overcome with the overwhelming urge to do something; hug him, take his hand, anything. The litte hairs on the back of her neck stood up as her body seemed to move of its own accord, and she pulled him into a hug.
Emotion stirred up again inside Tomeo's chest, feeling his heart leap up his throat. He had never been hugged by anyone else outside his family, and her familiar touch seemed almost electric to him. He felt his arms slip around her hips and returned the hug with equal pressure, holding her and savouring the moment. He did not want to let go, he did not want to leave, but he knew he had to. Giving her one last tight squeeze, he pulled her back away from him, and looked at her for a moment. He didn't know what feelings were stirring up inside of him, but as long as she had her demons she couldn't tell him, and he had his fear of persuing it, he felt he may never figure them out. He forced a soft smile, stepping towards the door. "See you." he said, and with all his will he walked out.
"Bye." Asayake mumbled, her voice drowned out by the pour of the rain. She stood at the door for a while lnger, wathing Tomeo disappear into the downpour, before retreating inside and closing the door behind her.
Tomeo leant his head forward in the rain, and almost expected Parumon to criticize him the moment he'd stepped out, but she was unusually quiet. Maybe she had guessed what Tomeo was feeling, and he was glad for her respect. The gate of Asayake's house opened for him, and he stepped out onto the street. Once again, the dark stormy sky seemed to reflect his mood. But as he continued down the street, he realized his mind felt clearer than before, and a lot more relaxed. Feeling a little more cheerful, he started to sing. "Blue skies to forever,/green grass blows in the wind, dancing/It would be a much better sight,/ with you, with me./If you hadn't met me,/I'd be fine on my own, baby.../But I never felt so lonely/ then you, came along..."
"So now what, should I do?/ I'm strung out, addicted to you/My body aches, now that you're gone/ my supply fell through.../" He reached the chorus and sang a bit louder. "You gave me everything you had and more/ you crave my happiness/ when you came and felt joy in me you smiled / but now, I feel your stress/ love never meant to be such a crazy affair, no.../ And who has time for tears? Never thought I'd sit around and cry for your love.../ 'till now.../" He fell silent for a while, and then repeated the lyrics again, fading into the grey downpour of the rain.
***
Naoko ran her hands through Hanshin's blonde hair as the two caught their breaths. They had brought the passion inside the car, realizing that it would be warmer and more comfortable inside. They had pushed the driver seat all the way back and put the back of the seat down, and she had straddled over him. She was still wearing her skirt, which was soaked from their time in the pouring rain, but she didn't mind. This had been so incredibly sexy and hot, but it always was when it was with Hanshin. It didn't matter where, as long as it was him.
"You are amazing," she whispered as she pushed Hanshin back down onto the driver's seat. She kissed him on the lips and giggled as his hands grasped her rear beneath her skirt. "We really need to do this more often." Oh, those expert hands that he had. She was thankful that they were both digi-destined - it gave her more opportunities to spend time with Hanshin. She was sure that he didn't mind either, but she knew there were plenty of other girls who begged for his attention too.
***
Shireika looked at Tegiwa apprehensively and held onto her umbrella tighter. She didn't answer him for a while as she wasn't sure how to tell him this.
"I..." she started. She couldn't tell him. Tegiwa would have a heart attack if he knew and might become even more determined than he already was. "Never mind."
"Nevermind? You wouldn't take such an answer from me, but I won't force you to talk if you aren't ready." Shireika always managed to pull everything out of him without trying. He felt compelled to tell her things. Often to tell more than was wise. She had that effect on him. He, however, would force her before she was ready. This had to be up to her. I'm hear to listen though." He twirled Naoko's puny umberella jauntily. "Nice day for a walk...." He was smiling when he said it.
A stray gust of wind came along and ripped the umberella into an inverted cone. Why was it any shock Naoko owned the flimsiest, cheapest umberalla on campus? "Cripes!" He looked at Shireika as the cold rain percipited all over his clothes. "Mind if I join you?" He asked as he ducked under her morw substantial brolly.
