Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Digimatsuri

Written by Omnicrom

Standard Disclaimer: This work is a non-profit derivative work of fanfiction. I claim no ownership to Digimon or its characters.

Inbound Tide

It was pouring rain, and Ruki was glowering. She would have been glowering even if it had been a gorgeous sunny day, but the rain was not helping.

And so she scowled as the driver of the car climbed up the hill towards the estate and gloomily looked out the back window at the little town set on a hill and away from her mother in the other seat who was cheerfully gabbing about something stupid. It was just the two of them for at least a day until grandma could get away from the event she'd been attending.

She continued to sulk (as she had been ever since they left Tokyo hours ago) as the car pulled through a gate, and came to a stop in front of a large (and old) mansion of a building. Her mood did not improve when people came to the door of the building, drawn by the car's arrival. This was yet another hassle: relatives. Ruki groaned.

Beside her, Ruki's mother kept talking even as she fumbled with her seatbelt and reached blindly behind her into the trunk for an umbrella and a raincoat, "there they are! Oh Yukiko came, she's such a dear! And Akira also, such a nice boy, I suppose he's off from school now right? Only Ruki's school is a private school and I don't really know the holiday schedule for the rest anymore, it's been ages…" Not for the first time Ruki rolled her eyes. Whatever their driver was being paid to listen to her mother gab it was not enough.

Ruki reached back and grabbed her suitcase from next to her mother's three and then took a moment to survey the waterfall streaming over the car's window. Behind her, her mother was battling geometry to try and pull on a hat and coat and open an umbrella in their hired car. Ruki glanced at her once over her shoulder, shrugged, kicked open the door and made a run for it.

There were no surprises waiting outside. Ruki's clothes were soaked through in seconds, it was screamingly cold all over, rain smashed overhead, her suitcase jerked and clattered, and 10 seconds later she was under the eaves of the house and inside. She was cold and clammy and wet, but that could change easily enough. Her bad mood however…

Two people that she barely knew were there gesturing at her and one of them was saying something to her, but she wasn't listening.

"Where am I staying?" Ruki said, interrupting.

"But as I was- oh, sorry dear, your room is going to be the room in the East wing, over there," the older woman pointed. "I could show you, or Akira could-"

"It's fine," Ruki said, immediately setting off.

The house was old-fashioned. Built as a big long square, it had the usual wooden floors and sliding screens that always screamed old rich Japanese bourgeois. Probably some rich old guy had built this house back before the Warring States Period to show off to some other rich old guy. Then they probably killed each other over something stupid and so one of their stupid sons inherited it and got into another fight with another stupid son and so on and so forth. You know, history.

Of course this was nothing new to Ruki, who lived in a Japanese mansion even when she wasn't on some boring family outing. So it was that she had no problem finding the bedroom in the East wing where someone had installed a proper door into the Shoji screen, probably to replace a part where some old guy had gotten into a fight with some other old guy and busted it. The room was nice, actually, with fancy lacquered wooden tables and pretty bamboo chairs and a very European four-poster bed with the curtains and everything. That last one might take some getting used to.

Ruki grabbed a towel off a table before she snapped open her suitcase and started changing, swapping wet clothes for dry. Halfway through she heard a keening whistle and felt a presence emerge behind her.

"Is everything okay?"

Ruki smiled. "I'm fine, Renamon. I was more worried about you being out there with all that rain."

"It was not a pleasant experience," Renamon admitted, "but I was able to manage."

"I wish mama cared enough to remember you, we could've got a car big enough for you," Ruki said. "I'll make sure she remembers when we go back. And if she doesn't I'll go back with you instead."

"I'm touched, but you don't have to go to such an account for me. I can manage."

"Well you shouldn't have to 'manage' like that," Ruki said as she finished changing, dropping her digivice into her jeans pocket, "we're partners."

Knock knock!

"Um, Ruki, er, Ruki-chan?" Came a pathetically plaintive voice. The boy.

"Don't call me -chan! Just Ruki!"

"Right, um Ruki, can I come in? Did you find everything?" His voice was cracking.

"Yeah, sure. And of course I found everything, I'm here aren't I?"

"Oh, right, I just meant…"

"Come in and stop yelling through the door," that was worth another eye roll, but the boy did open the door and hesitantly come in. Ruki gave him a once over. Human. Male. About her age give or take a year. About the same height as well, though he was kind of thin and narrow. Blue shirt and khaki shorts. Tanned a little bit, that meant he was outdoors a lot. Messy black hair. Green eyes, expressive and honest ones that showed he was completely cowed. His face had the same expression Takato had worn the first couple of times they'd met. Conclusion: he was probably not completely terrible, though some of that feeling probably came from reminding Ruki of a person she actually liked. Though on the other hand Takato could be a real dweeb sometimes. Well, Juri was welcome to him. As for this kid... "you're Akira?"

"Yes! I am!"

"You don't have to shout, I'm right here."

"Oh, yeah," he said lamely. "Mom said I should come here and make sure you were settled in, and say that dinner was going to be in half an hour."

