"Then, watching them it is," she said. She turned to Tomeo and smiled. "Poor thing must feel absolutely dreadful, huh? Tell her it's all right. We'll get them the next time, and eventually, we'll get the whole key away from them and put it somewhere safe again. Let's just hope they aren't stupid enough to go after it again. On a side note, Tegiwa won't be getting himself mixed up with Naoko again; at least, until she cleans up her number-one-slut act." That included the slut's two-timing sister. It wasn't Mariko's fault. Naoko was using both Tegiwa and Mariko for her own uses, and Tegiwa and everyone had to keep their distances from her. Even her own brother needed to learn that, but he brain happened to be in his pants, not his head. "I wouldn't worry about it." She grinned at Tegiwa. If something happened again, he knew who would be on his case.

***

"Fine, I'm out of here," Hanshin said. "I'll see you guys. Seriously, email me if anything happens. We're all here to help each other get this key." He walked off. He didn't need to hear them criticize Shireika so harshly anymore.

He understood where the others were coming from, and he knew that they were simply being honest about it. Shireika knew how to be the bitch if she wanted to be, and she was successful with some of the digi-destined who had sided with him. However, Hanshin felt that they were being unjust. They didn't know the whole story. Then again, only a few people knew how things really began, and they were all family, or like family. Tegiwa and the Itohs knew what had happened.

If only he hadn't started that fight with Shireika about quitting music lessons. That started a whole mess of things, and here was where they were now. Why did he have to do something like that? It was like it set something off in her, but it was his fault that it happened. He started it.

***

"I knew it." Tomeo said to Tegiwa, sighing annoyingly. "That explains why you were late for that meeting at the library, and how you got to know Mariko... listen, I wasn't going to give you a lecture, I just wanted to know how long it had been going for. I hate knowing the other group has the upper hand on us, that's all. Knowing Naoko, she probably had some other motive than just sleeping with you. She probably took her chance doing something just to gain favour with Hanshin, no doubt about it. She says she doesn't use people, but you can tell that's a lie."

He shook his head at Tegiwa's comment. "No, it's not that I hate them, not all of them. I really do believe otherwise we could have all been friends, given we all had the same goal. I do hope everything you say happens Tegiwa-san, but at the moment it's hard to do. Let's just hope old wounds heal, and when this all comes to an end we can all put our differances aside. In other words, I'll try not to insult Naoko, but the key word there is 'try'. She has her way pushing buttons with men, she even told me she likes doing so."

He listened to Shireika, and gave her a smile. "Thanks Shireika, I will tell her that. Although I think that more than likely, Hanshin and his group will be stupid enough to go after the key because they did the first time, despite that we warned them not to. Let's just hope that us scaring them off from last time is enough to stop them from wanting the other fragments, too. And I won't worry about Tegiwa and Naoko. I'll be watching her, so if Tegiwa feels the urge again, I'll know too. But I have faith that Tegiwa won't be making the same mistake again, so I'm sure there's nothing I'll see that will surprise me. Besides, I don't care if Naoko doesn't drop her slut act, but if she wants to be a better person, she should gain some sense of loyalty. That girl has probably already broken so many hearts, but at least if she sticks with someone like Hanshin she won't be inflicting so much damage, no matter how many times they go at it with each other."

He readjusted the strap on his shoulder, and gave the group a final nod. "Okay, so we're on surveilance again. I've got maths and english homework tonight, but it's not due until next week. In the meantime I'll keep my eye on Naoko, no matter how many times I tell myself I won't like what watching what she gets up to." He gave the others a wave. "Good luck with your targets, everyone, I'll see you all soon. Keep in touch, business or otherwise." He turned around, heading for the school's exit for home.

***

Uh-uh…wasn’t happening. Hanshin was not going to up and leave on that sour a note. Naoko knew he had his reasons for brooding over his sister. But, she thought it was stupid that he would blame himself. It was so like him to take responsibility though.

Naoko felt the trouble stemmed more from Shireika’s desire to remake people in her own image. No one was quite good enough on their own. Hanshin wasn’t like that in the least.

She grabbed Shouki by the arm and towed him behind her as she chased after Hanshin.

“Naoko….are we going?”

“We are going, indeed.”

“That’s nice. Where?” Shouki was struck with the sudden realization that he might not want to know her answer. “Why me?” That last was less a query and more a comment directed to that which is Life itself.

“Not far. Just up to Hanshin if we can catch him.”

Catching up to Hanshin rapidly, she pulled herself and Shouki directly in his path. “Um, dear, and Shouki… I know the key is the most important thing at the moment. But, I want you guys to remember to put your hearts into the concert tonight too. Wild Stallions fans look up to you guys and your fans deserve your best. So, rock the house! Ok!” She smiled big as she hugged both of them. “I’ll be at the club should you need me. Take care guys.”

***

Tegiwa really wished fewer people cared what he did at the moment. He felt heat rising in his face. “Thanks guys. But, I can take care of myself. Thanks.” Tegiwa still failed to see the logic of Naoko being Loyalty. Loyalty to who? Hanshin seemed more an obsession.

***

Hanshin flopped onto the couch in the band's dressing room at the club they were now becoming regulars at. He had sent Hiroshi and Yukio home since they were done, and he had just spent the past half hour discussing schedules with the manager of the club. Being the opening act was both good and bad. They were good enough to be the featured band anywhere else in Tokyo, but they also needed the time tonight to look for that key fragment, which was more important than his future as a musician.

"So, handsome, do I get the pleasure of a one-on-one experience of just how amazing you are tonight?" Ami asked softly as she slid onto the couch next to Hanshin. She straddled over him, letting him get a close-up view of two bountiful assets. She sat down on his lap as she pulled pins from her hair, letting the long red hair fall about her shoulders.

She knew that he had been giving Naoko more attention than usual, and she didn't like that she wasn't getting her usual fill of Hanshin. Naoko needed to learn her place in Hanshin's world, which was like everyone else: just another girl to fuck. Hanshin wouldn't ever be interested. If he was, he would have shown it by now. Ami knew that Hanshin viewed every girl as just another person to get his hands on. Naoko needed to remember that. Ami also wanted to remind Naoko that she would always been second on the list unless no one else was around.

Ami bent down as she kissed Hanshin on the lips and gave his lower lip a good nibble. She pressed herself against him, letting his hands trace up her legs under the short black skirt she wore. How she loved doing with it him. He had to be the best in bed in Tokyo Academy, probably better than that hot stud of a coach named Tsuyoikou Kousei. He knew exactly where to touch, push, or whatever else he did to a girl. Sex with him was mindblowing, that was for sure.

"I know you want it," Ami whispered as they both took a second break.

"Fuck yeah," Hanshin replied. "We could do it here. Hiroshi and Yukio already left, and I don't have to be anywhere until 10. We have a time for a quickie. We can do more later."

"Perfect," Ami said as she pulled her shirt off over her head.

Hanshin hoped that Naoko was keeping Shouki busy somewhere. He knew that he would be leaving with them soon to head over to the park to throw some of Shireika's crew off. Shouki wasn't likely to volunteer coming back if Hanshin was here with a girl or two alone.

***

Shireika rummaged through her bag to find another pen, but instead she found the card that Kousei had given her earlier today. She sat back in her chair and flipped it a couple of times between her fingers.

"Tsuyoikou," she thought as she examined the side he had written on. "Kousei." She knew Tegiwa didn't like that Kousei spent so much time with her, but they were just friends. He was the coach, and he was just being nice. What was wrong with that? Of course, there was something different about him, and that was just because he was older. There was a five year difference; that would do it. He was just different from other teachers and different from her classmates. He was too young to really be a teacher but too old to go to Tokyo Academy, and no one could get used to it. She wondered how new, young teachers ever stuck with the job.

"What's that?" Alesmon asked when he noticed that she had stopped doing calculus homework.

Shireika immediately hid it away.

"Nothing," she said with a smile as she immediately grabbed a pen from her bag and got back to her homework. She glanced at the digivice next to her. Hanshin hadn't moved very far for at least the past two hours. He must be still at the club, doing whatever he usually does instead of studying. If he didn't start heading home soon, she'd track him down.

***

Hanarei was positioned where she was the last time she spied on Enma; up on a branch in the trees. Since it would have looked a little weirder than last time, she just wore her usual casual clothes along with a pair of binoculars. "It's times like this I wish I was interested in books and brought one along to fight the boredom," she mumbled.

Himotomon was, for once, outside of the bag and next to Hanarei. The width of the branch didn't seem like much of a problem for her. "Well it's not like you can ask them to hurry it up and make a move or anything," said Himotomon.

"One can always wish." She moved the binoculars from her face after nothing was happening. "I just hope we get this done before someone notices I'm gone."

"How so?"

"Let's just say my dad's been really riding my case for awhile. I kinda wish I knew why. Other than the obvious I mean."

There was silence as both of them continued to watch Enma's place. "Hanarei," said Himotomon, "do you like your parents?"

"Hmm? Well, more or less I guess. My mom, yeah, she's okay. We get along for the most part. She taught me a few tricks when I was little. My dad... meh. I just wish he didn't act so uptight about me. According to a few other people, he can be cheerful and all but I've yet to really see that. Still, I feel there's some kind of connection between us. Maybe it's just one of those 'we're family' things." She stopped and noticed Himotomon paying close attention to her. Somehow, Hanarei just felt odd about talking about her family like that. She wanted to changed the subject. "Don't look at me," she said. "Enma could have moved while we were looking away or something."

"Okay Hanarei," said Himotomon as she turned to face the direction they were previously looking at. She glanced back at her partner as though trying to figure out what was going on in that mind of hers.

***

Shouki let out a giant sigh of relief after that concert. That concert was probably the largest amount of emotion he ever played into his music. It relaxed him a bit but he continued to sulk as always. He put away his bass guitar into it's case. Kirimon popped out from under the table when he recognized Shouki's shoes. "You sounded good out there," said Kirimon.

"...Thanks," Shouki replied.

"Gee, don't hurt yourself getting too excited."

With a final click, Shouki had locked his case and picked it up. He started toward the dressing room with Kirimon in front of him. Shouki saw Hanshin heading in that direction and thought he should meet up with him. Kirimon reached the door first and poked his head through. Shouki could tell something was going on since Kirimon stopped and had his tail straight up in the air in surprise.

"Now this is interesting," Kirimon said in a whisper mostly to himself. Shouki didn't know what was going on so he peeked into the room. It was there he saw Hanshin and Ami....

"Kirimon!" Shouki whispered and hissed. He pulled the cat-ghost by the tail and ran in the opposite direction of the dressing room. Shouki's face was a bright red.

"Auuu, why'd you do that?" Kirimon asked.

"It's because, um, it's that, ahh, when a boy and a girl, um, because!" Shouki replied.

"I highly suggest not joining the debate club, buddy."

***

The house was more or less quiet. Enma's eyes flicked over to her mother, who was lounging on the couch, reading. "Uh...mom?" She said, padding over.

Megami looked up for a moment, before looking back down at the book and flipping a page. "What, Enma?" she asked, almost exasperated.

"Well..." Enma leaned down and knelt in front of her mother. "See...I really don't understand my history homework, and Yuu said she'd help me, but I still really don't get it, so before she left I asked Nushi if she had any books that would help. She said she did, but she couldn't get them for us, since she had to get to class....would it be okay if Yuu and I went over to her apartment and got them?" she asked. "We'll look at them there, so Yuu won't have to walk back here before she goes home." Enma said, leaning on her arms and cradling her face with her hands to show nothing was crossed. She knew her mother didn't trust her as far as she could throw her, so she was silently praying to God to help her.

Megami closed the book, giving Enma a look. "I thought you didn't have any history homework tonight." she said.

Enma bit her lip. "It's an extra credit project on the Meiji Period, because I don't think I did very good on my last exam."

"Well." Megami corrected.

"Huh?"

"You don't think you did 'well', not 'good'. And yes, you can go." Enma thanked her mother, grabbed her purse with her keys and Mitikomomon, and grabbed Yuu.

When she closed the door behind her, she started walking slowly towards her sister's apartment. "I'm not sure which key is which in the dark." She said to Yuu, before motioning for the other girl to follow.

***

"I'm bo-ored." Rogishimon yawned, staring at the small television set in Asayake's room. She was watching an old episode of Totoro, andthe stupid grey rat... bear... THING was driving Asayake insane.

"I'm not exactly rolling in excess fun either, you know," Asayake grumbled, balling up a piece of notebook paper and tossing it at Rogishimon's head, "Staring at my digivice and waiting for it to do something doesn't really constitute elation, now does it?"

Rogishimon answered by turning up the volume on Totoro; Asayake felt a vein in her neck twinge and scratched at it, annoyed at the odd sensation. She growled softly, throwing another wad of paper at Rogishimon's head. "Couldn't you watch something better? Something that doesn't involve a theme like 'Friendship' or 'Love'? Maybe 'Revenge' or something would be more entertaining than that Totoro thingy."

"But I LIKE Totoro!" Rogishimon cried, sitting on the converter so Asayake couldn't snatch it away, "He makes me wanna be happy and stuff!"

"I can't believe it," Muttered Asayake, prodding the screen of her digivice roughly, "My partner is a flipping idiot-baby." She winced when she felt the converter bounce off of the side of her head, rubbing the area of impact gingerly.

"I HEARD THAT, SHINZUINO!"

***

Ami sensed that Shouki had taken a peak, not that she minded. She wouldn't have minded if the boy joined in, since he was the one boy of the band that she had yet to have a little fun with. She was surprised at how resistant he was to the other girls.

"Poor boy needs to learn what he can do because he's a part of this band," she whispered as she wrestled with Hanshin's shirt, tugging it off his torso.

"Give Shouki a little more time," Hanshin replied as she pushed Ami onto the couch. He looked up at the clock on the wall. Fifteen minutes until he had to get out of here with Naoko and Shouki. "Wish we do this a bit longer, but I've got things to do. I'll come by your place later tonight, promise," he whispered as his fingers hooked into the sides of Ami's undergarments and pulled down.

"Hard and fast is fine by me," Ami sighed as she felt his skin touch hers.

***

Moments later, Hanshin emerged from the dressing room while rebuckling his belt.

"I'll call when I finish up with this business, Ami," he said as he left the room, hurling his bag over his shoulder. He looked around for any sigh of Naoko or Shouki, seeing Shouki down at the end of the hallway. "Hey, where's Naoko? We got to get going." He started to head towards the exit of the club. "By the way, Ami said you're more than welcome to join in next time. Really, anyone is." He laughed a little. "You really don't have to. I know you're not really interested." He punched Shouki gently in the arm as he continued down the hallway while looking around for Naoko.

"She's still at the club, isn't she?" Koumamon asked through Hanshin's bag.

"She better be," he said as he stood by the exit. "I told you guys to meet here at least, right?" He fished out his car keys. "We got to get going."

***

Shireika glanced at her digivice quickly after finishing another problem. Well, he had moved again, by another maybe twenty feet? They probably hadn't found the key fragment yet. If Hanshin had yet to leave the club, it was unlikely that they were searching for another key fragment. She hoped that Hanshin and crew hadn't suddenly figured out a plan to avoid getting caught.

She pulled out her computer and began typing a message:

[Asayake, Hanarei, Tegiwa, and Tomeo:

Has anything happened at all? Hanshin has yet to leave the club. I don't even want to know why he's still there, considering he's only doing an opening act tonight. I highly doubt the key fragment would be in a convenient location, such as a place where three of them would frequent. So, anyone else seen anything?

-Shireika]

***

Hanarei felt like dropping out of the tree to get something to eat with Himotomon on watch until she spotted Enma and Yuu together. They had just come out of where Enma lived and appeared to be walking away. "Their walking?" Hanarei commented. She was also curious as to why Yuu would be with her. It was probably for the obvious reason; to get the key. Nothing else entered Hanarei's mind. "The key must be close if they're walking." She heard her mini-comp vibrate and she quickly checked her email. It was from Shireika and Hanarei typed out a response for everyone in the group.

[Enma and Yuu are on the move. They're both walking somewhere but I don't know where yet. Proceeding to follow on foot.]

Hanarei closed her mini-comp and put away her binoculars into the bag. She put the bag around her and turned to her partner. "C'mon Himotomon, we're going." She fell back from the tree branch and landed on her feet. Himotomon dropped out of the tree and landed in Hanarei's bag. "I've got to stay back far enough if I'm to go unnoticed." She hung back away from Enma and Yuu by a block and tried to stay behind corners and parked cars.

***

If Shouki's face was red moments ago, it was nothing compared to now. His mouth was open as he tried to say something back but he apparently lost the ability to speak at that moment. When Hanshin said he was joking, Shouki let out a sigh. "Thank god," he sighed. He rubbed his arm where Hanshin gave him a friendly punch.

"Gah, don't take everything so seriously," said Kirimon.

"I know I know." He turned his attention when Hanshin asked about Naoko. "I'm pretty sure she's around here. I saw her not that long ago. So she can't be too far away."

"But in any case," said Kirimon as he floated up into Shouki's free hand, "we're ready to rumble. I want another crack at some of those digimon if it comes down to a fight."

***

"Quick Parumon, take that guy out. He has more health than the other one, I'll finish this one off." Tomeo had been doing homework all morning and jogging in the afternoon, and now he was having a little R & R playing a video game with Parumon. Tomeo had managed to convince the In - Training that she needed her own time off after she had been trying to pick fights with metal objects in preparation for Seidomon. After Tomeo's efforts to stop her from doing any serious damage, there was still a hefty dent in the side of Tomeo's car.

"Okay, got it! Hey, why aren't I blocking his - oh, no!" She sighed as she heard her character's death cry in the fighting game they were playing. "Great, game over." she fumed, shoving her fists down on the controller.

"Hey, don't damage that!" Tomeo warned her, and looked to the screen too late to witness his character's death. "Oh, never mind. We did our best. We'll beat them next time, okay?"

"We better." Parumon mused. "This game of yours doesn't even come close to the real deal. We have to work co-operatively or we'll stand no chance in fighting Hanshin's group."

"Are you still sore about that? I've told you, it's not your fault. Shireika said we'd get them next time, and we will." Tomeo told her, hearing an incoming message sound from his mini-computer. "Hold that thought. We've got mail." Sitting on his desk chair, he pushed away from the game towards his computer, which he had left in his bag at the foot at the other end of the desk. Pulling it out, he flipped it open as he rolled back towards Parumon so she could read it.

"Better check that digivice." Parumon said, slinking forward from her position on the desk to get it for Tomeo. She picked it up with her mouth, casually depositing it in front of him. "It doesn't look like that girl and her robo-dunce have moved anywhere."

"Thank you." Tomeo nodded, looking at the map to check for himself. Sure enough, Naoko's blip had only seemed to move a few feet. Taking this into consideration, he sent out a group message.

[Shireika, Tegiwa, Hanarei and Asayake,

Naoko still hasn't moved from her spot at the club with Hanshin, so I haven't seen anything. They could be conspiring to get the key tonight and move under cover of night like they did last time, but it's hard to say. Either way, we'll know soon enough. Has anyone else seen their target in a place or at a time they shouldn't be?

- Tomeo ]

"That's done." Tomeo finished as he sent his e-mail off. "Tonight could be any other night, but until it is, let's give the game another shot. Sure you don't get health pick-ups in real life, but but it’s a better mental exercise than sinking your jaws into my car’s fender."