"Here," she replied as she held the umbrella over his head and placed the handle into his hand. As they continued walking, she looked down towards the ground. "He said he loved me," she whispered when she finally looked up at Tegiwa.
Tegiwa sucked a breath in quickly. "He....who? said....what..." Tegiwa's face ceased its frantic attempt to crawl up his brow or sidle ear to ear. His face set in a neutral expression for a time as he appeared to ponder his words. "Do you think he meant it?" As inapropriate as it was, Kousei could be telling the truth. Of course, he was a proven lying bastard. He wondered what she thought of this. She seemed shaken, if not stirred.
"I don't know," she said. "I don't know what to believe. He tells me fell in love with me after he began trying to..." She stopped. "He wanted that key - that was all he wanted." Tears fells on her cheeks. "How can he love me and use me like that?"
Tegiwa put his arm around her like he done dozens of times before, but this time he felt more selfconscience of the action. "Well, most guys would be smitten by you given the chance, and he does know your family-- has for a while." Tegiwa kicked himself mentally; he was thinking in terms of the coach and not the monster Akurei. "But, just because he was briefly more attracted to you thank that ornament of doom the fates left with us, is not the same as loving you. He wouldn't want the key if he loved you. You are enough power..I mean, Love is enough power for anyone. Right?"
"I don't know," she said as she shook her head. "I don't know if he still wants that power. I don't know if he's trying to use me for the same reasons he wanted to use my mother." How could he even dared to touch her mother! Even she knew how much her parents were in love from all their stories, even when they were digi-destined. Her head fell onto Tegiwa's chest. "Everything he said could all be lies...it could all be a part of his plan to get that key back."
"Yeah, they could be. Probably are. So don't worry about it. He was trying to get to you and rattle your good sense. A moments hesitation in a fight can determine its outcome..." He paused a second and wrapped his arms around her. I don't want him to have the key. I won't let him hurt you. I sure as hell won't let him have you without a fight. He is a live-again, dried up, ancient, old fart. What does he know of love or friendship" Tegiwa's voice began to tremble. "He knows only the words. He abandon good for evil, love for hate, and companionship for gross solitude before some of the stars were born. He's not changing as easily as he put it. If the wants to know about love and friendship, I'll sure as hell tell him. I've been your friend and love you longer than anyone."
Did he say all that or was it in his head...shit!
Shireika smiled weakly as she hugged Tegiwa back.
"I am glad to have you in my life," she whispered. "You're right. He wouldn't know love anymore. He might have, but it has been far too long for him to remember it. Far too long. He wouldn't know how to love me because he only knows how to use love as tool for his own intentions." She kissed Tegiwa on the cheek, as she always did whenever he cheered her up. "Thanks."
Tegiwa felt warm inside whenever she kissed him, and he could breathe a sigh of relief that she didn't take his "confession" the wrong way. Well, the right way. So confusing. But, in the back of his mind, he pondered why it wasn't bloody obvious to her how he felt. Well, he couldn't bring himself to spell things out to her now. He'd just mess up the relationship, wouldn't he? He had to tell her, had to. Someday. It's not like it would make much difference. He doubt he was close to good enough for her. "Anytime. Thanks for pulling me away from Naoko. She gets under one's skin."
***
Hanshin waited at the location that Shireika had set for the meeting. It was a Saturday afternoon, and she had worked out meeting near the beach. Apparently, Kousei had said that the keyhole wasn't that far from the location he had agreed upon. Fortunately, the weather had cleared up since Sunday, but it was still chilly and foggy especially along the coast.
The bastard was going to pay for his sins finally. The Fates probably had sent him to the Human World to receive a harsher punishment than his parents' generation had given him years ago. Koumamon had already digivolved to his champion form, ready to do whatever beating was necessary to make Kousei promise never to go after the key again.
"He'll be here," Shireika said, sensing her brother's anxiety.