"Thanks for telling me, but I'll be okay," Ruki said. It probably sounded more dismissive than she had intended for it to come across, but today was not a great day, and this was probably not going to be a great dinner with her mom in full gossip mode.

"Okay, sorry to bother you, but, um-" Akira hesitated, looking around. Still cowed.

"What?" She snapped. That was tired and cranky, but she was allowed to sound that way after five hours in a car.

"Was there someone else here just now? When I was coming up the hall I thought I heard you talking to someone."

"If you'd looked around you would see there's nobody here but me," Ruki said.

"Oh. Yeah. I guess you're right. Um, sorry."

Ruki bit back something unkind as Akira beat a hasty retreat.

"You were rather harsh with him," Renamon said from over Ruki's shoulder.

"Yeah," she sighed. "I'll apologize later. It's not HIS fault we had to come out here. I just wasn't in the mood to have to explain things to him. A half-hour, huh? Not enough time for a good bath then. This is going to be awful…"

---

Dinner was around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, so early, and also wasn't as bad as Ruki had expected. Almost. Barely.

The dining room was once again an extremely traditional looking dining hall at the back of the house, with a side door that opened out onto the rear garden, and just like Ruki's temporary quarters the room was a weird mish-mash of Western and Eastern. Rather than the highly traditional knee-high table and fancy trays one would expect from a dinner at a proper Japanese manor house, dinner here was served on fancy looking porcelain plates on placemats sitting on a fancy looking rectangular hardwood table that looked like it could easily seat a dozen people. That got a raised eyebrow from Ruki.

Ruki's attire, meanwhile, got a raised eyebrow from her mother as she sat down next to her. Ruki was in casual clothes, jeans and a loose teal shirt (a new one, her old favorite with the mended heart had sadly breathed its last not long ago. That Snimon deserved everything it got...). Her mother on the other hand was wearing a totally different outfit from the car ride, it was some kind of dress that was black-ish and satin-ish and probably very expensive and therefore very fashionable, but Ruki had long since made a point of deliberately not paying much attention to what people (especially her mother) were wearing. It wasn't that she hated fashion or clothing, or that she hated her mother, she just hated the two of them together. When she was dressed to the nines her mother was at her absolute worst. And besides, this was supposed to be a family dinner, not a photo shoot, why bother trying to look fancy?

Besides her and her mother, there were three other people at the table with Ruki. One, across from her and trying to avoid meeting her eye, was Akira. Still cowed. That wasn't surprising, and she didn't press him.

One space to the boy's right, Ruki's left, was a woman probably somewhere in her forties with a brunette crop of hair that was starting to gray gracefully. Context suggested this was "Yukiko", who was apparently one of Ruki's relatives (she was familiar enough to call her mother "Rumiko", at least), and seemed to promise to be a little bit more interesting. For one thing, she was dressed like a sensible person wearing a sky-blue blouse and gray pants. Now she also wore some sort of frilly and uselessly thin scarf, but Yukiko was still mostly wearing clothing that you could actually do things in. For another she mostly avoided talking about annoying things. She listened politely and nodded along as Ruki's mother talked about the summer fashion line using terms and referencing people Ruki herself had studiously avoided learning about. Yukiko occasionally asked safe and polite questions, but long personal experience told Ruki her relative was mostly doing it to humor her mother. Her grandmother employed a similar strategy every time Rumiko came home from one of her business trips: don't try to stop her or try and get her to change the subject, just let her get tired of her own voice, that way you get the hard part out of the way up front.

Finally, seated on the opposite side of Yukiko was another woman a couple of years younger than her in some kind of maid or housekeeper outfit. And given that she had brought in the food from the kitchen (fish stew, fried chicken, and a side salad, quite good actually) and wasn't saying anything? Maid or housekeeper was probably the safe bet.

"Now that I think of it, how long has it been since the last time we came up here?" Ruki's mother asked. Finally, something that wasn't about her.

"Oh dear, that was almost a decade ago now that I think of it. Ruki was very small, I don't suppose you remember it do you, dear? Or me?" Yukiko asked, tossing the floor to Ruki. Empty politeness or testing the waters?

"Not really, it must've been a long time ago."

"Mm. But that's no surprise given how young you were. And if I recall you didn't have a very good time here, Akira was sick and in bed that whole weekend so you had nobody to play with, and I remember you got bored very easily."

"I guess so," Ruki said, noncommittally. I still do.

"Well then, allow me to greet you properly then!" The older woman said cheerfully, "I'm Mikami Yukiko, I'm your… Hm... Is there a word for it?"

"Ruki," her mother began with that annoying trying-too-hard-to-be-a-parent voice, "Yukiko is your grandmother's sister-in-law. And Akira here is her son, so if you think about it I guess that would make him your uncle," Rumiko ended with careless cheer. Akira blushed and tried even harder to not be in Ruki's line of sight, "and how about you Akira? Do you remember if you ever met Ruki that weekend?"

"Um..." Akira's green eyes flicked around nervously, "not much? I really was sick. The only thing I remember, is um, that there were a lot more men back then."