"You have a point," Parumon said, pulling forward the game controller again, " I just wanna get in that car of yours, kick some metal butt and be home in time for one of your father's delicious cooked meals. Besides, I think I could pull off most, if not all the moves from the fighting engine from this game of yours. That tin pooch Seidomon won’t know what hit him."

Tomeo grinned as he picked up his own controller. "I can't think of anything more relaxing than being locked in a moving car with a delusional psycotic like yourself, little pal."

"Thanks, Tomeo." Parumon said as she gave Tomeo a snide look, then turned her attention on the screen as the game started up. "I may weep openly."

***

Naoko had remained at the bar to watch what she could of the main act. The group was somewhere between Balladic Heavy Metal for Clubs and Industrial gone boy band. She wasn’t particularly impressed with their act. Sure their music tempo spanned the range from hyperactive to melancholy, and she could not fault the mechanics of the performance which was adequate. And, that should be the case as these guys had got their first label before she had been conceived. But, their act relied heavily on costly special effects and garish costumes to cover the fact they were a mediocre group at best. Kabuki theatre makeup, sequined kimonos, oversized geta, and the lead singers holographic flaming hairpiece all worked in concert to give the show a “way over the top” feeling that said “we can’t play better so we spent lots of money.” Hanshin would overshadow these guys in no time once he got the clout.

Naoko sipped at her wine she had acquired from and friendly and extremely uninquisitive bartender. Yes, she felt confident her Wild Stallions would be going places soon. Hanshin was nearly unstoppable. Which reminded her to check her digivice. Hanshin seemed to be upstairs, most likely with Ami. She could guess that the little minx was making up for time lost. She also spotted another dot nearby, also not moving. Her fortune cookie at lunch had read: “Fate will bring you together; relive happier times with an old friend.” Never let it be said Naoko ignored the advice of Fate….

Tegiwa hid himself and his motor scooter in the tall grass at the back of the night club parking lot. He had an excellent view of back door and the cars of various band personnel, and he was only slightly at risk from wandering club drunks looking for a place to pee. His micro camcorder had decent zoom functions and could film things at night almost as well as if they were in daylight.

His “prey” Shouki was still in an upstairs hall. Hanshin was at the opposite end. He could imagine what Hanshin was doing, but not Shouki. He was distressed by Shouki’s presence in the band. Maybe Shouki was chosen for his talent, but he was a puzzle piece that didn’t seem to fit the rest of the band.

His computer displayed the “important email icon” (which was a cartoon of Shireika looking threatening; his current motif was all Shireika). Tegiwa looked at Shireika’s note and replied:

[Shireika et al, No, Shouki is upstairs near the dressing rooms. Naoko is up front. No one here is even outside the club. I’m still watching.]

He sent the message and returned his gaze to the digivice. He noted the dots….Hanshin hadn’t moved (at least from the room) and his thermograph indicated that he was engaged in his little hobby still. Shouki seemed to be staying well away from the dressing room. Naoko….Naoko’s dot wasn’t on screen any more. “Where the heck did she go?”

Robotomon sighed. “She’s making a crude attempt to circle around us….She’s behind us….Now, she’s closing. 12m, 10m, 8m, 6m, 4m…”

Tegiwa heard the woods rustle just behind them. “She’s just behind us. Now.” From the waves of fountain grass, emerged a slender shadow, Tegiwa couldn’t see a darn thing on his thermal readout except for the slight heat signature around the shadow’s eyes. “Okay, Naoko I know its you.” He stood up.

Naoko tackle glomped him and drove him to the ground. Laying on top of him, she pinned him the ground. “So, like my outfit? Hanarei isn’t the only one who can play ninja.” She started kissing his face.

“I’m not happy to see you, but I will say I would not have recognized you in clothing that didn’t leave you half exposed. So, what happened to hating me?”

“Oh, I figured I could like you again since you dumped my sister. And, I was bored.” Her hand stroked his crotch. “And, it seems some of you is very glad to see me!”

“Stop that. Don’t molest me please. I’ve been showering in Listerine every night since I was with you. I just can’t seem to get clean. Now, leave me alone.”

“Well, since you said please. I guess I have too.” She removed her hand from his pants. “But, I am still bored. Hanshin is boinking Ami. She’s little better that a succubus.”

“Succu…?”

“A sex demon that steals a persons life force. Actually, She’s into Tantric sex. It’s the same idea. She’s all take and no give. It irks me. She uses people in bed and out. It’s just not right.”

“How do you know all this? Do you guys swap tips.”

She put a finger to his lips. “Sush. That’s a whole other story. But, I know how she is. I’ve been with her. And with her and Hanshin. Well, only a few times, but that was enough.”

“You….and her…and him? and him and her?” Suddenly, he wanted a vat of disinfectant.

“And, sometimes another girl….not another guy though. Not Hanshin’s style. Now, our drummer….”

“Naoko, let me up. I’m going to be ill.” Tegiwa started flailing to be free of her.

“Gads, You are that put off. You know my reputation.” She rolled off of him.

“I never really believed it.” Tegiwa was busy turning green while he scrambled into the grass to wretch.

“I’ll consider that a compliment.” She smiled as she waltzed toward the door. “Hashin, we just lost our local tail. Good thing Tegiwa has a weak stomach.”

***

As Yuu followed Enma towards her sister's apartment, it occurred to her that one of Shireika's party might still be looking in them, like last time. Just in case, she slipped her digivice out of her pocket and glanced at the screen. Her heart sank; there was, a bit to close to them for comfort, a pale yellow dot.

"Enma-san," she said quietly, without turning to look at her, "I think we're being followed"

***

"Somehow, I don't even want to know what information you told him," Hanshin as he adjusted the bag on his shoulder. He smiled at Naoko as he put an arm around Naoko's shoulders. He cringed when he heard a horrid chord from the current band playing and cringed. "Let's get out of here before I have a sudden urge to strangle that disaster of a lead singer." He pushed the door open and led Naoko along with him down the street. He leaned down and whispered softly as his hand slowly moved from her shoulder to her hip, "You promised me a night of however I wanted it, didn't you? After whatever we probably will have to deal with, we'll go somewhere." He grinned devilishly as he gave her a spank on the rear. He hoped that if Shireika was planning to fight for the key fragment, it would take less time this time around. He was looking forward to tonight.

"Come on, Shouki," he called as he looked back. "Only a few blocks from here."

***

Shireika read through the emails. What was Hanshin planning? She took another look at her digivice, seeing that Hanshin's dot had moved with two others. They must have been Naoko and Shouki, and knowing Shouki and Hanshin, they weren't going somewhere for a threeway. Hanshin wasn't likely to have a three way with another male unless he was gay and a sub, and Shouki just wasn't the time to even do it with a girl. They were on the move somewhere.

She quickly wrote up another message.

[Hey all: I'm heading out to the club to see what Hanshin is up to. He's not heading home just yet, and he's with Shouki and Naoko. Not likely they're off to find a bed together. Tegiwa and Tomeo, let's get a move on it. -Shireika]

She grabbed her car keys, digivice, and Alesmon from her desk.

"Come on," she said. "We've got an idiot boy to hunt down."

***

Shireika parked her car in a parking lot across the street from the club where Hanshin had played at. She looked down at her digivice, seeing Hanshin's dot and two others heading away from the club. There was a fourth right by the club.

"Who?" she whispered as she tucked Alesmon under her arm. "Oh, Tegiwa." After crossing the street, she walked around the club to an area of bushes and vegetation. "Tegiwa? she asked as she found her friend kneeling on the ground. "What happened to you?"

***

"Okay, I think it's time to take a break." Tomeo yawned, stretching. It was too much of a bad thing staring at an illuminated screen all night, and they had already finished the level on the video game they were playing.

"Well, we were beaten up several times over, but we won out in the end." Parumon agreed. "Dinner's soon, isn't it?"

"No, but that reminds me..." Tomeo looked at the digivice that remained on his desk, checking on Naoko's blip on the map. His eyes went slightly, seeing the addition of a new, grey blip. "Tegiwa... oh, crap." He scooped up the digivice and his mini-computer, realising his car keys were missing.

"What's wrong?" Parumon asked, watching as Tomeo walked back and forth through the room. "Are you hungry? Lost something? Gassy? Wait... it's the others, isn't it? Something's up!"

"Right on the money." Tomeo nodded, realising he had left his keys in his pair of jeans from the day before. He fished them out from where he had left them on the bed, and picked up Parumon. "Tegiwa's shown up on the map. I think... um... I think he's in trouble." he said, as he peeked out the door to make sure the coast was clear. He couldn't explain what he had learnt about Tegiwa and Naoko that day. Even though Parumon was mature enough, he wasn't sure how to explain human biology to her.

With nobody in sight, he started to type up an e-mail on his minicomputer as he snuck towards the front door past the kitchen.

"Tomeo? Is that you?" The voice was from his dad, Shijo, who was in the kitchen chopping up vegetables with his back turned to him. "Where are you going? Are you going to be back for dinner?"

"Um... it's an emergency. I've got to go to a friend's house to... give him a bunch of notes. For, um, a test tomorrow. He needs them tonight. His house isn't far, so I'll be back home for dinner." the boy replied, inconspicuously swapping Parumon around to his other arm so that his father wouldn't see her. "Bye!"

"Well, I wanted you to dice up the chicken, but..." Shijo was about to say as he turned around, hearing the door slam shut. He sighed. "Well, never mind..."

Outside, Tomeo continued his e-mail as he walked to his car. With only enough time to address it to Shireika, he belted it out quickly.

[Shireika,

I don't know if Tegiwa told you this, but he's now at the club with Hanshin, Shouki and Naoko. I trust Tegiwa with Naoko and all, but I'm going there now just to be safe. Besides, he's stumbled into the hornet's nest and if a fight breaks out he'll need backup. Let the others know - see you soon.

- Tomeo]

Sending the e-mail, he fumbled to open up his car before his father decided to follow him out. As he dumped Parumon softly on the passenger's side seat, he jumped in and slammed the door behind him, starting it up.

Parumon looked up at him as he gunned the engines. "Wait, I battered this thing to the digital world and back today. Did you check the car to see if it's okay for a long trip, Tomeo?"

"Well, the thrusters are still on... and the ignition key's in my hand - everything checks out!" Tomeo acknowledged in a rush as he backed the car out the driveway, and pushed down on the accelerator to take off down the street.

Parumon crouched down, hanging onto the seat for dear life. "Great. I can see the news headlines now: 'Car crash takes innocent life; also kills Tomeo.' Who's the delusional psychotic now, huh?"

***

Hanarei ducked behind the corner of a building and kept an eye out to watch Enma and Yuu. From the looks of things, they haven't seen her yet. At the time, Hanarei kept thinking about where they might be heading.

Himotomon kept thinking the same thing along with something else. 'Please don't let it be near water,' she thought.

***

Shouki glanced over at Hanshin and Naoko. 'This time I won't be a burden,' he thought. After setting aside his bass guitar (which he would come back for later), he carried Kirimon as he walked along with Hanshin and Naoko. "I'm coming!"

***

Enma opened up a book, surrepticiously placing her cell phone onto it, before showing it to Yuu. "I really don't understand this part of the last lesson." She said, pretending to point. In all actuality, she was sending a quick note to Hanshin.

[Being followed - E]

She closed her cellphone, and picked it up, opening it again. "Huh?...okay...." She pressed the 'end' button, and rolled her eyes, putting the phone in her bag. "That was my mother. She wants us to leave a note for Nushi telling her where we put her books when we're done." She huffed, putting the bag away. "I hate vibrating phones..." she said, before opening the door to her sister's apartment building. She lowered her voice. "I bet it's Hanarei who's following us. Just be careful, she's a hard-hitter." She said, before quickly doing out her sister's code that would allow them into the building.

She ushered Yuu along to the elevator, and went up to the third floor, where her sister's apartment was. She pulled out her key and unlocked the door, and walked in, flipping the lightswitch on her way.

"Here we are, my sister's home away from home. Excuse the clutter; she's trying to become a teacher of some sorts." She said, rolling her eyes. "Why don't you take the living room/dining room and in here, while I'll take the closet and her bedroom. That way we've covered most of the ground quickly." she said, before heading into her sister's bedroom.

***

Asayake's head was threatening to implode; Rogishimon had grown bored with Totoro, and had moved on to an episode of Excel Saga she'd found in the Pay-Per-View section of the program guide. Rogishimon was currently giggiling insanely into a pillow, so as not to attract attention to her rather bird-like voice. Asayake was going to be sick; some people actually considered this humorous? She sighed, and glaned down at her digivice. She saw a third dot with Enma and Yuu; Hanarei. Remembering what had happened the last time Hanarei and Enma had come face-to-face, Asayake wasn't sure whether to be worried or not, seeing how it wasn't very different from her experience with Yuu. However, she gathered her notebook and set it down on her desk, bopping the 'OFF' button on the television with a socked toe as she did so. Rogishimon made a noise of complaint, but Asayake cut her off before she could add words. "We're on the move, Rogishimon. In the bag."

Rogishimon bubbled with excitement, practically stuffing herself into a drawstring carry-bag on Asayake's bed. Asayake snatched it and hurried downstairs, throwing on her shoes. "Mama, Papa, I'm going to the library; I almost forgot a book my literature teacher wanted us to get!"

"Don't be out too late, sweetheart!" Kaya, Asayake's mother, called from the living room, "And take your phone with you!"

"Way ahead of you, Mama; it's on and fully charged!" Asayake called back, snatching the keys to her father's hover moped. "Papa, can I borrow the moped?"

"Sure you can, kiddo. I just gassed her up, so she'll purr nice for you and everything."

Asayake rolled her eyes, and left the house with another hurried 'goodbye'.

***

Asayake pulled the little silver moped into a parking space half a block from where her digivice said that Enma, Yuu and Hanarei currently were. She locked the helmet into it's little holster, and hurried off to meet Hanarei. She poked her head around the corner of the building, so she could see the lobby, just as the elevator closed behind what she thought might be the back of Yuu's head. She found Hanarei prowling the front of the building in a similar fashion, and tapped her on the shoulder, hoping not to startle her too much. "Hanarei, it's Asayake," She mumled quickly, hoping to avoid any violent reactions, in case she had set off some alarm bells in Hanarei's head or the like, "They've gone up to the third floor; I guess we follow them, huh?"

Asayake motioned for Hanarei to follow her, and entered the front of the building. She stared ominously at the keypad, and pressed a few random numbers. A man's voice came out of the little speaker.

"Yes?"

Asayake mumbled something incoherent, which sounded vaguely like, "It's me, lemme in."

"Ah, Sakura. You're home early!"

The door beeped loudly, and the door to the lobby clicked open. Surprised that her ploy had actually worked, Asayake held the door open for Hanarei. "I saw that in a movie once. After you, miss!"

***

Tegiwa was just stumbling out of the tall grass when he heard Shireika's voice "Hey, yeah. I'm fine. I guess something got to me. I'm fine now. You say they are on the move?" He folded up his scooter and placed it in her back seat. "Let's see where they are headed." He sat in the passenger seat and got out his digivice. "Yuu and Enma are active way over there. Asayake and Hanarei seem to be following them as per your plan. If Hanshin doesn't head there, then I haven't a clue. Anyway, if we could find just one of these places ahead of them, things would go much more smoothly."

***

"I would never think about breaking my promise to you Hanshin. I'd be happy to play with you in the park." Heck, she was ready enough to do both guys in the parking lot right then and there. But, she knew Shouki still wasn't into that sort of thing even if it were just the two of them. She knew she could pass out naked on bed in front of Shouki and not be touched at all by him. Tegiwa was the only other guy she knew like that, and she wouldn't want to test it with Tegiwa. With other guys, just being Naoko was enough for the guys to act like she had a "free sample" sign.

***

"Then, we're just going to have to follow Hanshin, Naoko and Shouki," Shireika said as she turned away and started heading down the street. She could see them a couple blocks of ahead, but she kept her distance. She actually really didn't care if he knew she was following him. If he knew, then that might cause him to be more cautious. Whatever the case was, she would keep him from being an idiot however it was necessary to do so.

***

Hanshin grinned to himself. Naoko was so easy to push around. Well, he didn't have to do much to get her to do what he wanted. If he wanted her to strip down to nothing and have a little fun in a bathroom stall, she'd do it immediately without protest. He never had to do much to get what he wanted with her. She'd simply just do it without question. She certainly was loyal, almost to a fault. Of course, she never seemed to mind. If he asked her how she wanted things, she'd simply say however he wanted it. Not his fault that he got what he wanted.

"I was thinking about something else," he whispered as he gave her rear a squeeze. "We'll leave the park for it. It'll be good." He winked at her.

He glanced back, making sure that Shouki was still behind them. He took a turn at a corner to head to the park down the street. He took a glance at his digivice, seeing that Shireika was on his tail, as expected. They were following him, and this was all going according to plan.

***

"Where the hell are they going?" Shireika whispered when she saw Hanshin, Naoko and Shouki take a turn down another street. "They're heading in a direction completely opposite of where Enma and Yuu are!" This was certainly frustrating and confusing. Unless Hanshin had managed to convince Shouki to join in a three-way, but she knew Hanshin better than that. He'd never do it with another male. Well, almost never, and maybe Shouki fit the description of just the perfect guy to do a three way with. But, Shouki wouldn't want to do it.

She shuddered at the thought that Hanshin might be getting it on with both Shouki and Naoko somewhere. That was a bit of a disturbing image. Even more so than walking in on Ami and Hanshin to get them to shut up.

"Come on, Tegiwa," she said. "Keep up." And where was Tomeo? If they had to attack, they were going to need Tomeo for help.

***

Tomeo lowered his car down on a parking space near the club; he hadn't been able to take a look at his digivice while he was driving, but Parumon had been his helpful eyes and ears in that department. He could see Shireika's car, but couldn't see her or Tegiwa nearby.

"Are you sure they're around here?" Tomeo asked Parumon, gathering her up in his arms and shut the car door, locking it behind him.

"Take a look for yourself. The digivice says the blippy - things aren't far off from our blip." Parumon informed again, handing up the device to Tomeo between her teeth. Tomeo plucked it from her jaws and took a look at the new locations on the map. "I like that word. Blip. Blippity blip."

"Okay... they've moved a couple of blocks down this way, and around a corner." Tomeo changed the subject, as he started breaking into a fast run. "Hopefully we'll be able to catch up to them."

"Duh, I know where they are." Parumon said. "I've been looking at the map the whole trip. Let's just get there before something happens."

"Right, sorry." Tomeo stopped talking as soon as they had moved up a few blocks and turned down the street the map indicated, spotting Shireika ahead with Tegiwa following close behind. He crossed the street, and fell into pace with them just as he heard Shireika mentioning his name.

"I'm right here, Shireika. Parumon, too. Hope you got my message about helping Tegiwa, looks like I'm late enough as it is..." He looked up ahead and spotted Hanshin, Naoko and Shouki as he finished his sentance, speaking in a low tone of voice. "So, what's happened? This isn't the same direction Asayake and Hanarei are - any idea where they're headed?"

***

Hanarei stalked her prey from build a part of the building. It looked like an apartment complex or something of the like. Nothing out of the ordinary so far. Then there was a tap on her shoulder. Hanarei snapped her attention and quickly turned around with a fist in the air. She stopped when she say it was Asayake. "Gah, give me a heart attack why don'cha?" she said when she calmed herself down and lowered her fist. She then followed Asayake into the complex.