"The fucker better be here," Hanshin replied. "I don't care if he said he loves you. That doesn't justify what he had done to us. He caused us to divide. He made us fight each other. Not to mention his past life as Akurei. The Fates would want us to teach the bastard a lesson." He looked towards his sister. "And, after today, he will leave all of us alone, including you. And you shouldn't try to see him again. He was Akurei. He doesn't deserve someone as good as you to even be his friend."
"I know, Hanshin. He wouldn't know what love is. He doesn't know anything but manipulation and lies because that's the only way he knows how to get power. He simply wants his power back, and he will do anything for it."
***
Nervousness gnawed at the pit of Asayake's stomach as she flew above the city in Shogaimon's arms, but it wasn't because of the altitude, or the off chance that someone could see them through the thick fog clouding around them. Even though they hadn't yet landed, Asayake could almost feel the hate pouring off of someone who could only be Hanshin, and it scared her; the last time she'd felt someone projecting hate like that was when she was 16, and that hadn't ended all that well at all. She supressed a shudder as Shogaimon gave her large, leathery wings and few hard beats to slow them as they reached the ground, and Asayake had never been less thankful to have her feet on the ground. This felt so final, but she knew it wasn't going to be all that large of a battle. Since Kousei didn't have the key, there was no way he could be any threat to them right now, but it still made her gut churn.
She made her way over to Shireika and Hanshin, plastering a half-smile on her face. "This fog is rather handy for flying digimon," she chuckled dryly, in an atempt to lighten the mood, "It's saved me quite a bit of fuel money."
***
Tegiwa sat boredly as the transport pod whisked him from his residence toward the beach and the meeting place. At least Hanshin and Shireika had enough sense to arrange an out of doors meeting. If they did have to use their digimon in a fight, there would be no walls or ceilings to get in the way of rampant digievolution. Yes, Shireika had done well. There wouldn't be alot of witnesses around this time of day, and he doubted Kousei would bring any reinforcemnts since they were supposed to be on the same side. Their digimon could handle any aggressive humans, and since Akurei hadn't won any friends while living, Tegiwa doubted that death and rebirth had made him any more popular.
He was worried about the possibility that Kousei did love Shireika even if it was some pervesionof true love. Even more, Tegiwa worried the SOB sub-from-hell could convince Shireika that he loved her whether he did or not. She had seemed confused and rattled at the University. Shireika was the strongest person he knew, yet she could still be wounded in the heart. In school she was admires or feared more han loved; Shireika in turn had kept herself closed and distant. . Had they not grow up together as children of the digidestined, Tegiwa would have never been able to be he friend.
"I'm not killing anyone this time, so don't ask me." Robotmon was brooding on Tegiwa's lap.
"I don't think that will be necessary. If Kousei-san pulls a fast one or goes for the key, however, I can think of a place Hanshin should shove that thing-- and, it's not a keyhole."
Tegiwa exited a his stop and head from the group assembled. "Genki! minna."
***
Naoko would have rather have another kind of meeting on the beach, but she wanted to support Hanshin. "He's so intense when it comes to his sister. I hope all this turns out ok. Kousei never impressed her as being evil, except the few times he turned her down. Her and the other girls. She had no idea if Kousei was in love with Shireika or not, but Shireika was the only student Kousei seemed to give more than the time of day to. It was possible. I'm sure Hanshin might be made to see that as a good thing: if Kousei was in love with his sister, then that was just one more knife in Kosei's side Hanshin could twist. Between Shireika and the key they could subdo Kousei and netralize him.
Naoko looked a the chilly and sligthly grey day. "Not a day I'd pick for the beach at all. But, it should work out for us. We seem to have the advantage."
She walked over and stood quietly beside Hanshin. Today was not a day for pouncing on him....not until /after/. She surveied the meet place. This was the spot to have the fight. "Let's not let Kousei lead us away from here. This place is a good place, guys." It's not like the lock was any interest to them now.
***
"Ah, thank you" Yuu replied, taking up Shouki's offer. As they both ran to the cab, she found herself very much appreciating his umbrella, although the car itself seemed slightly damp as they got in. She told the cab her destination and let Shouki do the same, then they were off.
During the ride itself, Yuu was fairly quiet. She was thinking about Shouki and his old memory comment. She had seen him writing earlier in the book Asayake had given him, and then him handing it back to her and being hugged. She knew that Asayake had some bad things in her past as well, so she figured that she was helping Shouki get over his own past. She was happy that he had someone to help him, but... she glanced at him out the corner of her eye.
Why was it so hard? So hard just to say 'I know what you're going through, I've been there before, do you need someone to talk to?' She wanted to say it, she wanted to help him out however she could, but the worlds just wouldn't come out of her mouth. Her hands tightened where they sat on her lap, and she looked out the window. Maybe... maybe she was just afraid that she really didn't have any idea what he was going through.
The cab stopped at Shouki's house. As he got out, Yuu made a valiant effort at a smile. "See you next week, Shouki-san"
***
A bright yellow hover-Vespa pulled up next to where Hanshin's car was, landed, and then its rider hopped down and pulled off her helmet. Yuu studied the bike; she'd gotten it for her birthday, but what with the bad weather recently this was the first time she'd really got to drive it anywhere. It was to bad, she thought with a sigh, that her first trip had been to this particular meeting.
Of course, that hadn't kept her passenger from enjoying himself. "Tha' was awesome!" Kamomemon exclaimed as he supplanted himself from his seat on the footboard and flew tipsy-turvily over to her shoulder. He'd insisted on digivolving before they came, but now she wondered if he shouldn't have rather stayed Kuinamon and kept to her bag. But he soon started flying in straight lines again, and she headed over the the beach where Hanshin, Shireika and Asayake were already waiting.
***
Hanarei slowly walked out of the fog and appeared before the group. "Told you we shouldn't have waited for you to digivolve," said Hanarei. "We're not the first ones here."
Himotomon had already digivolved into her champion form Hisennyumon and was seated on Hanarei's shoulder. It took some convincing on Hanarei's part that Hisennymon's wings wouldn't burn her hair. "Well Kousei could have started an attack the moment we got here and I may not have had time to digivolve."
"Alright, alright, point taken." Hanarei looked around at the area. "At least it's nothing like the last time he visited us. Kudos to whoever picked today's meeting spot."
***
Shouki stayed quiet for most of the cab ride back home, not that he didn't usually act like that. Kirimon stayed out fo sight from the cab driver but kept noticing Yuu glancing out of the corner of her eye at Shouki.
As the cab pulled to a stop at his home, Shouki stepped out with his umbrella and Kirimon. He waved goodbye to Yuu and watched the cab drive off. As soon as it was out of sight and Shouki stopped waving, Kirimon spoke. "You really are clueless sometimes, aren't you?"
"Hmm?"
"Exactly. Now let's get inside before the rain makes my ghost-fur all matted down."
***
Shouki stood next to the others as they waited for Kousei to come. He kept glancing about, expecting Kousei to sudden jump out of the fog and attack them right there.
Kirimon had digivolved into Reimumon and was playing around with his sash. He intended to go to Champion level but Shouki stopped him and convinced him to remain looking like a cat wearing clothes. How was he going to explain a giant, wild-looking, semi-transparent, ghost cat to a bus full of people?
"Do you think he will come?" Reimumon asked.
"I hope so," said Shouki. He glanced down at his watch for probably the tenth time within the past five minutes.
"You know you have to give it time before time can pass, right?" Reimumon said sarcastically.
***
Normally Tomeo and Parumon would have walked to the meeting; but this time, having finally remembered to take a look at the weather before they left the house that morning, Parumon had offered that they would get to the meeting by sea.
Even though it meant they had to take a longer route, minutes later Tomeo never regretted Parumon’s idea at all, after she had digivolved to Leviamon and now the boy was riding on top of the giant sea dragon across the ocean’s surface at break-neck speed.
“Whoo! This is awesome!” Tomeo cheered, steeling himself as he stood up on Leviamon’s back and balanced himself like a surfer, feeling the cool sea breeze whipping into his face.