Hanarei couldn't believe the simplicity and effetiveness of Asayake's trick to get in. "That's really clever," she commented. "I'll have to remember that for later, that or tell me what movie in case there are other tricks in it." She looked around at the lobby and headed for the elevators. "Hmm, not too bad. Still, kind of an odd place to hide a key fragment. The third floor you say?" The door to an elevator opened up and Hanarei stepped in to hold it. "And to return the favor...." She indicated for Asayake to enter.

***

Shouki glanced over at Hanshin and Naoko after they had glanced at him. Something about the way they looked at him made him a bit nervous. But whatever it was, they probably wouldn't do whatever it was while they were on this key adventure. Then again, when he thought back to last week.... Shouki shook his head trying to get the mental image out of his head.

"Oi, Shouki," said Kirimon. He signaled for his partner to bring him up to Shouki's ear. "I think we're being followed. I'd say by three people or so."

Shouki pulled out his digivice and, yes, Kirimon was right. "How do you know that? I had this thing in my pocket the whole time."

"My ears are a little more sensitive than yours." He pointed with his tail to his ears. "These things aren't just for good looks, babe."

Shouki turned his head so he could roll his eyes a bit. He walked faster to catch up to Hanshin and whisper. "What to we do if the people following us realize we're leading them down the wrong direction?"

***

Enma stared in dismay at her sister's bedroom. "This place is a pigsty." she said, rubbing the back of her neck. "And mom complains about me?" she said, scoffing.

"Uh...Enma, aren't we here for a reason?" Mitikomomon asked.

"Mmmm...I feel the odd, obsessive urge Mom has to clean, though. God...how can you live with so many books..." she said, staring at the bed. "I mean, where does she sleep?"

"The floor?" Mitikomomon asked, bouncing over to a dusty bookshelf. "Why don't you try over here; the dust's settled, but it looks new!"

"Good idea..." Enma said, before moving through the pile of books and kneeling down to look through her sister's books.

***

Grinning impishly at Hanarei, Asayake made her way into the elevator, pushing the button for the third floor once Hanarei had joined her. The total elevator ride couldn't have lasted more than 20 seconds, and Asayake had her digivice out. "I feel oddly like Sherlock Holmes or something. Probably someone from that old show CSI, more like, considering Sherlock Homes' mysteries were always easily explained away." She squinted at the dots on the screen, and pointed to a door a little ways down the hall. "They're in the third door on the right down thatta-way." She said, pocketing her digivice and shifting the rucksack on her back. Rogishimon kept shifting around, over-excited about another key fragment, which meant that some part of the little bird's anatomy was always digging into her spine through the thin fabric.

Asayake stopped in front of the door that Enma and Yuu were currently behind, somewhere in someone's apartment, and looked to Hanarei. She wasn't really sure what to do next. "So... Do we just barge in, do we sneak, do we wait for them to come out? I'm at a loss."

***

Tegiwa followed behind Shireika closely as usually. “Hmmph,” was his only response to her needless admonishment. His footsteps were nearly soundless despite his quick gait. Perspiration on his brow felt clammy in the coolness of the night. Moonlight and his camera thermal imager showed him Hanshin’s group further along. “I don’t know. Maybe, they are just killing time. The others might not have found the key yet. They seem a little slow at puzzles.”

***

“This is a delay tactic, Shouki. We just have to lead them on as long as possible. Anyway, we don’t know where the key fragment is; we are guessing too. “ Naoko was waving her hands in the air and doing a little dance as she walked. “This is fun for now though.”

Suzumon trotted by Kirimon. “I never would have thought those were for looks. But, I’m glad they are useful. My pair don’t work as well. See, I have tin ears; however I can get VHF on rainy days.”

***

"Have no idea, but we're not losing them," Shireika said as she continued down the street after Hanshin, Naoko and Shouki. "Unless they're planning to check out another place other than wherever Yuu and Enma are, they could be up to anything. However, it's strange that they aren't taking a car." She bit her lip as she stopped in her tracks for a moment. "It's just a very strange situation, don't you think?"

What was Hanshin up to now? Were they even looking for that key fragment, or were they planning something else? They couldn't have found the other fragments; they would have known about it by now.

***

"Well," Hanshin replied. "We just keep leading them on as possible to keep them away from Yuu and Enma. The more people we can keep away from the key fragment, the better. And if they show any sign of going to help their buddies get the key away, we do whatever we have. Basically, we keep them here instead of over there."

***

Yuu took the living and dinning rooms as Enma suggested, deciding to start in the study first. As she entered the room, she kneeled down and opened up her bag, letting out a slightly disgruntled Kuinamon.

"It was stuffy in 'ehre" he grumbled. "You could've a' least left the zipper open a bit, y'know"

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to look to suspicious" she explained quietly. "Now, help me look around for the key in here. And try not to make to much noise, we might have been followed into the building"

As Kuinamon hopped around checking behind furniture and in low drawers, Yuu looked at the sizable bookshelf. Perhaps, she thought, it was hidden behind one of the books. She went over and began pulling them out a few at a time, careful to replace them in the same order.

After a minute or two, she checked the tracking feature on her digivice again. Hanarei's yellow dot, which had gotten much closer, was still there, as well as orange one now right next to it. Asayake.

She continued checking the books, a new worry rising in her. She wasn't so much worried about being hurt by her again... more than anything, she was worried that she might not be able to stand up to Asayake when it came down to the wire. Under different circumstances, they could have been friends, and part of her didn't want to give that up completely by attacking her. But she also knew that, if Hanshin was right, this key was the best chance they had to avert disaster. If they didn't complete it in time, then everyone, including the other team, would suffer. So the only way to save them was to keep the fragment away from them, whatever the consequences. It hurt Yuu to have to think about it this way, but that was how things had played out, and there was no way around it.

Suddenly, she was startled out of her train of thought by something falling out of one of the books she had pulled off the shelf. She knelt down and examined the object. It looked very much like the one they had found last week in the bay.

This was it. The key fragment.

She dashed into the neighboring bedroom that Enma was searching and tapped her shoulder.

"Enma-san, I found it"

***

Hanarei stayed close to Asayake as they made their way down the hallway. Once they were at the door, Hanarei placed her ear up against it trying to hear anything. "Well, if they're able to search the apartment, then they must be the only ones there," she said. She stood back and stared at the door for a moment. "Hmm, what to do what to do...." Before she thought about it completely, her instincts kicked in. "Barge." Without waiting for Asayake to comment, Hanarei lowered her shoulder and rammed into the door.

The door to the apartment popped open. Hanarei figured it must have been unlocked. "Gah, what a mess," she mumbled once she saw the apartment. She saw the last part of someone's foot as they ran into a room which was followed by Yuu saying she had the key. Hanarei's eyes widened as she heard this. "Asayake, send an email to Shireika and the others. We have a key to fight for. I'll try to keep them busy."

Hanarei strolled over to the room Yuu and Enma were in and stood in the middle of the doorway. Once there, she knocked on the wall to get their attention. "Why thank you, you two," she said. A familiar vicious grin was on her face. "You saved us the trouble of having to look for the key. I'll be taking that from you if you don't mind."

Himotomon jumped out of her backpack and stood ready for a fight. 'I'll show Parumon that I'm not a puny little fireball,' she thought.

Hanarei tried to take up as much space as she could in the doorway to prevent Enma and Yuu from escaping. Still, she wouldn't have minded if either of them were to take a swipe at her.

***

Shouki felt a small shiver run down his spine. "I've got a bad feeling about something," he said mostly to himself. He scanned the area in front of him, Naoko, and Hanshin but saw nothing. He figured it couldn't have been the people following them since Shouki knew about them already. Following along with their plan, Shouki pointed somewhere in front of them. "Maybe it's over there by that large group of trees," he said, hoping that Shireika and the others would hear him and believe him. 'We've got to buy time for Enma and Yuu,' he thought.

Kirimon floated along side Suzumon. "Aww man, I'd die for something like that. Oh, wait, I'm already a ghost. Never mind. I at least have access to Shouki's little ear radio thingy."

***

"Good..." Enma said, turning to Yuu. When she did, she saw Hanarei. Something Enma had never actually felt before rose in her, making her cheeks flare a vivid red. She slipped passed Yuu and came over to Hanarei, glaring at the girl. "Yuu, get the phone; it's in the kitchen, next to the fridge." She smirked at Hanarei, head cocked to the side. "You realize that you are trespassing on private property...no, sorry, property owned by Seijitsu Hoko, my grandfather." she said, arms crossed. "This is my sister's apartment, and at least I'm here with permission not only from her but from my mother. How about you, are you here with your father's permission, Hanarei-san?" she asked, mockingly innocent.

***

Asayake had her mini-computer out before Hanarei could finish speaking, her fingers flying against the keys hurriedly. Her message read:

[Shireika - Enma and Yuu have a fragment. We're probably going to need some help. Please get someone else down here ASAP. ~Asayake]

She had put the mini-computer back into her bag within fifteen seconds of sending the message, and had Rogishimon perched on her shoulder. "Enma, Enma, Enma; at least Hanarei and myself don't steal from our own family memebers. Your sister, you say? I do say she'd be highly offended."

Rogishimon puffed herself up in an attempt to look menacing as Asayake continued, "Like Hanarei said, we'll be taking that key fragment now. Rogishimon?" The white bird had barely heard the words when she flew from Asayake's shoulder, swooping down on Yuu and snatching the key fragment from her hands. With the little trinket firmly grasped in her talons, Rogishimon flew back to Asayake, dropping it into her waiting hands. Asayake gave Yuu and Enma a smug smile, and made sure she had a firm grip on the fragment.

***

Tegiwa figured they were up to something, even if it was an unimportant something. “Looks like we’ve been led down the Primrose path by some rather wild geese. Shireika, who would you like to help Hanarei and Asayaka? Or, should we just detain those three? Come to think of it, Enma and Yuu aren’t exactly a physical threat…”

***

“Hanshin, anata, I think the Fit has hit the Shan. Let’s scatter so one of us might make it to help Enma. I’ll take Shouki with me to the Tram System. We can take different routes from there. You….perhaps, duck taping your sister to a lamppost might be in order.”

***

"We're all going," Shireika said. "If they meant to throw us off, they certainly did, but we're closer to the cars than they are. We'll get there before they do if we head back now."

***

"Perhaps, or locking her up in her room somehow," Hanshin replied. As much as he would hated to get even more on her bad side, there had to be someway to keep her from getting involved with this. "If we start moving now, we might throw them off entirely." He checked his digivice quickly. "Unless, they've figured out what we're up to. Shit."

***

Shireika dragged Tegiwa and Tomeo along, whether was actually by their arm or mentally. She was getting back to that car and heading over wherever Asayake and Hanarei were. If Enma and Yuu had found that stupid key fragment, she and those joined forces with her would get this one away from them. They had to get at least one, and this was their chance.

***

"Come on, you two," Hanshin said he immediately turned around. "Time to keep them from going where I think they're going." He checked his digivice. Shireika was moving fast. "If they think we're thrown them off, they may check elsewhere, which could be a bad thing. Time to keep them away from it."

Hanshin ran off, having to cut through various side streets.

***

Shireika led Tomeo and Tegiwa through side streets that would take them back to the club. It was going to be faster this way without all the street signals and other people to get in the way. They just had to get to the cars fast, and that's all that mattered.

***

"Koumamon digivolve to Shunbamon!"

"Hanshin, I know where they are," Shunbamon said as he sprinted ahead of Hanshin. The miniature horse hurried through the streets. He could sense them nearby. He ran behind them. "Horse Whispers," he said in the midst of his chant. Sparks of energy jumped across the ground towards Shireika, Tomeo and Tegiwa, barely missing them.

"What the hell?" Shireika asked as she turned around, only to see Hanshin running up into the street alongside Shunbamon. "Oh, so this is what you're up to." She pulled out her digivice.

"Alesmon digivolve to Alatusmon!"

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Shireika asked with a smirk. She glanced over at Tomeo and Tegiwa.

***

Kuinamon had been so busy searching that he hadn't even heard Yuu leave the room. What he did hear was the sound of a door being rammed open.

"Wha'?" He poked his head out from under the couch he'd been inspecting. There were voices coming from the bedroom, and they sure weren't Yuu and Enma. He squeezed himself out from under the couch as fast as he could, losing a few feathers in the process, and bounced into the other room just in time to see Rogishimon snatch the fragment away from his partner and drop it in the redhead's hand.

"Oi! Give- that- BACK!" he cried as he leapt at Asayake and chomped his beak down as hard as he could on her fingers, trying to grab at the fragment with his fins.

"Kuinamon!" Yuu, who had tried to catch Rogishimon by the tail feathers, saw her chance to do something else. Pushing past the hopefully-distracted Asayake, she attempted to run for the kitchen; she had no idea who to call, but she had to help out somehow.

***

The grin on Hanarei's face vanished at the words Enma had said. It was now replaced by a scowl. "Ask me if I even care," Hanarei snapped back. "And I've told you before to I don't need anything from my dad. I'm not some 'daddy's precious angel.'"

"Boy is that the truth," said Himotomon.

"Quiet! Just hurry up and digivolve," Hanarei ordered. Himotomon started to glow along with the digivice in Hanarei's pocket. "Himotomon digivolved to... Okimon!" The fire-girl appeared and stood next to her partner. Hanarei stared at her partner like the last time when she had that mental break down. But this time nothing happened. No new images or headaches were running through her mind.

It was at that moment when Yuu pushed her way past Hanarei and Asayake while Kuinamon went for the key. Hanarei turned around to see Yuu heading for the phone. Who would she call? Enma made the comment about trespassing and one other theory came to Hanarei's mind beside Hanshin and company; the police. That was something Hanarei did not want to experience just yet. Also, since Asayake had already contacted Shireika, if they could keep Yuu and Enma from contacting the others, then Shireika's group could get here without any more competition waiting for them. Hanarei ran after Yuu and threw herself into the air. She was able to catch Yuu's ankles and kept a firm grip on them.

Okimon know stood in the doorway. "I'll cover you from her," she said to Hanarei. Okimon opened her hand to reveal the fire on her palm. Aiming toward Enma and her digimon, she was about to take a breath to release her attack. "Okimon, don't!" Hanarei shouted. Slightly confused, Okimon stared at Hanarei and put out the fire in her hand.

Hanarei was thankful that she did stop. She did want to win this fight, but Okimon's attack was not well suited for this room. Hanarei figured that with all of these books scattered everywhere, if an ember happened to land of one, Okimon could start a fire in the apartment. This was something she didn't want to happen. 'Gah, can't she fight in one area that's to her advantage?' Hanarei thought.

***

"Forget the Tram Station Naoko," cried Kirimon, "we have ourselves a chase scene." Kirimon pointed in some direction which Shouki looked toward as well. He saw Hanshin running back to the club with Shireika, Tomeo, and Tegiwa leading the way. "Well, hurry up Shouki!"

"Wha... oh right." Shouki grabbed his partner with one hand and ran after everyone. Shouki knew Hanshin was a lot stronger then he was, but he wasn't sure how well Hanshin would do against three people. The further Shouki ran, the more tired he was becoming. He wasn't much of a runner and it was obviously showing now.

"Oi, Shouki, put me down. You're too slow," said Kirimon. "I'll go on ahead."

Shouki was starting to pant. "You, *pant* *pant* sure?"

"Positive. Just give me a little pick me up." Shouki figured out what Kirimon meant and tried to focus his energy. "Kirimon digivolved to... Reimumon!" The cat-digimon pushed off of Shouki and was running after Hanshin with Shouki trailing behind. Reimumon could hear the battle going on ahead. "Fight time," he said to himself. "Grapple Sash!" The sash around him fell out ahead and was aimed at Tegiwa and Tomeo. He was going to try and keep them away from Enma and Yuu for as long as possible.

Shouki appeared behind Reimumon and was heavily panting. Clutching his side, he mumbled in between pants. "I've got to exercise more often."

***

Tomeo turned around the moment he heard Shunbamon's attack come after them through the air, and after dodging a spark shooting through the space where his head had once been, spotted Reimumon's attack headed towards him and Tegiwa. "Tegiwa, watch out!" he managed to say, giving Tegiwa a quick shove to the side just before the Grapple Sash attack caught hold of him instead of his friend. He fell over, the cape tied firmly in a grip around him.

"Ack! Hold on!" Parumon squealed as she jumped out of Tomeo's arms, looking back at her tied-up partner. "Not the opponent I wanted to fight, but... quick Tomeo, help me digivolve! Use the digivice, like last time!"

"Last time?" Tomeo grunted, finding that his arms were pinned tightly to his sides. "I can't reach my digivice! Help!" he yelled back in frustration.

"That isn't fair!" Parumon growled, looking in Reimumon's direction. "Rookie or not, I'm not going to let some digimon cheat me out of a fair fight!" She grabbed hold of the cape around Tomeo with her teeth in a desperate attempt to free him, pulling on it with all her might to help him get to his digivice.

"Tegiwa! Get out of here!" Tomeo called, figuring out he was now absolutely helpless to help Asayake and Hanarei after momentarily watching Parumon biting at his restraints. "The key's the important thing; me and Shireika will hold the line. Now, go!"

***

Thanks to Tomeo, Tegiwa dropped to the ground as the sparks went by him. He performed a rapid military crawl over to his friend. (The things one learns when one works for an urban ambulance company…)

“If you looked any more like burrito, Tomeo I’d have to call you ‘Obi Juan.’ And, I’m not leaving here while you are in trouble. Besides, it’s a long ride to the others on a portable scooter, or skytram; Hanshin’s group has a car and would be me.. As long as these three idiots are here, our allies can handle themselves fine. Now, hold still will I cut you free with my safety knife.” Tegiwa produced a J-shaped plastic implement which contained a razor sharp blade. He began slicing through the folds of cloth encircling Tomeo.

This wouldn’t take long he thought. If Shireika wanted him to leave, she’d give him the car keys.

***

“’Anshin…I don’t like the look she’s giving me. Onee-chan kawasou desu!” I can’t believe this. I do a lot to help her and her brother, and she just gets pissed because I’m breathing. “You want a piece of me? Huh? Well, forget about it. Tegiwa could beat me up. It’s not a challenge, you know?” She’d have to help Hanshin though, She just didn’t know how. Okay, not getting hit was an option. She was very fast. She sucked at fighting, but dancing made her light on her feet and good at reading others movements. Don’t get hit….don’t get hit….don’t get hit: her new mantra. She looked into the eyes of the storm and readied herself.

She raised her digivice. “Suzumon digivolve to Seidomon.”

***

"Bring it on dog-breath," Alatusmon called as he ran towards Seidomon. "Feather Strike!" he called as he released four speeding feathers towards the bronze dog.

"You want a challenge?" Shireika asked as she lunged at Naoko. "I'll give you one." She readied a fist and promptly brought it across Naoko's cheek. She stood above Naoko as the other girl collapsed to the ground. "Is that what you wanted?" She took a step forward towards Naoko.

"Hey!" Hanshin called as he grabbed Shireika by the arm. "Quit it already."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Shireika retorted as she tried to free herself from Hanshin's grasp, but he wasn't letting go this time.

"Just stop this. All of this," Hanshin replied.