“Hey! I’m no surfboard!” Leviamon said, and frustratingly shook herself from side to side in the water to scare Tomeo into sitting back down; however, it only challenged him to stay upright as long as he could, and remained upright through all the heavy turbulence Leviamon gave him.
“Hey, Tomeo!” Leviamon exclaimed, not disappointed entirely that she hadn’t managed to buck Tomeo off her back and into the cold salty water surrounding her. “I didn’t know you were so good at this!”
“I’ve been surfing most of my life, little gal.” Tomeo laughed, leaning to the side as Leviamon swerved to avoid a buoy. “It’s only one of the sports I do from time to time. I’m good at it, but not that good to take it up seriously. It’s an excellent way to cap off a successful trip to the beach.”
“And it seems to bring joy to the hearts of passing ferry loads of shivering tourists.” Leviamon giggled, as they passed another boat a few feet away. Tomeo’s heart skipped a beat, but realized from the humorous tone in Leviamon’s voice that he could even barely see the entire boat, so to the tourists it only looked like he was a fully-clothed insane surfer who had decided to go surfing in the cold weather. He grinned and waved to them proudly, as Leviamon swerved away.
The pair saw the coastline of the beach up ahead they were supposed to be meeting the others, and after a while spottedthe group, including… Asayake. His heart skipped a beat from panic again, but this time he was as equally determined not to make a fool of himself, unlike his entrance in the park. “Hey, guys!” he called out cheerfully to get their attention, and as soon as Leviamon had rode the wave into the shallow water far enough, he made a leap and landed athletically on the wet sand.
“Ahh, remember when we were here last time, Tomeo?” Parumon said dreamfully, finally glad Tomeo’s feet weren’t digging into her back anymore and relaxed as a wave crashed over her.
“Yeah, I do.” Tomeo said regretfully, looking back at his partner for a moment with a slight smirk. “I remember when you gave me my sunscreen, when it was really a tube of glue you’d switched labels with. I finally had to convince you after you’d stopped laughing to peel my towel off my back.”
“Oh, yeah, I can’t believe I forgot that!” Parumon giggled, which appeared strange to him now it was coming out of a dragon’s gaping jaw. “That was so funny! Hi-larious, even.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Tomeo chuckled as well, and turned back to the group. “Hey, everyone.” He said coyly, looking at Asayake last and giving her a short smile, before he couldn’t bear the awkwardness any longer and had to look away down the coast. “So, today’s the day, huh? You know, it feels a bit weird, seeing all the Champion digimon here and knowing we’re not fighting anymore. It’s a sight I’ll be glad to get used to.”
***
Ravenmon flew down near Hanshin and Shireika.
"He's coming," he said. He nudged Shireika and brushed her with a wing gently. He was worried about her. She had yet to really cheer up about Kousei in the past week. She still seemed to hurt. Kousei had used her. He had played with her heart just so he could some stupid key for power, when he really didn't deserve it.
Hanshin cracked a couple of knuckles when he could Kousei's figure in the distance. The reborn Akurei was going to pay for his sins, for hurting his sister, for doing whatever he had done. The man didn't deserve kindness. After all, he had been the most evil entity in the universe not long ago. Like hell did he deserve mercy from the digi-destined or anyone.
"Fashionably late?" Hanshin asked when Kousei was close enough. "We know everything. You're Akurei, aren't you?"
"I was," Kousei corrected.
"Don't try that kind of bullshit," the child of light replied. "You still are him, the same man deep down. Don't deny that."
Kousei didn't respond immediately to Hanshin. He occurred to him, by the choice of location and the sight of all their digimon in more powerful forms, that they didn't bring him here to find the keyhole. No, they had done a little research, and they knew his horrible past.
"What do you know?" Kousei asked finally as he looked around at the group, avoiding eye contact with Hanshin and Shireika.
***
"We know quite a bit about you," Hanarei replied harshly to Kousei's question. "We looked through a few books and came across a few keywords relating to you; white dragon, reincarnation, protecters. Ring any bells?"