"You should too." She gave Hanshin a harsh shove to force him to let go and turned away from Naoko.

***

Meanwhile, Shunbamon turned his attention to Tegiwa helping Tomeo out.

"Horse Whispers!" he commanded as he sent an attack towards Tegiwa to keep the boy from helping Tomeo out. The sparks of energy bounced across the ground towards Tegiwa, hitting the child of knowledge. Unfortunately, some of his attack also managed to tear the cloth that bound Tomeo, freeing him.

***

"Tegiwa! Ahhh!" Tomeo cried out, Shunbamon's Horse Whispers cutting through the fabric that hadn't managed to hit the other boy, also cutting hot gashes through his shirt and into his skin. Thanks to the attack and with the help from Parumon and Tegiwa, he was able to roll himself free from Reimumon's cape. Standing up, his hand immediately went to his pocket and fished out his digivice. "Alright, enough's enough! Parumon?"

"Oh, you shouldn't have done that. You should pick on someone your own species." Parumon grimaced at Shunbamon, looking up at Tomeo. "Go!"

The black-haired boy lifted up his digivice, the light shining from it engulfing around the In-Training digimon. "Parumon digivolve to..."

"...Takamon!" Her Rookie form growled as she emerged again, drawing out her claws. There was no time for snappy comebacks this time. Once she was done with these Reimumon and Shunbamon, she could go after Siedomon. "Pulse Wave!" she roared instantaneously, fanning a stream of water between Reimumon and Shunbamon to protect the boys. She didn't know if Tegiwa was in a good enough condition to help Robotomon digivolve, but she was sure she could take on two digimon at once until he could.

"Tegiwa, are you alright?" Tomeo crouched near his friend, eyes full of concern. He knew how much Shunbamon's attack had hurt, but he headn't taken on the full force of it like Tegiwa had and didn't know the extent of Tegiwa's injuries. "I'm sorry I thought you should have left, you're right. Let's stay and fight together."

***

Asayake let out a pained yelp, managing to shake Kunaimon from her fingers. However, the shaking caused her to drop the key fragment. As soon as she heard it hit the floor she kicked at it, sending it bouncing into the kitchen. She watched as it bounced over Hanarei and skidded along the tile, vanishing underneath the refridgerator. Cursing vividly, the redhead grasped her fingers, and glared at Enma.

"You people can't leave well enough alone, can you?" She spat, attempting to burn a hole through Enma's head with her eyes, "The Watcher hasn't given you any proof that anything is happening, and yet you all run around with your tails tucked between your legs and do his bidding. What is he, your pimp? It's been validated that the Key is dangerous, and yet you want nothing more to gave a go with it, all on the word of someone who doesn't even have a face for his name. You disgust me, because your lack of a fucking BRAIN could very well send the world to Hell, and you refuse to give it a second thought."

***

Mitikomomon watched the key as it bounced across the floor and fell under the fridge. He looked at the other digimon, before chancing it; Enma needed the key, and he didn't want to let her down.

He ran over to the fridge, and tried to sqeeze under it.

Enma, on the other hand, was livid. "If this is some weapon of mass destruction," she said slowly, "then I'd like to keep it away from my sister; I hate her and wish she and I were never born of the same parents, but I would not want to put her in danger because she has a key fragment that my mother never told her about.We are teh ones who should protect this world, and I need to keep this away from my sister. Now, if you please; leave this apartment now, or...Yuu, you know the number for the local police station, right?" she asked. She wasn't kidding either; brown eyes were dull as she looked from Hanarei and Asayake to Yuu. With Hanarei's digimon in the apartment, it was a fire-trap, and she was not having something else blamed on her by her mother.

***

Tegiwa found himself staring skyward for the second time in several seconds. Tegiwa’s skin sizzled as the sparks burned tiny holes in his shirt and pants. “Tai…taitaitaitaitai! Man,that stings. Tomoe, I’ll be okay. It just feels like someone dumped a box of burning bees down my shirt… And, I was just contemplating how I should have taken your advice, so don’t worry yourself over it. Now, let’s kick this party up a notch!” He brandished his digivice at Robotmon, who was lying nearby after falling from Tegiwa’s pocket.

“Robotmon digivolve to Orengiimon!”

The toylike digimon was replaced in a flash of light by a clockwork owl that was copper, rust, and gold in color. The lenses that were his eyes rotated and shifted as he saw a familiar prey: “Ah, kitty, I see you want to apply for my frequent flyer program. Well, I haven’t got all night so let’s get going.” The mechanical night hunter flapped his wings, and they carried him skyward. He turned in a circle overhead before Diving toward Reimumon with his claws extended.

***

Naoko lay in tears on ground as she rubbed the reddening welt left by Shireika’s fist.

“What…What was that for? Dammit, that hurt. What the hell did I ever do to you to deserve that? Afterall, you are a little but-inski trying to mess up Hanshin’s destiny. I’m just doing what I’m supposed to. No need to get physical.”

If only Shireika understood that she was the wa she was now because that’s what she had to be to be with Hanshin. Naoko had been somewhat more like Shireika when she was twelve. Highshool and Hanshin had made her choose a different route. It was true that she enjoyed her new lifestyle, but she had chosen it. Her actions were not frivolous or thoughtless. She accepted the good and the bad of it. And, If there had been another way, then she would have taken it. It was all for Hanshin. She believed in him and his music.

Seidomon rushed after Alesmon with teeth bared. “I've never eaten crow before, but it looks mighty tasty."

***

"You were asking for it," Shireika said as she turned back to look at Naoko. "Hanshin's destiny, is it?" She pushed Hanshin aside as she walked towards Naoko. "So, it's just about Hanshin for you, isn't it? Well, if you're doing what you're supposed to, I'm doing my own part." She grabbed Naoko's shirt and pulled her up roughly. "We all have destinies here, and mine is probably just different than what you'd like it to be." She let go of Naoko, dumping her on the ground. "Maybe you all should stop going after this stupid key."

"Maybe you should stop too," Hanshin replied as he grabbed Shireika by the arm. "We need that key."

"To save the world, right? Look. Who did that power belong to? I asked you. Don't forget who that power belonged to. It's potentially dangerous. Once you try accessing it, we could be in trouble. Why do you think the key was split up like this? Why do you think no one really knows where it even is?"

"And that dark queen?"

"You believe that crap? It's from an unknown source through email. Have you even met the Watcher? Do you even know what his intentions are? Do you even know if he's telling you the truth?"

"Shut the fuck up, Shireika!" he shouted as he pushed Shireika to the ground. "Why are you always doing this? Always trying to prove me wrong? Always trying to show you're better than me? Look, the books in Uncle Matsuro's library prove this! It's written in the prophecies. You're the child of fate here. You should know to believe the stuff."

"A prophecy is still a speculation, an educated guess at best."

***

Alesmon yelped a little when Seidamon lunged at him. He gave a kick at the bronze dog, only to find that it was less than effective against the metal dog.

"Winged Force!" Alesmon called as he flapped his wings rapidly, with the intention of blowing the bronze dog off of him. He absolutely did not want to become dog food tonight.

***

"Okay, good." Tomeo said, standing back up after Tegiwa had recovered. His attention turned over to Naoko, hearing her sobbing to Shireika some distance away. He was glad that he hadn't resorted to violence yet, but knew that he could have, given how he wasn't the only one who Naoko liked rubbing the wrong way. He felt sympathetic for Naoko, but at the same time knew Naoko had probably said something to deserve it that had gotten under Shireika's skin.

"Shireika, just ignore her!" he called over to his friend. "It's not worth your time. You're better than that, let's just stop their digimon from helping the others near the fragment." They could debate all day which side was better or right, but at this stage he doubted if anyone was going to listen.

"Here, little horsey!" Takamon provoked Shunbamon, closing in the distance towards Hanshin's digimon. She was aware of his ranged attacks from the last battle, and felt the best way to handle the digimon was up close and personal. Seeing as how he was the remaining digimon that didn't have an opponent, she was going to make sure he would teach him never again to fire directly at her chosen. "Yaaahhhh!" she yelled to psyche him out, slashing at him with the claws on her hands, hoping to cast a direct critical hit.

***

Hanarei tried not to show it, but with everytime Enma said police, Hanarei felt like dashing out of the room. Enma made the point that this apartment belonged to her family so she and Yuu were exempt from the phrase "trespassing." She kept her grip on Yuu and prayed she could keep her away from the phone while the battle for the key piece continued. "Okimon," she said, "go after the key but don't use you're fire attacks."

"WHAT?!" Okimon shouted. "But why can't I...."

"Just don't!"

Okimon mumbled something under her breath and ran toward the refrigerator. She bent down and reached with her arm for the key. She couldn't see so she hoped to eventually place a hand on it before Mitikomomon got it.

***

Reimumon braced for the water attack from Takamon. The wave splashed over him and left him drenched. "Enough with the WATER!" he shouted. Once again he looked partially like a drowned rat. The sash recoiled after it had been cut. Reimumon glanced upward and saw Orengiimon flying toward him. "Trying to pull the same trick on me," he said. "I'm not letting you give me another one of your joy rides. Spirit Shards!" He swung his paws out and two purple orbs shot out of his sleeves. They both shattered in mid-air and continued toward Orengiimon.

Meanwhile, Shouki was unsure what to do. He felt so out of place here. Shireika and Hanshin were arguing again, the digimon were fighting.... "Everyone, please," he called out. "Do we really need to fight like this?"

***

Yuu hit the floor hard when Hanarei grabbed her ankles from behind, smacking her arm into the leg of a table and causing a few books to fall down. After she saw Hanarei's digimon about to blow fire into the room and then hesitate, she realized it was only a matter of time before they caused some serious damage to Nushi's apartment, or even the whole building. If there was going to be more fighting, they had to take it outside.

Just then she saw the key fragment clatter by her and go under the fridge, and Mitikomomon and Okimon follow it. She also saw something else on the kitchen floor; her digivice, which had flown out of her pocket when Hanarei tackled her.

She had an idea.

First, she reached forward as hard as she could and grabbed the digivice a couple of feet from of her. Turning awkwardly to look back into the main room, she saw Kuinamon fluttering towards her and held the device out to him. "Kuinamon, now!"

"Right on!" he chirped. "Kuinamon digivolve to... Kamomemon!"

Kamo figured out what he had to do pretty fast. Concentrating on Hanarei and Okimon, he called out his attack, "Laughing Gull!" and then let out a piercing cry intent on disorienting his enemies. At the same time, Yuu kicked Hanarei in the shoulder as hard as she could, which, considering she was a powerful swimmer, was pretty hard.

All in all she managed to free herself from the girl's grasp and run to the refrigerator, hurriedly sweeping her hand underneath to grab the key and whatever else was under there. Then she dashed breakneck for the still-open door to the apartment, followed by Kamo, who really hoped she wasn't about to do what he thought she was.

She was. Instead of turning down the hall towards the elevator, she got a leg-up in the safety railing and leapt clear away from the building. Kamomemon immediately grabbed her shoulders with his talons and began to glide her slowly down toward the parking lot, all the while thinking This's a bad idea, this's a bad idea, this's a bad idea...

***

A barking laugh made its way passed her lips, and Asayake glared critically at Enma. "So that's all you care about, then, just your sister? Has it ever occoured to you that maybe, just maybe, Hanshin doesn't just want tog et the key away from people, but use it as well? Get this through your head, Enma; Hanshin wants to use the key to fight. Are you prepared for what it might do to you? Who it might hurt, other than you, if you manage to put it back together?"

Asayake's little speech was cut short, however, when she saw Yuu bolt from the apartment. "Rogishimon!" She shouted, pulling her digivice from her pocket and persuing Yuu down the hall. The white bird flew fast, beating Asayake to the safety railing just as Yuu made her decent to the parking lot, aided by Kamomemon. The redhead jerked to a stop beside her, and growled. "Damn it all! Rogishimon, stall them as best you can, I --"

"I can't fly as fast as Kamomemon!" Rogishimon squeaked nervously, watching as the two made their way to the ground, "I'll never reach them!"

"Yes you will!" Asayake said, staring at her digivice. It began to glow, and soon Rogishimon was Soranomon again. "Soranomon, just stall them. Do whatever you have to do, just don't... Don't hurt them or anything. Scare them, whatever, just don't hurt them."

"Fine." Soranomon said, taking flight from the safety bar after the two. No sooner had she entered open air when she shouted, "Falcon's Cry!" Soranomon aimed the attack at Mamomemon, determined to do little more than stun either of them.

Asayake, meanwhile, ran back to the apartment. She helped Hanarei off of the floor, and stared pointedly at Enma. "Listen, Yuu's taken off with the key. I'm going to follow her on my moped; I'll leave Enma to you. Just don't hurt each other too bad, okay?" With that, she bolted from the apartment and down to the stairs, hopping onto the banister and sliding down. It went much faster than any elevator, and soon Asayake was strapping on her helmet, and starting up her moped.

***

Seidoman was blow head over tail backwards by Alesmon’s wind attack, and he rolled several feet before righting himself. “Tell your bitch to lay off my Master. She doesn’t deserve to be treated like a punching bag, especially since she’s right. I won’t stand for this!”*Hollow woof!* A purple beam of light issued forth from the bronze jaws of the digidawg.

Naoko lay on the ground with her legs under her. The nasty red welt was turning bluish purple. Naoko’s eyes teared as she muttered angry words aloud. “I hope you really get off on beating the shit out of me Shireika. I hope you like it. I wish you’d just go home and have the biggest orgasm of your life tonoight. Then, maybe, this whole stupid farce would mean something.”

Tegiwa looked at Tomeo and nodded in silent agreement.

“It does seem to me we are pummeling each other over a rather large amount of uncertainty, Shireika. Perhaps, if we gave the key pieces to Matsuro for safe keeping until we know if, when, or how we should use the blasted thing. Trusting Hanshin with the key is folly, but Matsuro…he’s cool.”

O-man was into full power dive mode when the air was filled with Reimumon’s flak attack. O-man collided with the expanding spheres at full speed and couldn’t pull out. “Can’t see…” The metal owl plowed straight into the ground.

“Owww, That’s going to leave a mark….”

***

"Why don't you tell your little whore to shut the hell up?" Shireika said coldly.

"Both of you, just quit it," Hanshin pleaded as looked towards Naoko and then Shireika.

"Maybe we should give all those pieces to Uncle Matsuro," she added as she stood up. "Tegiwa's right. No one should trust you with that key, let alone a key fragment."

"Why can't you just stop with this nonsense!" Hanshin shouted at Shireika. "Every day, always showing me off to be the bad guy to Dad, to your friends, and now to everyone you possibly can. What is your problem? All because, what? I stopped caring about school and put my music first?" He shoved Shireika in the shoulder as he became more threatening. "Look at what you've done. You QUIT music. You fucking quit music, the thing Mom loved most, and, of course, you did as soon as you could after she died because you didn't need to please her anymore. That's all you do. Just do what everyone wants of you because it'll get you somewhere. To where Shireika? Huh?" He pushed her with both hands on her shoulders. "To where?" He shoved her against a wall, pressing her against the building. "Where! Shireika! You don't know what you want, do you? You don't know why the hell you're doing anything except that people like Dad aren't ever angry at you and that people think you're so great."

***

"Shireika!" Alesmon yelped when he watched Hanshin shout at Shireika. She looked away from him with her eyes squeezed tightly shut. He jumped away from Seidomon's attack as she began to run towards Hanshin and Shireika. He looked towards the bronze digimon. "Then maybe she should learn to shut her mouth around Shireika and quit putting her down, since you won't listen to anyone but her." He turned his attention back to the two twins against the building. "Leave her alone!" He ran towards Hanshin, ready to pound the boy who was threatening his partner.

"Alesmon!" Shireika called as she opened her eyes.

Suddenly, a burst of light shot from Shireika's digivice towards Alesmon.

"Alesmon digivolve to..." Alesmon's small figure suddenly grew into that of a much larger black bird. The large bird digimon took flight as he continued to run towards Hanshin, threatening to fly right into the boy as he continued to grow in size. "Ravenmon!" He swooped towards Hanshin and Shireika and called, "Shireika, grab on!" As he flew by Shireika and Hanshin, Hanshin ducked out of the way, while Shireika immediately latched onto her digimon partner.

Instinctively, Shireika climbed up onto Ravenmon's back as he flew over the other digi-destined and digimon in the alleyway. She held on tightly as he made another pass over the ensuing battle.

***

Shunbamon reeled on his hind legs when Takamon attacked. He shook Takamon off, leaving his face with many claw marks. "Maybe you should learn to keep your little mouth shut, or stay out of this!" He began to run about Takamon with increasing acceleration. "And maybe you all should learn to stop following us and trying to keep us from that key, or you won't get caught in messes like this." His figured blurred as he continued to speed up around Takamon, and a breeze began to pick up with the track that Shunbamon was running along. "Hippodoromos Cyclone!" The wind picked up immensely around Takamon forming a cyclone about the digimon, and it threw dust and dirt about Takamon as Shunbamon allowed the cyclone to do the work as he finished running.

***

The combined attack by Yuu and Kamomemon left Hanarei in pain. The kick from Yuu was stronger than Hanarei expected. She gripped her shoulder with her other hand but then had to cover her ears from Kamomemon's attack. The sudden movement on her shoulder told her just how difficult it would be to move it for awhile. She was thankful the attack didn't last long.

Hanarei stood up with the help of Asayake. When the other girl let go, Hanarei could feel her shoulder still trobbing with pain. She heard what Asayake said and only nodded in response. "Don't worry, I'll take care of her," she said to Asayake's back as she left. She glared at Enma over her sunglasses. She wasn't sure of a fight with Enma after that kick from Yuu. Also, the fear of being caught trespassing still ran through Hanarei's mind. If she had one opportunity, Enma could call the police and have them go after Hanarei. She had to do something to get the upperhand for the moment.

"Okimon, show her your flame. But only show it to her," she ordered. Okimon did as Hanarei said and produced a flame in her hand. Hanarei pointed to the flame (with her good arm) and stared at Enma. "I'm going out that door and leaving this apartment. However, I don't want you following me just yet. Make one move toward me, Okimon, the phone, or the door, and my little fire fairy will give your sister's apartment a nice kiss goodbye." She hoped that would be enough to scare Enma long enough for Hanarei to get a good head start. She didn't really want to be an arsonist but if she needed to to survive....

Okimon stood ready to use her attack while Hanarei slowly slipped out of the door and into the hallway. Hanarei's eyes didn't move away from Enma's face. She tried not to even blink in fear that would cause Enma to move. "I'll open the door to the stairs. Don't let her move until I give a signal."

"Right," said Okimon. The digimon stared at her target with as much intensity as her partner did. 'I guess we were a good match,' she thought. 'We're both a couple of hot-heads.' Mentally, she smiled at her own joke. Meanwhile, she could hear but not see what Hanarei was doing. When she heard the sound of a door opening, she tensed up, ready to move at any moment.

"Now!" Hanarei shouted. Okimon put out her flame and quickly followed Hanarei through the door, leaving the apartment and hallway empty.

"Where are we going now?" Okimon asked as they both ran down the staircase, skipping large groups of steps to save time.

"I don't know. We can only follow the digivice now. Yuu and Asayake are probably close together so that's one way of looking for them on the radar." They reached the bottom of the stairs and left the apartment complex.