"He's wearing bells?" Hisennyumon whispered.
"It's an expression," Hanarei whispered back before returning her attention to Kousei. "We also know about what you used to do with her Highness' and Hanshin's mother Sutako. And from what I can tell, it wasn't pretty." Hanarei shuddered as some images passed through her mind.
Shouki stepped forward with Reimumon close behind. "We also know about your previous life as Akurei and what you did to the digidestined," said Shouki but not as harsh as Hanarei. "If you could, could you please *ow*."
Reimumon hit Shouki in the back of his head with his sash and whispered, "More forceful. We're not here to be nice."
"Alright. Please *ow*. If you could *ouch*. Explain yourself now!"
"Better."
***
"Yes, I do believe an explanation is in order," growled Asayake, glaring daggers at Kousei, "You are Akurei; you tried to kill the last set of digi-destened so you could take over the world; you want the key so you can regain your old powers, the ones the Fates stripped you of; you've already begun monopolizing us for your own gain, and you've even tried to woo Shireika. What we don't know," she glanced around the group as she spoke, before turning her attention back to Kousei, "And what I think we're all simply pining to know, is what exactly you plan to do with it. You gonna take another stab at the world domination thing, or do you just want to make hand-puppets for seniors for the rest of your life?"
***
"Dude, the whole Depths of Darkness thing reeked. Not only did you try to kill our parents you enslaved legions of digimon . Before that you took over world after world in the multiverse [tm of T$R]. All that work just to satisify you insane lust for power. And, being dead hasn't seemed to hae changed you; it looks like you are still lusting." Tegiwa's gaze inadvertantly flickered over to Shireika.
Naoko spoke up in her energetic voice, "Yeah, you should have given some other girls a chance."
Tetsumon looked at her. "That's not what he meant, I think."
"Why can't you be happy just being Kousei? That power is bad for you. You don't need it."
Tegiwa addded, "And, we are fairly certain you do us in given a chance even though you were th white dragon. So, just enjoy your time here like the Fates wanted as regular guy. We're Guardians, of a sort, leave the power biz to us. We'll defend the world."
Golemon rumbled, "And, what happened to the Dark Queen of yours? Not much data on her."
***
Tomeo tensed up when he sensed Kousei's presence, and turned to face him as all the rest of the digidestined had. "Like Asayake said, you have a choice." he said calmly and rationally, when he was given a moment of silence to speak. "We know about your past, and the actions that you took. Whatever decision you make, we've agreed that if you ever decide to go after the key by any mean necessary, that we'll bring down swift retribution upon you. By going after your old evil powers, it's considered an act of hostility and we have no choice but to give you punishment by death. The Fates may have sent you back, but this time you have a second chance. You can give up your plans to get your power back and live the rest of your life as you are now, or you can attempt to get your powers back and we'll kill you in the process. You were killed once before, so I wouldn't push your luck if I were you. Our Champion digimon are here to remind you of that."
"And don't think you can fool us by saying the power that key unlocks is meant for us to defeat the Dark Queen." Leviamon said, looking somewhat like some horribly deformed beached whale from her place in the shallow waves of the beach. "You should have told us that you were Arukei when we first met you. Concealing something like that only proves you have something to hide. The previous digidestined put a seal over your powers for a reason; I hope you're wise enough to learn from your mistakes," she flashed her sharp teeth at Kousei, to prove she was serious. "...or else I'm going to have fun drowning your sorry ass."
***
"All I was told to do was find something that I had lost," Kousei replied. "That's what the Fates told me to do. And I lost my powers, so I supposed that I needed to figure out a way to get it back. I found out that you guys held the key to the seal of my powers. And, so I planned. As far as taking over the universe, I just -"
"You're just a power-hungry piece of shit," Hanshin interrupted. "Don't try to justify what you did. What you did was still wrong. You spent your past life trying to hurt my mother, and now you're the same to my sister."
"You are one to talk, Hanshin," Kousei said. "You broke laws to get the key fragments."