***

Seeing Orengiimon crash into the ground like that brough a smile to Reimumon's face. "Hehe, that makes up for dropping me into the bay," said Reimumon. He looked around at the rest of the battle to see what was happening but soon looked up. It wasn't the battle that got his attention but instead it was a large shadow that flew over him. It wasn't until the shadowy figure moved from over him did Reimumon realize it was another digimon. "Is, was that Alesmon?" he said in astonishment.

Reimumon saw the large bird coming back for what looked like another pass. The cat-digimon ran over into the path Ravenmon was about to take. "Time to bring you down. Grapple Sash!" Again, the cloth zoomed toward Ravenmon in hopes of pulling her back to the ground.

Shouki had heard parts of Hanshin's lecture to Shireika. Some of the comments Hanshin made caused Shouki to remember some of the actions he did after his sister's death. 'I want to be like her,' he thought. 'I always wanted to be like her.' A mental picture of Hikaru appeared to Shouki. As soon as the image faded, Shouki's mind returned to the battle before him. "So they both honor their mother by doing something she loved," he said mostly to himself. Prehaps Shouki had more in common with some of the people here than he originally thought.

"That does sound like a good idea," Shouki said to Tegiwa's comment about Matsuro. "But then, with all due respect, any one of us could go up to him, ask for the key pieces, and not tell the others that they have the pieces. Anyone of us could lie to him about it."

***

"Stop it, Hanshin! This isn't about Shireika hating you or not!" Tomeo shouted, trying to wake him up to the reality that it wasn't okay to use sibling rivalry as an excuse to justify his actions. "Stop getting so god-damn personal, this is about the safety of the free world, and that world doesn't revolve around you, or Shireika, or anybody, okay?"

He could do nothing but watch as Alesmon suddenly charged forward towards Hanshin, his eyes widening in surprise when Shireika' s digimon changed form. "Holy...!" he said, unable to find the words as he looked at Tegiwa. "They can digivolve AGAIN, too!?"

***

Takamon snickered at Shunbamon after she had finished her attack, not thinking much of Shunbamon running around her. "Maybe you should stop using the word 'maybe' in all your sentences. Or better yet, just shut up. And I can follow you guys wherever the heck I want because you're stealing private property that's gonna unleash evil on this world! But you already know that, don't you, so why should I bother bashing it into that thick skull of yours?" she said, mocking him.

Takamon quickly got caught up in the whirlwind created by Shunbamon's attack, finding herself thrown up several feet into the air unexpectantly. She suddenly recalled the same attack being used on her as Parumon and how she had hit the ground... except this time, she wasn't an In-Training anymore. She had attacks! Thinking quickly as she flipped in the air, she aimed towards the ground. "Pulse Wave!" she called, firing a stream of water down towards the moving Shunbamon. Whether she hit him or not wasn't the point, it would only be an added plus. As gravity pulled her back towards the pavement, the pressurized water she spat out continuously down onto Shubamon acted as a cushion until she was at a safe enough distance to land, pouncing on top of the small horse. "Yee-hah! Didn't expect that, did ya cowboy?" She didn't give him any time to answer, but instead opened her jaws and clamped her reptilian teeth around Shunbamon's neck. Hard.

***

Enma watched the flame impassively. She was mentally screaming obcentitiies and throwing books at Hanarei. She would have loved to do it in actual reality, but the fact that her sister's apartment was a powder keg did briefly flash through her mind.

Once Hanarei and Okimon were gone, Enma ran after Hanarei. "There's got to be an easier way out of this place! Why does Nushi have to live in the least habitible place in Tokyo?!" She screamed. "Mitikomomon?" She said, realizing suddenly that she was partnerless.

"Mitikomomon! DAMN IT!" The red-head shouted, before running back into her sister's apartment. She crossed herself, though she wasn't Catholic, and opened the door to the fire escape. She looked down at the badly illuminated rickety stairs, and banged her head against the window. "Shit..."

***

Mitikomomon was at a rather large loss. He was attached to the key which was currently in. He winced at Soranmon's attack, before gulping. "Where she is...Asayake can't be far behind." He said around the key.

***

Shunbamon reared onto his hind legs again, neighing loudly and wildly, when Takamon bit into his neck. The insolent little pest, who thought she knew all. He'd show her.

***

"World safety?" Hanshin replied to Tomeo as he got back up. He marched over to the other boy, grabbing him by the shirt collar and shoving him against a nearby building. "You think trying to access a power to protect our world is dangerous? What did she put into your brain? There is a dark queen coming, and you can't deny that the books in my uncle's library repeat it many times. She plans to come here, to this world, and we need that key to stop her. Which do you think is more dangerous, the possibility of a dark queen with the intention for destruction or a group of digi-destined with a key to one of the greatest powers in the universe? I think the dark queen is more dangerous. She is the one who threatens our world and the order of the universe."

He could hear Shunbamon's cries when he was attacked by Takamon.

"We will get that key, and we'll prove to you that we need it," he growled to Tomeo. "And, if you guys insist on getting in our way, then we'll just have to stop you." He pulled out his digivice and pointed it towards Shunbamon.

"Shunbamon digivolve to..." The horse's figure burst with white light, throwing Takamon off and onto the ground. As the light brightened, his figure grew in size. "Taneumamon!" The small brown and white horse had grown into a magnificent white stallion.

"I'll teach you your place," Taneumamon said to Takamon as he galloped towards his opponent. He reared onto his hind legs. "Stallion's Revenge!" he called as he brought his front hooves down right onto Takamon.

***

Reimumon's sash caught onto Ravenmon's foot. Caught off guard, Ravemon lost altitude.

"Hold on!" he called as he tried to fly higher into the air.

Shireika held on for dear life as Ravenmon flew above the ensuing battle below. She was glad to be away from it all, and she was thankful that Ravenmon had come to her side. Then again, he was her digimon partner. She would have done the same for him when he was in trouble.

As Ravemon regained height above the battle, he also pulled Reimumon up as well as the cat was attached to the sash on the raven's foot. He tried to shake the sash off, but it was tied tightly around his foot and leg, so he could get rid of it. That left one thing. Ravenmon looked to the ground and around. The street lights cast a shadow on a wall nearby.

"Perfect," he muttered. "Shadow Assault!" From his shadow on the wall, a shadowy bird emerged and flew straight for Reimumon. The shadow flew around Reimumon multiple times before heading straight into Reimumon's chest, where it disappeared.

***

Tegiwa stood near Tomeo so he could talk to Tomeo while yelling to Shouki. It was not a great plan but it beat yelling himself hoarse while trying to enlighten his teammate. “Yeah, guy, and they usually get a lot bigger too. They always get more powerful each level though. This stage is just the beginning in many ways.”

He shouted to Shouki, “Matsuro wouldn’t do that. In fact, quite the opposite. He wouldn’t surrender them lightly.”

Orenjiimon picked himself off the ground and shook his metal feathers back into place. “He moved! He blinded me! He….He can’t be trying to attack that crow, who is the size of an SR71, can he? He is! He is. He’s trying to grapple. Well, this should be good! Hey, Tegiwa! Let me in on this.!”

Tegiwa thought the situation was out of had long ago. Shireika should not he going to Champion while fighting friends or siblings. “Sure, you just take it easy ok? You powerful digimon can easily hurt people.”

“Orenjiimon digivolve to Golemon!”

***

Naoko watched Shireika sail overhead on the back of Ravemon. “And, she thinks Hanshin is a show off! Just look at her; who’s lime lighting now?”

Seidomon gave up on trying to nail Shireika’s digimon because he was proving too agile, and he focused on Takamon who was harassing the horsey.

He let go another “Hollow Woof”; this one aimed to dislodge Takamon.

***

By now, Hanarei was a good distance away from the apartment complex. She didn't know if Enma had actually called the police or not. In any case, she just wanted to be as far away from that building as possible. To speed things up, Okimon had piggy-backed onto Hanarei. From a distance, it would have looked like an older sister carrying her little sister.

Hanarei had her digivice out in her hand and was looking at the digivice. "Okay, I'm guessing this dot here is Yuu and this one behind it is Asayake. We're getting close." She checked the larger map version of the radar and noticed several more dots grouped together. "Seems like we're not the only ones in the middle of battle."

"Hey, look up!" Okimon was pointing somewhere off to Hanarei's left. There was a bird clinging onto a human as they were flying by. "Think it's Yuu?" Okimon asked.

Hanarei glanced back at her partner. "Can you think of anyone else that you know of who would be flying through the air with a strange looking bird on their back?" she said sarcastically.

"Good point. Let's go then."

"Way ahead of ya." Hanarei started to follow Yuu from the ground. She would have liked to have used her hover-bike but, since Enma and Yuu walked to the apartment complex to begin with, she didn't have it anywhere near her at the moment.

***

Reimumon smiled when he saw his sash grab hold of Ravenmon's foot and started to reel him in. "This is like fishing in the air," he said to himself. Suddenly, he could see Ravenmon starting to gain in altitude. Reimumon tried harder to pull the bird down but was having little success. Then he felt something he didn't expect: the sash had reached its end. He was pulled into the air and started to cling to the cloth. "MEEERRROWWW! Not again!" he yelled. He didn't know what to do now since trying to free himself meant a long, hard return trip to the ground.

Ravenmon seemed to have made an attack, but nothing was coming out of her. At least that's what it looked like to Reimumon. The shadow bird that flew around him caught his attention. "What the? Get away you," he said. He tried to knock down the shadow bird with his paw. The shadow fly directly into his chest and vanished. At that moment, Reimumon could feel his energy suddenly drop. "What was... that?" he said. From the tone of his voice you could tell he was weaken and there was further evidence as his sash lost its grip on Ravenmon, causing the cat-digimon to fall downward.

Shouki was taken back from Tegiwa's verbal attack. He didn't expect his statement to have upset someone that much. "Well, I-I-I-I just thought since, well, I guess I don't know him as well as you do but I just thought about it as a possibilty." He suddenly heard someone make a large "meow" sound and he knew it meant Reimumon. But when Shouki looked around, he noticed that his partner was now falling toward the ground and it didn't look like he would be landing on his feet this time. "Excuse me," he said hurriedly. He dashed over to Reimumon and was able to catch him before the cat hit the ground.

"I'm okay Shouki." He jumped down from Shouki's grasp and landed on the ground in a wobble. He wanted to be back in the fight soon to make up for that mistake. He looked around for a new target but he noticed a new change among the cast. "Don't tell me the metal-birdy just digivolved too."

"That's going to be hard to do since... um... that," Shouki pointed to the spot where Orengiimon once stood.

***

While up in the air with Ravenmon, Shireika quickly made a message to Hanarei and Asayake.

[Have you guys gotten that key fragment away from them? Do you guys want help? -Shireika]

Ravenmon soared above the battle below and spotted a Seidomon attacking Takamon.

"Hm, I've never eaten a dog before," he growled as he towards the bronze dog. "Shadow Assault!" Another black shadow bird appeared from Ravenmon's shadow cast on a wall. It flew towards Seidomon and fluttered around his head for a couple moments before disappearing right into the dog's mouth.

***

It took Yuu rather longer than it should have to discover that they had an extra passenger. As she braced herself against Soranomon's attack, she realized that she was holding not only the key, but Enma's digimon.

"Oh! Mitikomomon!" she exclaimed, holding him out in front of her. She must have swept him up from under the refrigerator. This was just getting more and more complicated.

Kamo, meanwhile, had dropped behind a little after the other bird's assault and was flying hard to try and keep ahead. He quickly realized that he wouldn't be able to out-fly her for long given the extra energy it took to keep Yuu aloft with him. And even so, if Soranomon attacked him again, he might drop Yuu, and he didn't want to risk that, key or no. "Yuu, I'm headin' down" he informed, and glided down gradually enough for her to hit the ground running.

She gently extracted the key fragment from Mitikomomon's mouth and paused a moment to set him down. "You'd better hurry back to Enma, Hanarei and Okimon might still be with her. She if she can buy us some time" With that she bolted off again, followed by Kamo, who was looking over his shoulder at the approaching Asayake and company.

"Oi, if they catch up t'us, you go on ahead, I'll stall 'em" he said. He was ready to defend his partner the moment the gap was closed.

As Yuu ran breakneck down the street, she noticed a very faint sound. It sounded like... a digimon attack? Were they near the other group?

***

Takamon was thrown to the ground by Shunbamon's digivolution into Taneumamon, pinned down by his Stallion's Revnge attack and feeling the wind knocked out of her. Seidomon's Hollow Woof was able to hit it's mark because of her predicament, draining the energy out of her. "This... isn't... fair!" she screamed out, almost about to revert back to In-Training at any moment.

Tomeo took in what Tegiwa had said to him, but couldn't reply back as Hanshin unexpectantly grabbed him and shoved him up against the wall of the nearby building. As he turned around to shine the light of his digivice on Shunbamon to help him digivolve, he grabbed Hanshin's shirt in turn to make him look at him. Sure, Hanshin was older, taller and the leader of the school's most popular band. But he wasn't about to let himself be intimidated by him just because he thought he was right.

"No, you listen! Get it into your head, Shireika did not put anything in my head! Even if she turned against me and joined forces with you, even if everybody except me joined your side, I'd still stop you. Do you know why, Hanshin? I haven't seen the books in your uncle's library, true, and I don't know if they are legitimate or not. I even agree because of the Watcher's presence that we have to prepare ourselves at some point. But this is not the way to do it, Hanshin! Don't you realise all the laws you have broken and the chaos you have caused trying to get these fragments? And you're asking me which is more dangerous, a supposed fictional dark queen, or your group of digidestined gone paranoid about said queen and breaking into people's houses to assemble a key unlocking evil powers? Believe me, right now, I don't know which one is more dangerous." He shook his head and narrowed his eyes. "You want the key fragments, Hanshin? Look around you! There are options you haven't seen that are right under your very eyes. There is your key!" He pointed at Taneumamon.

"He's growing more powerful by the day, and yet you ignore how powerful a digimon he's going to be and think a key is going to give you a quick fix. Do you have any faith at all in your digimon partner, Hanshin? Because right now, I think you want that power more than you want your partner. Like I said before Hanshin, you won't win with power alone. You need to trust in your partner and in your friends. I trust my partner. Even if she loses, I still think she's the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. I trust her, and I believe she's going to play a part in stopping the evil that's coming. But if you still believe that power is more important than anything Hanshin, then it's already here. So you better believe that I'll insist on getting in your way, because we'll stop you. We'll defeat the evil in it's place, you better be damn sure of it." He let go of Hanshin's shirt, walking away to help his partner digivolve in turn. He could feel a strength burning inside of him, but it wasn't power. It was how much he cared about Takamon. She had thrown insults his way the day they had met, but he had come to care for her like a little sister. "Takamon!" he called. "Please, digivolve!"

Takamon had overheard Tomeo's ramblings, and she felt shocked. She was actually appreciative of what he had said - she was touched. A light erupted from Tomeo's navy-blue digivice, blasting Takamon in a extravegant, brillant light.

"Takamon digivolve to....!" the Rookie cried, the digivoultion power throwing Taneumamon off of her. Water surrounded her form and cast away as her new form unfolded, her sapphire-colored scales glimmering in the moonlight. Sharp fins protruded from her body, the water dragon her deadly spear-like tail fin as she floated gracefully in the air. "...Leviamon!" a deep roar erupted from the back of her throat, bearing her new, bigger, sharper fangs.

She turned to Taneumamon. "I know my place... it's above yours. I'll teach you how to play fairly... Deep Tsunami!" Her body transformed into water, except for the spear point on her tail. She charged towards Taneumamon, catching him inside her water-composed form and attempted to strike him with the spear-head while he was submerged. After the attack she re-composed herself into her normal state, looking away from Shunbamon for Seidomon, but saw him getting attacked by Alesmon's new form, Ravenmon. She flashed a toothy smile up at him. "Thanks, Ravenmon! Save some of him for me, will you?" She turned back to Taneumamon. Now they were on equaly powers levels, she was sure she was ready for anything thrown her way.

***

Hanarei kept her eyes on Yuu. She smiled the moment she saw her descending back to the ground. "Now you're mine," said Hanarei. She ran faster, heading straight for the spot Yuu landed at. As she ran closer to her target, she felt her mini-comp vibrate. She reached into her pocket to pull it out and read the message from Shireika. She tried to type a short message while running.

[Shireika - Yuu has the key. Asayake and I were in Enma's sister's apartment but the fight is now outside.] Hanarei checked her digivice before finishing her message. [I think she's somewhere near you guys right now. Don't know where Enma and Asayake are. -Hanarei]

She tucked away the mini-comp and continued to run. "C'mon Asayake. Where are you?"

***

Reimumon was starting to move backwards as he watched all of the other digimon around him reaching their champion level. Everyone on Shireika's side had digivolved. He felt like he had to do something. "Shouki, make me digivolve," said Reimumon.

"But how?" Shouki asked. "I don't even remember how I did it last time." He wanted to help with the group but he did forget how Kirimon changed the first time.

"You have to have a strong emotion flow through you. Concentrate hard on one feeling, something strong enough where it feels like your body is surging with energy."

"I-I'll try." Shouki stood there for a moment but nothing happened. He placed his hands together and fiddled with the prayer beads. 'Concentrate,' he thought, 'concentrate.' As he moved the prayer beads, he started to remember Hikaru. Her face appeared before him eyes: Her long flowing hair, her glowing smile, and the voice that always felt comforting to him. "C'mon little brother," the face said playfully. "You don't want to miss the fun, do you?"

Just as Reimumon described it, Shouki felt as though energy was surging through him. On the outside it felt like a strong gust of wind blew around his body. At that moment, his digivice and Reimumon started to glow. "Reimumon digivolved to... Kaishimon!" Where the adorable cat-ghost once stood was replaced with another cat the size of a tiger but, by looks, it had taken a turn for the worse. Kaishimon had long, dark blue, mangy fur and appeared to have no muscle on him at all. He practically looked transparent and his eyes glowed a bright yellow. His dull gray fangs were beared, ready to strike at anything.

Shouki opened his eyes and took a step back at what he saw. "Reimumon!" he yelled in surprise. "What happened to you?!"

"Don't fret, I'm suppose to look like this. You did nothing wrong. Now then, who to prey on." His eyes caught sight of Leviamon attacking Taneumamon. "I guess I should help out here." Kaishimon threw back his head and shouted his attack. "Black Plague!" A large glop of thick, black acid flew out of his mouth and was heading for Leviamon.

***

In place of the mechanical owl, stood a large hunk of metal parts. It looked from all the world like someone had dumped the spare parts bag for Big Ben in the middle of the street. Suddenly, the was a great hiss and volumes of steam poured forth from the center of the thing. It creaked and shuddered as numerous gears and cogs started to turn, and the thing unfolded itself into a crude humanoid-like mess.

Tegiwa hung his head. "My do all of my digimon seem to be a few pieces short of a lot..."

"Hanshin, you might be surprised since you are used to having people at your beck and call, but some up us did manage to come up with the same answer independently. Tomeo seems to have a grasp on certain concept you lack."

***

Seidomon let out a truncated yelp as the shadowy spirit flew down his throat. He tripped and fell forward with is momentum causing him to roll over and over again.

Naiko screamed. "How could you!....Oh, never mind. I know the kind of thing you are. You don't give a damn about anything other than your own interests, and humiliating Hanshin is just icing on the cake. You aren't doing this for anyone but you! Well I'll show you! Seidomon...digivovle!"

***

Asayake guided the hover moped across the parking lot, following Yuu's path of flight and Soranomon's vague directions, she spotted Hanarei running as fast as she could. She sped up the moped, slowing down until she was moving at the same pace as the girl was running. "Need a ride?!" She shouted, grabbing Hanarei's arm and pulling her onto the back of the moped. She steadied the moped, which had rocked slightly at the addition of another passenger, and smiled deviously as she spotted Yuu in the distance. "Hold on tight!" She shouted over her shoulder, and urged the moped ahead as fast as it would go. She caught up to you in what felt like two seconds, cutting in front of the fleeing digidestened and hitting the brakes hard, efectively blocking any forward movement.

"Give it up, Yuu. You can't outrun a moped, and your digimon can't help you now. Just give the key to us!" Asayake made a strange hand movement over Yuu's shoulder, and Soranomon came soaring over. The bird came to a stop directly behind Yuu and hovered there, waiting for instructions from Asayake. "Soranomon, keep Kamomemon busy, and as far away as possible. I'll signal you if we need you back here."

"Gotcha. One ass kicking, coming right up!" The bird said cockily, turning quickly and rushing off to confront Kamomemon. She found the other flying digimon not far behind them, and smiled. "Hey, you poor excuse for a flying fish! Eat this; Feather Needles!" Soranomon sent a batch of the razor-sharp feathers at Kamomemon, and flew off in the opposite direction of the digidestened, making rude faces at him all the way.

Asayake, meanwhile, turned off the moped and swung her leg over so she could meet Yuu face-to-face. "So, Yuu. Key. Now. I can have the moped up and running again in less than 20 seconds if need be, so you can't run from us, and there's two of us, so you can't fight us on your own. Besides, that ended badly for you last time. It's your choice, though I'd say giving the fragment to us would be so much easier. I'm giving you to the count of three to decide. If you don't do something before then, I use force. One..." Asayake lifted up her hand, and put up her index finger, "Two..." Asayake lifted her middle finger as well, and gave Yuu a meaningful look. She really, really hoped the girl just have the key to them, but the odds of that were the same as getting hit my lightning.

***

Hanshin grabbed Tomeo by the shoulder and whirled the smaller boy around.

"Why don't you, Shireika and rest of your group get off your fucking high horse," he muttered as he brought a closed fist into Tomeo's stomach. "You're just like my sister." He let Tomeo drop to the ground as he turned back to Tegiwa. "You too. Just like Shireika, you think you're better than me just because, what, I don't care about school? Because I don't have the same interests as you that get praised by all the faculty at the Academy?" He looked down at Tomeo. "This dark queen is in prophecy, and prophecy isn't fictional. It's real, and you can't deny the powers of the fates over all of us." He paused. "There is a reason why we were told about this key, and in the end, things always work out for the better. That key is important for a reason, and we have to find it. I just know it." He pointed to his chest. "I feel it in here, unlike her." He pointed up to Shireika. "She doesn't have a heart, just a calculating mind who knows how to get what she wants, even though she doesn't know what it is."

***

Taneumamon fell onto his side when Leviamon attacked him, and he was about ready to bring on his own attack when Kaishimon appeared to help him. The large white horse awkwardly got back onto his feet and looked towards a newly digivolved Golemon. It was time to show these other digimon who really was the best here and teach them all a little lesson.

A wind picked up at the east end of the street. As it picked up dust, the wind took on a white color as it moved towards the battle. Taneumamon turned around so his back was to the wind and so he faced Golemon. The white-colored wind that picked up soon took on the form of a herd of galloping stallions, all heading towards the large mechanical digimon. "Calvary of Euros!" Taneumamon called as the herd of wind horses flew straight for Golemon.

***

Ravenmon let Shireika down, after she had expressed interest on being back down in the middle of the battle. She was getting annoyed with Naoko again, but that wasn't new. She gave Naoko a harsh slap across the face, right where she had given her a punch earlier.

"You think you know me?" Shireika demanded. "You think I'm going to let a dangerous power go into the hands of my twin brother? If I'm doing this for personal interests, then so is my brother. We all know he loves fame and glory, and this would only bring him more. He doesn't actually care about the rest of the world. He just wants more power, and he's managed to get more than he was asking for when he got all of you to join him. Oh, wait, you actually trust him because he's your little hero. I've forgotten that you have to make him feel good so he'll still keep you warm at night. Remember that you're merely another sex toy to him, just like everyone other girl he brings home."

***

Hanarei very much appreciated Asayake giving her a ride on the moped. This was much more comfortable than having to run with a digimon on her back. She held on tight as Asayake brought the moped to a stop right in front of Yuu.

"Okimon, hold back just in case. No point in gaining up on another digimon too much."

Okimon was fuming. "I've barely done anything on this battle," she argued. "I want to do SOMETHING!"

"And that something may happen if Yuu doesn't give us the key." Hanarei now turned to Yuu and stared at her with the same cold eyes she used when Yuu came to her house to ask Nikko for his key. "I may have warmed-up to you awhile ago, but that won't happen under these circumstances," Hanarei snickered. She stared at Yuu while leaning on Asayake's bike. She could hardly wait for Asayake to say the word "three" so Hanarei could go after Yuu. "Better hand over the key Yuu. I'd hate to see a wild fire break out from Okimon."

***

"Shireika, please stop that," Shouki pleaded to her after she had slapped Naoko again. He stood in between the two girls and had his arms stretched across. "There's no reason to hit here like this. She is who she is. Can't you just leave it at that instead of pounding her. Please stop. I don't like to see any kind of fighting."

Shouki wasn't sure if his plea would even work but it was worth a try at least. Naoko just seemed to be taking the most punishment out of this battle aside from the digimon. He didn't move as he stood there between the Naoko and Shireika.

***

Mitikomomon watched Yuu run away, before skidding under something as he saw the two rookies that were about to fight. "I should...find Enma...yeah..." He said to himself, before trying to bounce away. Of course, with his size, it was nearly impossible. He sighed and hid himself in a corner until Enma decided to appear.

***

Enma was having a hell of a time getting down the stairs. Apparently, they hadn't been maintained in quite a while, and everytime one creaked she had to wait a minute or two to make sure it would hold her weight.

She finally decided to jump the last three stairs, and managed to land somewhat safely on the ground, before she took off towards the other side of the building.

"Mitikomomon?" She called as she saw Hanarei, Okimon, Asayake, and Kamomemon. The blue digimon bounced over to her, and she held out her digivice. "We're not losing without a fight." She whispered to him.

"Who said anything about losing?" he asked. She smirked.

"Good. Ready?" He nodded.

"Mitikokmomon digivolve to....Aoiromon."

***

Kamomemon attempted to shield himself against the feather onslaught, but still got cut up a good bit. He lowered his arms and glared at Soranomon. She was starting to annoy him. He didn't have time for this.

"'Poor excuse' yerself, y'oversized pigeon" he shot back. "Now hurry up'n get lost! Dolphin Kick!" He spun around in midair and kicked his tail lightning fast in the other bird's direction, sending a blast of air towards her. He needed to end this fast and get back to Yuu.

***

Yuu clutched the fragment to her chest and looked back and forth from Asayake to Hanarei, trying not to show the fear in her eyes. She had no illusions that they might be bluffing; it was plain that they were ready to fight her for the key as soon as they knew that she wouldn't just hand it over. And she knew that, when it came down to fighting, there was next to no chance of keeping it away from them. They were going to get it.

But she couldn't hand it over. If this really was the only hope to save them all from whatever threat was approaching, then she had to defend it somehow. Somehow...

Right before Asayake was about to say 'three', Yuu turned and ran. She knew even before she took her first step that it was next to useless, but she had to try.

***

"And she's the one who insults me as well!" Shireika replied to Shouki. "She can't stand me, as much as I can't stand her." She paused. "And, while fighting isn't right, I refuse to allow any of you to get your hands on that key. That key is deadly and dangerous, and there is a very good reason why it was broken and hidden away from the universe. A very good reason. Its power is great, and it cannot be trusted in the hands of anyone. It had belonged to an evil entity, and he brought much destruction to our universe with it. We cannot risk a repeat of that. And we will fight to keep the key out of the hands of those who might abuse it."

***

"Dips!" Hanarei shouted to Asayake as Yuu started to run. She kicked off of the hover moped and chased Yuu. She didn't have to travel far and grabbed Yuu on the shoulder. Hanarei spun her around then grabbed the wrist of the hand that held the key. "If you don't mind, I'll be taking this from you now." She tightened her grip on Yuu's wrist until it started to hurt her. Once she felt satisfied, Hanarei used her other arm to grab the key out of Yuu's hand.

Hanarei looked over the key fragment in her own hand and held it up to eye level while she held on to Yuu. She then turned her attention back to her captive. "You're a smart girl," said Hanarei, "so I'll give you this option: run away, and I will overlook that kick in the arm you gave me." Her arm, which was holding the key, was still throbing from pain. "Attempt to fight me, and I will see to it that your blood covers this entire parking lot. Do I make myself clear?" She continued to play with the key in her hand.

Okimon was sitting cross-legged on the moped until Aoiromon caught her attention. "Well well," she said, "it looks like I get to do something after all." She jumped from the moped and proceeded over to Aoiromon. She produced a flame in her palm and held it in front of her face. "I wasn't able to do this back in the apartment, but let's see how you like it here. Warm Kiss!" The flame thrower attack headed straight for Aoiromon.

***

"I'm well aware that you two give the other insults and such but I just don't want to see people getting hit or slapped or kicked or whatever is left," said Shouki. "Just please hold back on the physical harm. And there are times were you just have to have faith in someone and believe they will do the right thing. Yes, there is the chance something bad will happen but then that must mean there is a chance something good will happen as well?"

***

With an unhappy groan, Asayake threw her leg over the side of the moped, starting it up and driving the rather short distance to where Hanarei had apprehended Yuu. She made a slight deetour, stopping underneath Soranomon. "Soranomon!"

Said white bird stopped in mid-taunt, and lookd down at Asayake expectantly. "Yup?"

"If you hear me or Hanarei shout, you play bodyguard, okay?"

"Roger, bravo leader." Soranomon said. Asayake drove back to where Hanarei and Yuu were having their little stand-off, and sighed.

"I told you not to run, Yuu. We would've left you alone if you'd just given it to us, but you decided to play chicken. I'd've thought you were smarter than that but, thanks to you, my expectations haven't been met. Hanarei," Asayake said, holding out her hand for the fragment, "I'll take the fragment over to Shireika; she'll know where we can keep it safe from the boobs. Meanwhile, do whatever you want about Yuu. If you need backup, just yell really, really loud and Soranomon'll help you out, assuming I can't hear you because of this thing." She motioned to the moped, and waited for the key.

***

Aoiromon looked up as Okimon's attack came at him. "This is bad..." He said, trying to back away from the flames. Something in his mind clicked, however, and he smirked. "But can you fight your own attack?" He asked Okimon. "Copy Rat!" He called, sending Okimon's flame back onto her. He tried to get away, but realized rather quickly that Okimon would probably follow him. "Enma, I need to do something about this!" He said. But he looked around, only to see a glimpse of the girl as she ran away. "Great..." he muttered.

***

Enma ran down the alleyway she had seen Asayake go down. She stopped a few feet away from the three other girls and crouched down, listening to what was going on. She pulled out her computer and quickly typed out a message to Hanshin, sending it to Naoko and Shouki also.

[Hanshin –

Asayake and Hanarei have the key. We need help here.

-Enma]

She closed her eyes, waiting for the right time to help Yuu; then she heard Hanarei's comment to Yuu. Her eyes narrowed and she stood, walking, determined, over to Hanarei and Asayake.

"Leave her alone; she had nothing to do with this. She was just my decoy." She said, her voice low. She looked at Hanarei, smirking lightly. "Well, the cops should be here soon, and I've told them about how you stole something from my sister's apartment; something that's not yours anyway." She looked at the key fragment in Hanarei's hand, and her grin grew. "And do you really think that's the real key fragment?" She laughed. "The real key fragment's still safe in my sister's closet, I put it there myself."

After the words were out of her mouth, Enma really wished she had some sort of mental filter between her brain and her mouth so that she actually thought for two seconds about what she had just said. But she had to keep the charade up, at least until, hopefully, someone got her email and they got help. For now, she wanted to keep Yuu safe. She looked Hanarei in the eye, her jaw set.

"Now, you have two options. One is for you to leave now without harming Yuu and I'll tell the cops it was all just a big misunderstanding. Or - and I'm sure you'll love this - when the cops get here, I'll play poor innocent little schoolgirl and tell them all about how you attacked my last weekend when I was out for a walk near the water." Enma felt sick to her stomach as she kept on with the lie, and she had to keep reminding herself that she needed to keep up with it if she wanted the key back. It felt so...surreal, lying. If there was one thing her mother had ever enforced into her, it was never to lie for any reason, and now she just felt disgusted with herself.

***

Naoko felt the welt on her face grow sharper with pain, standing defensively behind Shouki away from Shireika. "Thank you, Shouki." she said, looking at Shireika. "Like Shouki says, sometimes we have to give people the benefit of the doubt and believe in them. The Watcher knows what he's doing, and it's no wonder that he only contacts us, the bad guys would never be told where the fragments are. Evil power or not, the entity that used it is gone, so there's no harm in controlling it because we're using it for a greater good. I may just be another girl in Hanshin's bed, but with me he's going to succeed getting the key and I'm going to do whatever it takes to help him achieve it. Even if it means battling his bitch of a sister for it." Still angry and holding a hand up to her face to cover the sore spot, she turned her attention to her newly digivolved partner, hearing his new name. "Tetsumon, attack Ravenmon, now!"

In place of the small bronze dog, a giant, three-headed dog had emerged. Completely made of iron, he was like the mythical Greek animal, the Cerberus, guardian of the gates of hell. Tetsumon picked up the pace, all three of his mouths opening up as he charged towards Ravenmon. "Flame Tongue!" he howled, streams of fire like a flamethrower shooting towards Ravenmon, who was standing dangerously close to Shireika.

***

"Tomeo!" Tegiwa called out, watching the other boy crumple over and fall to the ground. He looked at Hanshin angrily who stood between them, having second thoughts about taking on the other boy. "That wasn't necessary, Hanshin. We didn't say we were better than you, it's all in your head. You know what they say about prophecy, it isn't always true. The Watcher could have written it himself, just to support what he wants you to do for him. You base your justifications on a prophecy, but just how true is it? Shireika is right to doubt it. And you can't change my opinion about her. To me she will always still be Shireika, my friend, feeling or no feeling."

Golemon, the Champion form of Orengiimon, looked Taneumamon's way as the horse digimon came for him, gears and flywheels clicking inside his body as he turned. He saw the Calvary of Euros attack came for him, pistons hissing as he raised his arm over his head in an attempt to block it. He felt the attack hit, and suddenly felt something weaken inside of him. He brought his other arm down to the ground to support him, but as Taneumamon came for him, he took the chance and lunged forward suddenly with great speed, fists raised as he charged forward in his attack on the horse digimon. "Automatic Punch!"

***

"Aaaahhh... you... you son of a...!" Tomeo grunted, feeling like his gut had exploded as he held a hand to his chest. He looked up menacingly at Hanshin. He would have finished his sentence, but realised the meaning in his words would have also offended Shireika. He knew nothing about their deceased mother and knew they both felt sensitive about it.

"What the hell was that for!? What, you always have to fight words with your fist instead? You jerk! I'm not going to resort fighting to you just because you're being hostile to me. You should leave the fighting to your digimon." He got back up, backing away from Hanshin. "Nothing gets by you, does it Hanshin?" he spoke with angry sarcasm. "We're not here to prove how high and mighty you think we are over you, we're here to stop you from making a huge mistake. I might say I trust in my digimon, but you should say the same. Okay, so the prophecy might be legitimate, but you could be translating it all wrong. What if the Dark Queen ends up being someone you know? What if, after you unlock this evil power, the evil turns a girl into the dark queen? The prophecy could be interpreted that way, and you wouldn't even know it. It's one of the huge risks you're gambling with in this pursuit of the key. And what if it's some one you care about, like Naoko, Enma, Yuu, or even Shireika? And don't tell me you don't care about her."

He stopped to take a breath, leaning against the building's wall. "Yeah, and there's a reason for why you were told about the key. So the Watcher could probably use you in his means to get whatever the hell he wants. I don't know that for sure, but it's the most likely thing when huge power is involved, and I wouldn't risk trusting a stranger if I knew they wanted me to get to an evil power. Shireika's trying to tell you that, but of course you refuse to listen because she's your sister. But because she's your sister, deep down you should love her. I'm not saying that to make fun of you. You know what you're saying now you don't mean because it's based on anger. Shireika has a great, wonderful heart and I wouldn't trade being friends with her for anyone in the world."

Leviamon had enough time to spare watching Taneumamon getting struck by her attack and losing focus on her to notice the incoming Black Plague attack coming from Kaishimon. "Water Sphere!" she said instantly, summoning a huge bubble of solid water around her to block the incoming attack. She growled annoyingly, wishing it was Tetsumon that was attacking her so he could take him on. She'd get to him to help Shireika and Ravenmon, but first she would have to deal with the ghost cat. "You hate water, don't you? You picked the wrong digimon to attack, kitty." She changed into water, shooting herself like an arrow towards Kaishimon. "Deep Tsunami!"

***

Hanarei stared at Enma from over her sunglasses as though trying to stare through the other girl. Without taking her eyes away from Enma, Hanarei thrust the key in Asayake's hands. "Here. Do what you want with it," she said.

Enma did have a point, she noted. When Hanarei entered the apartment, it was Yuu who found the key or at least said she found it. There was the possibility that Enma knew they were coming and hid the key before she and Asayake came. "You're lying," Hanarei growled even though she had no proof if it was real or not. "You're lying about it all, aren't you? There's no police, that is the real key...." But she couldn't prove it. Not knowing what else to do, Hanarei let go of Yuu and pushed her away but not hard enough to make her fall. "As long as we're on the subject of 'two things,' there were two things I noticed in your little statement. You said 'to leave now without harming Yuu.' You never said anything about yourself." Hanarei was flexing her hands slightly. "And if the police are going to find me, I may as well get my worth after thrashing you." She lunged toward Enma, fists in the air, ready to tear her to pieces. She instictly led her first assult with the same arm Yuu had kicked. This might have been a mistake on Hanarei's part since her movement was much slower than usual.

Okimon was shocked to see her own attack change directions and return back to her. Thinking she could retake control of it, she tried to concentrate on the flame and kept blow. In the end, it didn't work. "Eeeeee!" she shouted. The flame surrounded her and caused her to stop her attack as she tried to shield herself. When the flame passed by, a slightly scorched and furious Okimon stood there. A vein in her forehead was twitching. "Come back here you stupid rat!!" she shouted at the top of her lungs before chasing after Aoiromon. In an attempt to slow down Aoiromon, Okimon started to throw out several attacks of "Charcoal Cloud." However, she was throwing them rather wildly it seemed unlike to hit Aoiromon.

***

Kaishamon hissed when he saw Leviamon deflected his attack. He didn't know she had that kind of attack on her. As Leviamon came at him with the Deep Tsunami attack, Kaishimon tried to run but was caught in the water. The force of it all pushed him down against the ground until it had finished. The attack had greatly depleted most of his energy. It was probably hard to believe given Kaishimon's previous state, but he looked even worse soaked in water now than he did before.