"Yeah, but they weren't hurting anyone," Shireika argued. "The means don't justify the ends, Kousei. You used all of us so you could get that key. You believed that we would be the ones to get you what you wanted."
"Shireika," Kousei protested.
"You knew we would find the key if thought there was a dark queen, but that's all a lie, isn't it?"
"No, that was truth. The Fates told me that, and I found it in the Book of Prophecy."
"And, then you used me."
Kousei stood silent.
"You used me to get your stupid powers back because you're still the same power-hungry pig you were in your past life!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe I even thought that you could possibly care, that you possibly were genuine. It was all an act, wasn't it? Just an act to lure us into your plan to get back your power."
Kousei's head fell as he listened to Shireika rip into him. It had been, until he had fallen for her.
"You have no humanity, that's what," Shireika continued. "None at all. You still only care about yourself."
"Shireika," he whispered as he fell to his knees.
"So get this straight. Live your life like any other human. You aren't worry of being a Protector. You don't deserve to have your powers back," Hanshin explained as he approached Kousei. "Live without your powers, and don't even think about trying to get them back. Live a normal life in this world, and we won't kill you. Your life as a Protector ends now. Got it?"
"Yes," Kousei replied softly. He sounded sad.
"And if you dare to make a move to get the key, we'll kill you," Hanshin added.
"I understand, Hanshin," Kousei said as he looked up briefly. "I know what the digi-destined are capable of. I have been around since the Fates first came into existence." He looked towards Shireika, seeing the tears starting to form in her eyes. "And I know the wrong that I have done." Actually, he had known since last weekend when they talked. He had planned to give up the key anyway.
***
"And just like the last meeting you give us little to do nor reason to pummel you," Hanarei said to Kousei. She walked closer to him so she was now standing by Shireika and Hanshin. "You'll excuse me if I don't buy the whole 'I'm now peaceful' bit."
"Oi, your Highness," said Hanarei. "Enough with the water works already. Why do you even have them on anyway?" She was speaking anything but in a comforting to Shireika.
"Now spill it," she said returning to Kousei. "What do you know about this Dark Queen?" Hanarei glanced over to Shireika then back at Kousei. "You just mentioned you found her in a book so tell us what you read. And I'm warning you; I'm playing by different rules. One strike and my little fire fairy here will burn you and not answering counts as a strike."
***
Enma had been standing slightly behind everyone else, listening. She looked up at Kousei, her arms crossing her chest. "Look, just tell us about this goddamned queen of yours." She said. "Sorry if I'm not begging, but, you know, as Akurei you just tried to kill my mother and her friends." She pointed out. She heard Hanarei and shook her head. "How 'bout this; I'm not even sicing my digimon on you; I'll just beat you myself if you don't tell us everything you know." She said.
***
Asayake looked from Kousei, to Shireika, and then back to Kousei again. Then she gave her head a firm shake, as if to shake the thoughts from her head. She reaffixed her glare on Kousei, and sneered as best she could. "I don't care if you've learned your lesson or not, personally," she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest, "As long as you realize that what you've managed to do so far can never be erased. You pulled the wool over our eyes; you fucked up; you're going to have to live with whatever consequences are brought forth now, like it or not." Shogaimon chose not to speak, remaining silent and intimidating beside Aasayake; she'd pinned Kousei with her best 'I-think-you're-a-dirtbag-piece-of-shit' look.
Having exhausted most of the nervousness and anger she'd been harboring before she and shogaimon had landed, Asayake simply cast Kousei another threatening-ish look. She was tired and, frankly, wanted to go home; all of this fog, and the area intirely, was giving her a major dose of the creeps. Giving her arms a rub to try and flatten out the gooseflesh over them, Asayake simply muttered something indistinct under her breath.
***
Tomeo wasn't impressed by Kousei's response. He had said he had learnt his lesson, yet he had never directly said anything about giving up his pursuit for the key.