"Stop... hitting... me... with... WATER!" he shouted. This time he had no snappy comeback but just wanted to see Leviamon get his payback. "Let's see how you deal with something from beyond the grave. Dimensional Spirit!" Kaishimon took his claws, whiched started to give of a dull light, and slashed the air in front of him. When he finished, there was what appeared to be a tear in mid-air. As the tear grew, one could see a background of blood-red and black with bright glowing eyes of different colors. One of the eyes grew larger before it became obvious it was coming closer. A ghost soon shot out on the tear and was heading straight for Leviamon.

***

Shouki sighed after Naoko had finished her statement. He wasn't sure if using the words she did was the best of choice. 'This could have gone so much better,' he thought. He heard his mini-comp go off and reached for it in his pocket. "Who could be contacting me now," he mumbled. He read the message and his eyes grew in size in surprise. He then looked over his shoulder to Hanshin and Naoko, hoping they too got the message and would think of something to do.

***

Hanshin laughed at Tegiwa and Tomeo.

"You actually think my ice queen of a sister has a heart?" he asked. He pointed towards Shireika. "Big heart, right. Have you seen what she does to Naoko? Do you see how to she fights with me, with anyone who doesn't agree with her?" He looked towards Tegiwa. "And you, of all people, should know exactly what I'm talking about. She does everything she can to prove to the world of my apparent stupidity. And, you, you know how she can be. You know what she will do." He walked up to Tegiwa and talked softly. "And you know she doesn't notice you the way you do her. Doesn't she throw you aside for that new soccer coach?"

He looked back at Tomeo.

"I trust my digimon, and he tells me we should find that key," he said. "If there is evil behind this, then we will have the power to stop them. We will have control over that key fragment, and we will use it to protect our world. The Watcher doesn't have his hands on any part of the key, and he won't either. We're merely using the Watcher to get information on the key fragments, and then we'll use it to protect our world from anyone who dares to threaten it. If the Watcher is our real threat, at least we have the power to stop him. If evil turns one of us into this dark queen, we will have the power to help her."

He checked his computer quickly after receiving a message from Enma. He wrote one out very quickly:

[Enma: Sorry, we're busy over here. As soon as we finish, we'll try to come and help. Do what you can. I'm sorry, but they're putting up a fight here. -Hanshin]

***

"What good can come from raising the power of evil?" Shireika asked. "What could possibly come from a key that locked away a power that belonged to an evil entity?" She restrained herself from pushed Shouki around, since he requested that she avoid physical violence for right now, but Naoko's words only fueled her to just smack someone else in the face. "Succeed, because of you? You honestly have intentions that do not include your own benefit? I'm sorry. He should know better, considering the things you do. You'll do everything in your power to make sure he makes it to the top, but he's not taking you there with him. Remember, you're just another sex toy. In the end, he won't love you, the way you want him to. You were merely a stepping stone to his success. He is using you, and you and the rest of his fans all let him use you for what he wants."

"Shireika!" Ravenmon shouted as he pushed Shireika away from the incoming attack from Tetsumon. He sheltered her under a wing as he took the brunt of Tetsumon's attack. He felt weak, but he had to defend Shireika and stop Hanshin and his group. Ravenmon leapt into the air to take flight and circled above Tetsumon. He spread his wings as he continued his flight above Tetsumon, and he soon picked up speed. "Raven's Circle!" Suddenly, from in the middle of the circle of his flight came a bolt of black energy right down on Tetsumon.

Ravenmon floated down to the ground near Shireika, looking ready to de-digivolve. He glanced over at Tetsumon.

"Now, we're even," he muttered.

***

Taneumamon was knocked into a nearby building by Golemon's attack. The white stallion struggled to return to his feet as the dust settled.

"Stupid digimon," he grumbled as he shook some dirt off his white coat. Another wind picked up. He absolutely refused to be beaten by these other digimon. "Calvary of Euros!" A repeat of his last attack flew towards Golemon. "Take that!"

***

Tegiwa seemed to be lost for words, confronted by Hanshin provoking his feelings for Shireika. "I... that's... that's not the point. Shireika can do whatever she wants, as long as she is happy." It hurt him to say that, but it was true, he did want her to be happy. "But enough about that. I know what you mean, and yes I do understand Shireika will go out of her way to spite you but she doesn't make a full-time job of it. If you could look past your sibling rivalry you could see what kind of person she really is. But I doubt that you ever will soon, so what's the point in me saying this? We're here to stop you from getting the key, not debating about Shireika's qualities."

Tomeo felt some of the pain subside from Hanshin's punch to his gut, feeling well enough to stand on his feet again and pushed himself away from the wall he had propped himself on. He was angry and wanted to return the blow to Hanshin to show what a dirty low-blow it had been, but he restrained himself. What kind of a person would he be if he fought in the face of such aggression? He'd be focused on to be as just as bad, like when he had shoved Naoko.

"Hanshin, get over yourself." Tomeo told him, straight after he had finished typing his e-mail. "Sure. You trust your partner, great, whatever. You say without certainty that you can control everything that comes your way. But what the hell do you know? You can't be certain that every single thing will go your way, just because you say it will. It's self-confidence, but it's delusional. You guys won't have control over that evil, using that evil will have control over you all. That's why it's called evil, because it corrupts! You think your group has more willpower, over the power an evil entity once had, an entity the previous digidestined probably fought before? It's more likely to be more powerful than you all combined. And the Watcher, you don't know if he wants the power, he could just want to unleash it, knowing its destructive power. It's completely stupid to trust him when he goes against the will of the previous digidestined, who sealed it and hid the fragments to it in the first place.”

He shook his head, thinking it was so obvious. How could Hanshin and the others think that the end justified the means? “Face it, Hanshin, you cannot be certain you have complete control; you can't throw a couple of reins on this evil power and think you can tame it.” he said. “It's too much of a gamble, a risk that could end up costing lives at your hand. We could be so much more powerful if you stopped fragment hunting now and joined up with us. Forget about everything Shireika's done to offend you. It won't be easy, but it can be left in the past. You don't want to risk the lives of your family over some stupid squabble, do you Hanshin?" He left Hanshin to answer the question, hoping he would consider it so he wouldn't punch him again. If he could place doubt in his mind, maybe he could get Hanshin to stop and think about his actions for a minute.

***

"Hanshin needs me." Naoko retorted back to Shireika. "Sure he could get by without me, but I make his life a whole lot more easier and enjoyable." She was trying to remain defensive about how she really felt about Hanshin, trying not to let it show through her anger. "There will be no end, believe me Shireika. Without me, his band would be the complete chaos he makes it and he knows it as well as I do. I bring order. He wants me around for more than just jumping in the sack, you can ask him." She heard the e-mail incoming from the computer on her ring and quickly read it as Shouki did, but she disregarded it as she looked over to Hanshin and saw him writing something back. He would think of something to get that key, she was sure of it.

Tetsumon flipped over in mid-air, knocked onto his back by the power of Ravenmon’s Raven Circle attack. He rolled over and got back up, knowing he was close to winning after having weakened Ravenmon with his fiery attack. His three heads growled as he prepared for the next attack, stepping forward slowly with flames licking at his multiple lips, gathering his energy.

***

“Water Sphere!” Leviamon tried again, knowing an attack was obviously coming through the rip the Dimensional Spirit attack Kaishimon had made. The spirit came for her but being ethereal, passed through her watery shield and struck her at full force, dis-casting her spell and knocked her to the ground. “You asked for it… litter-box face….” Leviamon grunted, pushing herself off the ground to float in the air again. “Deep Tsunami!” She repeated the attack, transforming into water, the sharp spear-like tail following close behind her.

***

Golemon recoiled again from Taneumamon’s attack, feeling the energy sapped from him again. He didn’t feel he had the energy to complete his second attack, and figured he would have to use his primary attack while dodging the rest of the attacks Taneumamon threw at him.

“You couldn’t beat Leviamon, so what makes you think you could beat me?” he taunted, throwing another fist back. “Automatic Punch!” he called again, grabbing hold of Taneumamon with his strength and threw a fist into his side.

***

Aoiromon ran as fast as he possibly could. He rubbed his eyes as some of Okimon's attack hit him, and he swerved away from her. He pulled off his glove and looked at the charred fairy creature. "Bilge Rat Bomber!" He said, sending the attack towards Okimon.

***

Enma heard her computer go off, but ignored it. She couldn't let Hanarei get to her, but the tight feeling in her stomach was becoming much too unbearable. She needed to do something, to let herself go. She watched Hanarei coming at her as if she were underwater. She watched the fist come at her and grabbed it, pulling Hanarei closer to her. "Here's a secret, Hanarei. I care about the people who are nice to me. I don't care about myself, but if you hurt my friends, you better be prepared. And, oh, it looks like you aren't prepared." She punched Hanarei in the gut, before letting her go and watching the other girl, her eyes veiled. "It hurts, doesn't it?" She asked callously. She turned to Yuu, and looked at the other girl. "Are you okay?" she asked.

***

Asayake was about to pocket the key fragment, but the minute Enma's fist connected with Hanarei's stomach she paused, and instead put it in the zipper pocket on the inside of her jacket. She shut the moped off, eerily quiet and staring coldy at Enma, put her index fingers in her mouth and let out a loud, shrill whistle. Soranomon appeared beside her almost instantly, and Asayake nodded. "Find Shireika. Don't let anyone or anything get in your way."

Soranomon looked at Asayake cooly, before nodding briskly and taking off as fast as she could.

As soon as she was gone, Asayake walked over to Enma, and grabbed the shorter girl by the jaw, pulling her upwards until she was on her tip-toes. "The same goes for me, Enma. You leave us alone, we'll leave you alone. You bluff almost as bad as I cook; you had to search tooth and nail for the key, so there's no way you could know the location of your so-called 'actual' key. The one Yuu gave me is the real one. The key is ours now, so you have nothing left to fight us for, and there's little chance of you getting it back, so retalliation would make you a fool. Therefore, you have two choices; the first is to shut up and stay here, and Hanarei and I will leave you alone. The other is you, opening your big mouth again like you seem to like to do. You do that, Enma, and I'll put my fist in it so fast, you won't even be able to finish whatever bullshit retort you come up with." Asayake gave her one final, disgusted look, before throwing her roughly to the ground by the chin. Ignoring Yuu entirely, she picked Hanarei off of the ground by the armpits and helped her over to the moped, putting her on the back before settling herself in the front and revving the moped and taking off in the direction that Soranomon had flown off in.

***

Soranomon landed on the ground not far away from Shireika just as Asayake pulled the moped to a hault beside her. She turned it off, pocketing the keys and standing up again. "Soranomon, see if you can't help out a bit here, okay?" The bird nodded slowly, and took off into the air in search of a needy party. Asayake wandered over to Shireika, offering her a hand up from where Ravenmon had sheltered her. She offered the girl a sly smile. "We're even on both sides now. It's in my pocket."

***

As though in slow motion, Hanarei could see her punch miss Enma, followed by Enma's comments, and then her fist. The fact that Hanarei was running toward Enma did not help and only drove the fist further into her gut. Hanarei landed on the ground on her knees, bracing herself with one hand, eyes wide open and gasping for air. Apparently the punch had knocked the wind out of her as well. She tried to say something but only succeeded in giving off a coughing fit.

Next she felt Asayake pull her away from the fight and place her on the moped. By now, Hanarei was able to speak in a low, soft voice. "I... coulda kept going," she said weakly. She could feel her pride getting shot down at that moment. She had lost a fight and was retreating.

Asayake had pulled the moped close to the two people she didn't want to be see her like this; Shireika and Hanshin. Somehow, them looking at her made her more angry than she previous felt. However, the punch to her gut still hurt and there was nothing she could do but sit there on the moped.

***

Okimon smiled at seeing Aoiromon being struck in the face with one of her Charcoal Clouds. What she didn't expect was Aoiromon turning around and sending an attack her way. She tried to dodge it and but the Bilge Rat Bomber attack scraped by the left side of her body. She used her right arm to support her other arm and clenched her teeth in the pain. "Hanarei!" she shouted. "I need to digivolve over here!" It was then she noticed her partner was leaving and from the looks of things, she was injured.

Okimon glared at Aoiromon before running after her partner, brusied and beaten.

***

Once again, Kaishimon tried to avoid the water attack by Leviamon but was caught in it again. The water poured down on him and left him crumbled on the ground. Then suddenly, he felt his energy slip. There was a sphere of energy around him before it disappeared and revealed a drenched Reimumon.

Shouki looked over at his partner and gasped. "Reimumon!" he shouted before running over to his partner. He bent down to examine him to make sure nothing was seriously hurt before picking him up. Shouki stared at Leviamon for a moment, realizing he was now looking straight at the face of a dragon. "P-please," said Shouki, feeling himself studder, "he's had enough. Let him be for now." He started to pet some of the water off of Reimumon. "You did a good job Reimumon. Take a rest."

***

"I-I'm fine" Yuu replied to Enma shakily. Her wrist still hurt where Hanarei had gripped it, but she was starting to wonder just how hard she had kicked the other girl in the shoulder; even her punch had seemed slow. But she was relieved that Enma had evaded it.

When Asayake gave her speech, Yuu watched her as if in slow motion. Her eyes... they reminded her of last week, when she had pinned her against the wall. So... uncaring. She hated to see Asayake like that.

She ran over to help Enma when she was thrown aside, and looked up Asayake as she started her moped. "Shinzuino-san..." But she didn't seem to hear her, and the next moment she was gone.

Just then Kamomemon zoomed by, shaking his fist at the retreating vehicle. "Oi! Get back 'ere you bandits! Give 'at key BACK!" But he soon realized that he couldn't keep up with that thing going full speed, and turned around to fly back over to Yuu, who was helping Enma to her feet.

"Are you alright, Enma-san?" she asked. "I'm sorry. I let them get the fragment. I'm so sorry..." The full weight of what she had allowed to happen started to settle on her. She had just let what might have been the only hope for the safety of the world slip away from her, all because she wasn't strong enough to fight. She wasn't strong enough...

She looked away from Enma and stared at the ground. Her eyes were dry, but you could tell that wasn't how she felt. "I'm sorry"

Kamo came over and gave her a pat on the shoulder with a webbed talon. "S' okay, Yuu. S' okay"

***

Enma stared after Hanarei and Asayake, her body shaking. She barely registered that Yuu was near her, and shrugged away from the other girl. "I feel sick." She muttered, walking over to a wall and leaning her forehead against it. She turned around and allowed herself to slide down to the ground, holding her legs to her chest. "It's not your fault, Yuu." She said finally, after her stomach had settled somewhat. "I should have tried to stall them longer." She pulled out her computer and read Hanshin's message, before throwing it into a trashcan. "Thanks for the help." She said under her breathe, before hugging her legs to herself tighter as another onslaught of sickness wove through her stomach. "Ergh...."

Aoiromon came running toward her partner, triumphant. "Enma! Enma! I beat Okimon!" He said happily. He stopped as he felt the mood around the two girls shift, and his eyes fell onto Enma. He stumbled toward his partner, and put his hands on her knees. "Hey, Enma, are you okay?" he asked.

Enma shook her head. "Just leave me alone, Aoiromon." she said. He stepped away, still concerned. She sighed and stood up slowly, gritting her teeth as her stomach lurched. "I shouldn't be the Chosen of Sincerity." She said, before starting the way Asayake and Hanarei had gone.

***

Leviamon let out a satisfied sigh of relief, looking down at Shouki and Reimumon not with contempt, but in respect. "Of course," she said to Shouki. "Unlike some digimon here, I can show mercy and not pick on someone smaller than me. You did your best, and I respect that. See ya." She was not interested in Reimumon anymore, not now she had her opportunity to take on the target she wanted. She looked over to Tetsumon's way, narrowing her eyes and letting out a deep, low growl.

"Flame Tongue!" Tetsumon roared, running towards Ravenmon and Shireika. He would do Naoko's bidding, no questions asked. The flames snaked out from his three mouths towards them, just before Leviamon appeared between him and his targets.

"Water Sphere!" she called just in time, casting her watery shield again. Protecting Shireika and her injured partner, the shield doused the flames upon impact of the shield, steam rising in huge cloud banks between the two digimon. As the steam cleared and Tetsumon finished the attack, Leviamon lowered her shield, and stared down a growling Tetsumon. "Well, well, three heads now all sharing the one itty-bitty brain... your fight is with me." Leviamon growled fiercely back. Tetsumon bolted forward again, flames bursting from his lips, hoping to catch Leviamon off-guard. "Flame Tongue!" he called again, shooting his flamethrowers at the water dragon.

"Deep Tsunami!" Leviamon said again, repeating her watery attack. Gliding forward, her water-composed body went head-first into Tetsumon's attack, extinguishing it and pushing Tetsumon back. Her spear tail slammed into Tetsumon's shoulder, making a slight dent in his iron hide. "I thought you knew better than that, bolts-for-brains. You shouldn't play with fire; you know water always puts it out." Leviamon mocked, reverting back to her physical form, and moments later recoiled at the lunge Tetsumon made on her, biting down two of his heads on her fins, his middle head around her neck. Leviamon made an anguished and frustrated roar, clamping her own sharp teeth into one of Tetsumon's necks. The two Champions started a shoving contest, shoving each other into buildings during their titanic clash, locked in mortal combat. For a moment it seemed that both digimon had the same amount of strength, until Leviamon whipped her sharp tail over her head in advantage and like a scorpion, stung down hard into Tetsumon's metal body, piercing him down long enough to make him let go of her, eventually pinning him to the ground.

Withdrawing her tail, she floated back and let her fins tend to the sore bite marks on her, feeling exhausted. "Stay down," she said to Tetsumon, finally getting her vengeance. "It suits you."

***

Ravenmon squawked when Tetsumon lunged for him, and then bird immediately reverted back to Alesmon. The little bird crouched, hiding his face from the large three-headed down standing over him.

He felt like he had failed again. Why did it always happen to him? Why was he so much weaker? Next time. Next time he would win.

***

"Big rewards have big risks, Tomeo," Hanshin growled. "We could play it safe with just our digimon, or we could go for it. I'm prepared for the worst. We have strength with each other. Evil can't defeat us. Evil can't control because we are strong. You have no faith in yourself, that's what. No hope." He chuckled. "And my going after this key is not about Shireika or our rivalry. It is she who chose to stop me as a personal vendetta, while I am going because I believe in us. I believe we have the ability to control this power to stop that evil queen. I have faith and hope, while she and the rest of you do not."

***

Shireika looked up at Asayake to help pulled herself back up to her feet. She smiled back to Asayake as she received the key fragment in her hand.

"Hanshin! It's over!" she called to her twin brother. She held the key fragment up in her hand and immediately hid it away. "We're even now. Let's leave it at that."

Hanshin looked back towards Taneumamon, seeing Golemon smash a metal fist into his digimon partner's body. Light burst from between Golemon's fingers as the stallion de-digivolved back to Shunbamon.

"De-digivolve!" he commanded to Shouki and Naoko. He held up a hand, signalling that the battle over was, and walked up to Shireika. He glanced around briefly, acknowledging that Shireika had many would defend her, more than he did. "Fine. We're done for tonight. We can be even for now, but we'll get the rest of those keys. We'll show you."

"You won't get the others," Shireika hissed.

"Consider yourself lucky this time, Shireika."

"Why don't you take your whore and get out of here? You're done here."

"When all the key fragments have been recovered, I'll get them from you, even if I have to fight for it."

"Fine."

"Come on, Naoko," Hanshin called as he walked over to Shunbamon. The horse de-digivolved a second time down to Koumamon. He picked up the horse-head shaped digimon and stuffed him into his bag. He looked back at Shireika and shook his head while he walked away from the scene.

Why was she doing this? How could they defend her? She was someone who only thought of herself. Why did they believe in her? They said she had a heart, but he knew better. She didn't have a heart. And Tegiwa. The fool. Letting her walk all over him because she simply could, because she could use him for whatever she wanted.

Naoko and Ami would clear his mind after dealing with this.

***

Shireika held the key fragment tightly in her hand as she watched Hanshin walk away. Her eyes drifted into a state of blankness as she gazed at the place where her twin brother once had been.

Alesmon, noticing that the battle had finished, scampered up to Shireika. He looked up at her. What was she thinking about? What was making her so sad? He never knew, and he wished he did. He always wished he knew.

"Shireika?" he asked as he tugged at her pant leg.

***

"How dare you tell me I don't have any faith!" Tomeo fumed after Hanshin, as he walked away. If there was a moment when he felt like punching the other boy it was now, but he restrained himself. "Unlike you, I'm being smart. Smart enough not to meddle with the powers of evil. You have too much confidence in yourself, Hanshin, and it's bloody egotistical. And don't talk to me about belief in your so-called 'friends'. You want nothing more than your stupid big rewards, you only care about yourself, and it will be your downfall. Besides, my friends and my partner have faith in me. Even if I don't believe in myself, which I do, their faith in me is enough. Which is more than I can say for you. Shireika isn't after you for personal ambitions, that's a lie and you know it!" He was angry, but he didn't react to it. They had won the fragment, and that was enough.

Tegiwa looked bewildered. He had never seen Tomeo so wound-up. He stepped to his side and put his hands on his shoulders, to hold him back in case he went after Hanshin. "Let it go, Tomeo. We've got the fragment, that's enough." With that said, he stepped over to Shireika and Asayake. "Girls, I think we should secure that fragment piece as soon as possible. Hanshin says he'll come after it eventually, but I think for the safety of everyone we better hide it, or better yet destroy it." Looking at Shireika who was clutching the fragment in her hand, he noticed her expression more than anybody else. "Shireika? Is... is everything okay? What's wrong?"

Golemon looked back at Hanshin as he collected Koumamon from his hands, making a short grimace of his victory. "Yeah! We did it!" he cheered, before he de-digivolved back to Orengiimon, and flew back towards Tegiwa, perching on the boy's shoulder and almost falling off, but maintained his balance. "I guess we won't have to go after the other fragments now we have one, right?" he asked randomly.

Naoko stepped over to Hanshin's side on command, sliding an arm around his waist. "Don't worry, babe. We'll get them next time." With her other hand she rubbed at the welt on her cheek. She needed to get ice on it, if Hanshin could give her the time to apply it. But, on the other hand, considering the time she would be available with him, it could wait. She looked back to Tetsumon, who had been just been defeated by Leviamon. Tomeo's digimon thought it had won this round, but she would let Tetsumon get his own back next time. Tomeo as well, since he seemed to be quick to anger. "Tetsumon, do as Hanshin says. De-digivolve and let's go."

Tetsumon made a high-pitched whine in his pain, and de-digivolved back into Seidomon, letting out a bitter, low-pitched growl at Leviamon. She would get it, next time. He ran back over to Naoko's side and de-digivolved once again into Suzumon, folding himself up into a small piece of aluminum foil and disappearing into the folds of Naoko's clothing.

"Jeez. Sore loser." Leviamon commented about Seidomon, letting go of her energy as well, and de-digivolved once into Takamon, walking back over to her chosen. "Hey, Tomeo! Did ja see? I beat down not one, but two digimon! Hey, who's the mon?!" she asked jubilantly, de-digivolving once again to Parumon.

Tomeo lifted her up, forcing a smile as he allowed his anger to subside. "You did great, Parumon. You're the mon... well, sort-of." he teased, looking at the others. "So, it's for real? We actually got a fragment? Awesome! C'mon, let's see it. Uh, please. I just want to finally see what the thing we've been fighting for all this time looks like." He looked between Asayake and Hanarei, wondering who had it, and noticed the state the girls were in. They looked exasperated, as if they had been in a fight themselves. An expression of concern suddenly crossed over his face. "So, tell us what happened. Are you two okay?"

***

Hanarei turned her head to stare at Tomeo after he asked his question. She wore a tired, blank expression and said nothing. After losing a fight, she didn't feel much like talking about it. "Ask her," Hanarei indicated to Asayake with one hand. With her other hand, Hanarei was gripping the spot where Enma had punched her.

She looked around at the rest of the group, seeing how the rest of them were doing. She noticed Shireika was once again staring off into nothingness from the looks of it. "Just leave her alone." Unknown to Hanarei, something in the back of her mind swelled up. Her eyes changed to yellow for a brief moment and she could not stop herself saying, "Sutako can be like that sometime." Her eyes changed back to purple and Hanarei suddenly felt a slight headache come oevr her. "I mean 'Princess,'" she corrected herself. 'Who in the world is "Sutako" anyway?' Hanarei thought.

Okimon had finally caught up to the rest of the group and stopped running. Even though she originally looked singed, there were obviously new burn marks on her and she looked angry. She looked over at Paramon and noticed his large grin about something. Okimon had to walk past him to get to Hanarei. As she did, without looking at him, she said, "Not one word!"

***

"T-thank you," said Shouki. He was glad Leviamon was one of the nicer digimon in the bunch. As he carried Reimumon away from the battle field, Shouki could feel the cat start to stir in his arms.

"You stood up to a dragon and looked at it straight in the eye," Reimumon mumbled. There was a large grin on his face despite the fact he was very tired. "I bet a month ago you would have ran at the sight of Leviamon."

"Well, you were in trouble," Shouki explained.

"And you are maturing." Reimumon then curled up in Shouki's arms and attempted to fall asleep. Shouki did blush a little at the comment but was rather surprised by it.

Shouki looked around until he saw Hanshin and Naoko leaving as well. Since they were probably heading back to the concert hall, he decided to follow them (to pick up his bass guitar of course). "Hang on guys, I'm coming."

***

Asayake could feel the adrenaline evaporate from her veins and she sighed shakily, closing her eyes and putting a shaky hand over her face. 'Please, let it pass, just lest it pass, oh please...' After a few slow, deep breaths she dropped her hand, offering Tomeo a small smile. "We're fine, pretty much. Hanarei took a pretty bad punch to the gut, but I think her pride's hurt a bit more than she is. She'll be sore for a bit, and she'll have a nice bruise, but that's it. Enma told us she'd phoned the police, but since I don't hear any sirens I'm thinking that was another, poorly thought-out bluff. She's not a very good liar." Shrugging in a dismissive, tired way, Asayake ended that particular subject.

Soranomon landed lightly next to Asayake, de-digivolving so she could scoot onto her shoulder. With a brief ruffle of her feathers, Rogishimon yawned. "Did we get it?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we got it." the redhead looked at Shireika, noticing the trance-like state she seemed to be in, and frowned softly. "So," She said, possibly a bit louder than she'd needed to be, staring intently at her, "What now? What do we do with the key?"

***

"What?" Shireika asked as she looked over at Tegiwa. She shook her head quickly. "Nothing's wrong." She smiled quickly and opened up her hand, revealing the key fragment. She held it between her fingers and gazed at it. "Asayake, we'll just have to see what the others do. We keep watching them, and if we get word from the Watcher about another key fragment, we'll get it to keep Hanshin from getting it." She hid the key fragment away in her fist again and looked over at the others around her. "Don't worry about the key fragment or me. Hanshin won't try taking it from me directly. You heard him. He won't go after it until all of them have been found. And he's not foolish like that." She smiled at the others and began to walk away. "Good work," she said softly. "I'll see you around. Come on, Alesmon."

While she walked away to get back to her car at the club, she stuffed the key fragment into her pocket. As she did so, she discovered a card in her pocket and pulled it out. It was the one with Kousei's address and phone number. She stared at it briefly as she flipped it between her fingers. She put the card away as she continued to walk back to the club.

***

Hanshin grinned when Naoko joined him as he walked back to the club. He put an arm over her shoulders.

"Of course we will," he said. He touched Naoko's face gently. Shireika really knew how to hit hard, but she had learned from him when they were much younger. "We should really work on not fighting with Shireika. She'll use those fists if she has to." He dug into a pocket, pulling out a cell phone. "Let me give someone a call quickly," he said as he gave Naoko a kiss gently on the cheek.

"Hey, babe," he said as he waved at Shouki when he joined them. "Yeah, I got my business taken care of. Are you at home? Okay, Naoko and I will be there in about fifteen. What is that?" He laughed aloud. "Well, be nice. Naoko got a little beaten up by someone at the club tonight. Long story. No, it wasn't her fault. All right, babe. We'll be over in a bit."

"Hey, Shouki," he said as he put away his phone. "Naoko and I have to head off somewhere. You've got a way to get back home, right?" He walked up to his car as opened a door to get into the driver's seat. "We'll get them next time, and we'll get that key fragment back. Shireika and her friends won't be ruining our plans to stop that queen, whether they like it or not."

***

Tegiwa looked from Shireika to Asayake. “Good question, I would have thought our families could have secured these two fragments just a little better. I wonder if there is some reason they didn’t. However, I wish we had a volcano handy. Those seem to be a good way to dispose of circular evil objects.

“But, I’m sure Shireika can mind the piece until we thing of a more permanent means…”

Shireika had wandered off while Tegiwa was babbling. First she spaces on him, then she wanders off. He wasn’t happy about the beating Shireika had given Naoko, who should be off to the Hospital in an ambulance to get an MRI rather than off to Hanshin’s card to get felt up. He couldn’t figure his friend. This whole episode left him confused.

He followed along behind her at an easy pace as the bits and bytes of information refused to gell in his head. Then, he noticed she was toying with a familiar look piece of paper. What the heck did she still have /that person’s/ card for. Family friend or not, Kousei was acting like a dog on a hunt. Kousei was far to old for Highschool girls. Why would he be trying so hard with one?

The scariest fact of all this was that Shireika didn’t receive a large amount of attention from guys, not that she would want attention from the average jock or other guy. Shireika was way above the boys in school. That made this dangerous. If only someone in Tokyo High could catch her eye, she could be made safe from lechers.

***

“Hanshin, I think you sister left a nice purple mark on my face. I can let it slide because she’s your sister, but I think something needs to be done about her. I honestly don’t know what, but something. She’s a loose cannon.”

I wonder who the mystery guest will be tonight? She never minded sharing Hanshin since there was plenty of him to go around.

She climbed in the car with Hanshin. “I doubt that bunch can hide a key fragment any better that these were hidden. We’ll find it and take it. They need to get a life. Power is for the taking.”

***

Parumon looked after Okimon with nothing but a faint expression of confusion. The Rookie looked like she had been burnt badly, probably from her own attack? Anyhow, feeling somewhat better from her victory, she felt like telling Okimon that she had done a nice job getting the key for the group, but felt it probably wasn't a good time since she seemed to be in a bad mood. She would tell her later, she decided, if she thought that Okimon deserved congratulations. Besides, then she could think of a better joke to go with it.

"Hanarei got a bruise?" Tomeo wondered aloud, listening to Asayake. He could have half-expected as much, knowing Hanarei seemed to love getting herself into fights. He listened to Shireika for a moment, before turning back to Asayake and Hanrei again. "Well, as long as you don't have the police showing up at your door in the morning. It seems Hanshin led us on a wild goose chase away from the real location of the fragment you guys were after, and - geez, Asayake, you should have seen it. All the digimon here digivolved, again! It was crazy. Parumon here turned into a dragon, and -" It was about that time he had noticed Tegiwa and Shireika had also walked off without him, remembering his car was parked near the club. "Well, I better be going... listen, I'll send you guys an e-mail about everything that happened. See you soon." he smiled and waved, joining up with Tegiwa and Shireika.

"So, about the fragment..." Tomeo started as he caught up with them, filling up the silence. "I just want to say something before I leave. I don't just feel content about just leaving the key as it is. Everyone fought hard for that fragment, and I feel we've got to do something straight away with it. We have to destroy it, to stop Hanshin unlocking that evil power once and for all. I understand you know Hanshin better than anyone Shireika, and that you both have known him longer than I have. But we have to act, before he does."

"That's all well and good, Tomeo, but..." Parumon interrupted, looking over at Shireika, from her position held in Tomeo's arms. "Hey, Shireika, did I kick some butt or what? I took two digimon on, and I still won! I defeated Seidomon like I said I would. And we got the fragment unlike last time, which is a plus..."

"Parumon, we all know you want recognition for what you did." Tomeo told her. "So, congrats, okay? I'll get you something nice when we get home. I'm talking about the safety of the world here, now, okay?"

"Pfftttt." Parumon made an annoyed grunt. "Fine. You're always talking about those fragments, Tomeo. Chill out! Let Shireika sort it out. She knows what she's doing, just give her some trust already."

As they eventually approached the club and their cars, Tomeo turned around and stepped out in front of Shireika and Tegiwa, giving them a serious look. "Listen. It's not that I don't trust either of you. I do. But I mean, this is serious. I have a bad feeling about just leaving things like this. Hanshin wants those key fragments. Maybe even so much, that he'll do the unexpected and move to get that fragment, just because he knows that you think that he won't. And you live with him Shireika, so who knows what will happen? All I'm saying is, as long as those fragments exist, they represent a danger to this world. We should destroy them as soon as possible, if not we should reassign a new hiding place. Am I right?"

***

Asayake waved to Tomeo as he left, turning her attention back to Hanarei. "So, did you want a ride home, or did you want to hit a pharmacy or something first? You look like you could use some painkillers."

"I'm fine," Hanarei insisted, wincing slightly as she bent over to pick up Okimon, "But a ride home would be nice. You don't have an extra helmet hiding somewhere, do you?"

"Under the passenger seat," Asayake said, slipping her own helmet over her head, "You might have to adjust it a bit." Hanarei nodded, flipping the seat up and pulling out a second helmet. She jammed it on her head, still slightly sore at losing her fight with Enma, and settled on to the moped behind Asayake. "You just give me directions as we go; point, and I'll turn."

"Deal." Shouted Hanarei over the purr of the moped. Okimon was settled in her lap, and she gave her a quick pat on the head. The moped lurched forward, and Hanarei pointed over Asayake's left shoulder. "First left!"

***

Hanarei threw herself on to her bed, bouncing Okimon from the mattress. The digimon looked slightly insulted at that, but replaced herself without a word. Rolling on to her side, Hanarei was thankful for the painkillers as she mulled over the day's events. So, they were even now; Hanshin and his group had one fragment, and they had they other. She wondered absently how Enma felt about losing the key fragment. Even if she had technically lost to her, Hanarei thought happily, at least she could pay her back for it. With that thought in her head, she rolled over again, and tried to get some sleep. She was fairly sure she'd be quite sore in the morning.

***

Asayake hung the keys to the moped on the hook beside the door, and tried to pull her shoes off as quietly as possible. All of the lights in the house were off, save for the oven light in the kitchen, and she didn't want to wake anyone up. Rogishimon had started to say something, but Asakaye shushed her befoe she could form any real words. She tip-toed quietly across the hall and up the stairs to her room, only allowing the little bird to speak once the door to her room had clicked shut behind them.

"Well, that went fairly well, don't'cha think?" Peeped Rogishimon, settling herself into the little nest she'd made for herself in one of Asayake's drawers.

"Better than last time," replied Asayake, her voice muffled by her struggle with her pyjamas, "We got the key this time, and I didn't have a freak-out. I'd say it went singingly."

"Mm." Rogishimon yawned, and snuggled deeper into her laundry-nest. "Goodnight, 'Sayake."

"'Night, Rogishimon." Whispered the redhead, switching off her bedroom light and crawling into bed herself; she decided to leave any thoughts until she'd actually gotten some sleep.

***

Shireika stopped in her tracks and looked at Tomeo.

"Hanshin won't go after this key fragment," she said. "As long as the fragments are separated, then they won't pose a danger. Still, it's best that we keep track of it. We shouldn't hide it, or we may risk them going after it again. Trust me. Hanshin won't go after it." She paused. "He may seem unpredictable to you, but he keeps his word. He said he wouldn't fight for ownership of all the key fragments until all of them have been found, and he won't. Still, putting it back into hiding is dangerous. That would give Hanshin an easier opportunity to reclaim it, since we can't be on guard all the time. Don't worry. Everything will be just fine as long as we keep at least one away from Hanshin. Then we can try to get the rest from him once he's found them."

***

"Yeah, I have a ride," Shouki said. "Take care of yourselves." He looked over at Naoko. "Naoko-chan, get some ice on that, okay?" He smiled a little as he hurried off.

"Bye, Shouki!" Hanshin called as he got into the car. He started it up and drove away from the club quickly. "We'll get that key fragment back when we've found the other two. I agreed on that with Shireika, and I'm not foolish enough to get it from her myself. But, enough of this. I've got better things on my mind." He reached over to Naoko and stroked the side of her face. "Dealing with Shireika is depressing. Let's do something a little more uplifting."

Minutes later, they arrived at a familiar apartment building: Ami's.

"You don't mind, do you?" he asked as he stopped the car. He turned to her and kissed her softly on the cheek. "We haven't done this in a while, you know?" He grinned as he got out of the car.

***

Shireika sat at the table where they usually met now. It had been two weeks since the last fight, and Hanshin had yet to bother her for the key fragment. It seemed to be a silent agreement: neither would challenge the other until they were all found. No questions asked.

The other day, she and the others who allied with her received a message from the Watcher. She read it over as she waited for them to show up:

[To the digi-destined,

Where Friendship and Light have merged, another key fragment is hidden. It will be yours, if you want it.

-The Watcher]

Shireika hadn't been sure about believing this one. That meant that another key fragment was hidden in her own home, and she knew the most likely place where her father would have put it. It was her home, after all.

Still, it was peculiar that the Watcher had emailed her group, considering they weren't interested in finding the key fragments to begin with. Hanshin and his group were always receivin the Watcher's emails. So, why this time? What was the Watcher planning?

***

"Shouki!" Hanshin called as he spotted the other boy leaving the main building to join him. "We're over here!" He waved at him as Shouki scampered over. "Anything?"

"This one might be difficult," Shouki studdered.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it seems that our vice principal has hidden it in a museum."

"Great," Hanshin grumbled.

The other day, the Watcher had sent him a message that the family of Hope was hiding one of the key fragments. He had sent Shouki onto the job, since he could look the least suspicious in trying to get information. Plus, Naoko had helped a little, but with a little coaxing and encouragement, Shouki was willing to do it. A little bit of pulling at the "be-like-your-sister" strings was all it took.

Still, Mayonaka Sensei hid the key fragment in a museum, which was certainly going to make things difficult. They were going to need everyone for this one, and if Shireika and crew followed, things were going to get really messy. Perhaps disastrous for all of them.

"Well, you've got a plan?" Hanshin asked.

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