"Answer the question!" he said furiously. Kousei was testing his patience. "Don't give me that 'I have learnt from my mistakes' crap. The only thing we want to hear from you is that you're not going to try to become a megalomaniac again. Are you going to stop trying to get your powers back, or not?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Asayake rubbing her arms as if she was cold. Turning away from Kousei for a moment, he stepped over to her and took his coat off. "Here," he said to her as he held the coat out, smiling, "This might help keep you warm." It was the same raincoat she had leant him the other day to stop him shivering in the cold again; now it was his turn to return the favor as well as the garment.
***
"I wouldn't say totally unerasable, Asayake. He's just got eons and eons of bad karma to work off. So, Kousei-san, you need to direct your efforst toward something more positive: Sell all your stuff and your corporate stocks, give the money to the poor and needy, and join a monastery. That is, if you are sincere. But, in any case, we'll feel compelled to keep an eye on you. I hope you understand, man. You should since you seem to have Akurei's memories." Tegiwa tried to sound less anger than the others but it was a hard sell. He didn't want this guy around Shireika. He seemed to be upsetting her and confusing her. Like Hanshin, he would rather be far away, very far away. Tegiwa wished in his heart the bastard would just go play foward for Manchester United., but one must keep his enemies very close as the staying goes.
Naoko just watched the proceedings. She felt bad for both Kousei and Shireika. Shireika seemed to be torn up by all this, whch was a pity. That girl was a colossal bitch most of the time, and it was embarrassing to see a strong girl like her get all broken up because a guy said he loved her...when he might not have meant it. Naoko never would have fallen for it, or even cared if it was true. Love to her was her devotion to Hanshin, all the rest was good sex.
***
Yuu watched quietly as Kousei fell to his knees. She wanted very much to believe him, and to forgive him, but a little part of her was still holding back. But either way, if what he said about the Queen was true, then they needed to know as much as possible. She stepped forward. "Please, Kousei-san," she said, kneeling down a little to be closer to eye level with him, "If we want to keep protecting this world, we need to know about the Dark Queen. Please."
***
"I won't go after the key," Kousei said to the digi-destined. "There's no point, is there? You won't let me have it, and I have no power to do anything about it. All I can do is hope that one day, you will grant me powers back. As far this dark queen, I know about as much as you do. I found that information in the Book of Prophecy, which I found in Masturo's library. I had received a message from the Fates, telling me that I need to regain what I lost. So, I did a little research on what happened to my powers because that's I lost when your parents' generation defeated me. It matchd up on the timeline with things, so I used it." He shook his head. "But, that's all I know about her. That queen." He threw his hands up into the air. "There are thousands of queens in the history of the universe. Like I know who she is and where she's from. Besides, I have no queen."
"Bull shit," Hanshin said as he shoved Kousei to the ground. "You've been trying to create a new queen every chance you get. First my mother, and now Shireika, right?"
"Your mother was warrior, an excellent warrior and protector. I thought she could be mine, but her heart belonged to your father, and I realized that when I awakend his darkside. I thought she could replace the one I had when I was called the White Dragon, but that will never happen because she's gone forever."
"Enough," Shireika said to prevent everyone else from leaping to beat Kousei. "I have heard enough of this." She pushed Hanshin aside and glared at Kousei. "You will stay to your word. You dare try to do anything to get your key back, and we'll punish you appropriately. Your powers were stripped from you by the previous digi-destined, and you do not deserve to have them back. You are still the monster you were when my mother was alive. You manipulated us." She spoke softer. "And, you used me and hurt me. Swear. Swear you will remain powerless for as long as you live in this world. Swear that you will never make the choice to reclaim your powers."
"I swear," Kousei replied.
"Break your word, and we will break you," Shireika hissed before she turned away.
"Shireika," Kousei whispered as he watched her leave the group. "We will take his word for that is all we have," Shireika explained to the others as she began to leave. She stopped a few feet away from the group. "We have to trust his word, even if we don't want to. He knows the consequences if he takes another misstep. He is powerless to us." She took a deep breath and turned to head down to the beach.