Swing and a miss. Rumiko's smile froze on her face. Yukiko's lips tightened. Ruki resisted the urge to slap her forehead, or barring that reaching across the table and slapping his.

"Yes, I do suppose there were," Yukiko said through narrowed eyes with the voice of a veteran parent who was not sad or angry, just disappointed. "Reimu do you remember the pork dish we had that night?" She continued, turning to the housekeeper/maid/whatever.

"I do indeed, it was the one with the spice mix from Mr. Yamazaki's secret recipe. I don't believe we've ever been able to figure out just what he added to give that mellow aftertaste to the meat," Reimu said. Her voice was was the voice you would expect of a retainer: even-tempered, dutiful, reverential, polite, and with it she indicated she had no problem hauling her employer out of an embarrassing social faux pas. It reminded Ruki a little bit of Renamon.

"Oh yes, Mr. Yamazaki was beyond thrilled we managed to fix his roof. Oh, I say we, it was all Mr. Yosuke's doing. Though, I suppose I was the one who helped Mr. Yosuke's wife when she was pregnant, and that made him want to pay it forward. That labor was a dreadful affair." Yukiko leaned back, her voice wistful, "goodness, I haven't thought about Mr. Yamazaki in a while, I miss him, he was a dear dear friend."

"That was the old gentlemen who was always squinting? I'm so sorry to hear he's passed on," Ruki's mother said with kind earnestness.

"Well, what's done is done. I do hope he's enjoying himself up in Hokkaido."

Ruki once again had to stop herself, this time from chortling when her mother's mouth fell open. Yet, to Rumiko's credit, she managed to rally. "I remember you were telling me about what a big event the fishing festival is and how important he was to the planning committee."

"Oh he was," Yukiko said reaching for the stew pot, "that man was an absolute genius at organizing and scheduling. I have no idea how Shinomichi had any festivals at all before he came along, much less The Marriage of Sea and Earth. It must've been a miracle granted by the Sea King himself they pulled it of all off those years. And sure, he gave me a crash course when he left, but it's still been a challenge to fill his shoes."

"Oh, you took over for him?"

"That I did. He hand-picked me as his successor, he said I was a genius at getting people to work together."

"Well you definitely are," Rumiko said approvingly. "Do you remember the photo shoot from a couple of years ago? The one out in the woods around here? I have to admit that people in my line of work are usually a tiny bit self-centered," (Ruki rolled her eyes) "but you were incredible. The way you managed a trailer full of managers and models, I think my agent would've hired you on the spot if he wasn't afraid you'd put him out of his job."

"Oh it's not anything magical, it's just getting people to compromise. You listen to them, let them tell you what they want, pay attention to what they REALLY want, and show them what they can get by working together. Carrot, not stick, dear. What did all those models say they wanted? To be glamorous and beautiful. What did they REALLY want? To do a job well, further their careers, get paid for being in the spotlight, and go home. It's nothing supernatural and it doesn't take a genius to convince a bunch of businesswomen to organize themselves to a tight shift and work together to get it done and go home satisfied with themselves.

"If there's a trick to it, it's only in helping them figure out who their enemies actually are. Even in a catty world like modeling you can gain so much more by pulling in and joining forces than you can get tearing everyone else down. And is pointing all that out really that brilliant? Well, either way, even if it is 'genius' sadly none of it applies to renting parade floats. I do not know what pull that man had over Kawaki motors, but if it was dirty photos I wish he'd handed them over to me before he moved away. More chicken, dear?" The last question was aimed at Ruki.

"No thank you," the Tamer said. Her violet eyes were drooping, staring out past her relatives into the back garden. What you could get by working together, huh? That was something in there that rang true. Ruki started zoning out again as her mother took the opportunity to praise Yukiko by saying how much she wished the older woman was there when blah blah blah something about what some model did blah blah blah.

The garden was extremely green, and unsurprisingly very wet given the monstrous downpour. There were a smattering of flowers, a little stone Zen garden, and a little tiny little shed that was probably a teahouse. There was even a little clacking shishi-odoshi, an old-fashioned Japanese thing that even the Makino estate didn't have. Thank god for that, the clacking of those things would've driven her up the wall if she had to hear them outside her room, but here one was: a hollow bamboo pipe slowly filling with water until it filled up and went "clack" onto a piece of stone to scare away deer or other animals. Again, and again, and again the little pipe above it filled it with water making it drop down. Again, and again, and…

Ruki pushed out her chair and stood up.

"Ruki?" Her mother said, startled.

"Is something wrong, dear?" Yukiko said more gently.

"No, it's just that I'm full, I'm going to go take a walk," Ruki said.

"Oh, but it's still…" Rumiko stopped and looked. It wasn't raining anymore. The scaredeer went clack.

"I see, well, Reimu can show you where to take your dishes, and be careful out there, it's going to be slippery," said Yukiko. The housekeeper/maid nodded and stood up.

"Thanks. I will."

"Oh I have an idea," Rumiko said before Ruki could escape the room, "why don't you take Akira long? As a guide? You're done with your dinner as well, aren't you Akira?"

"That sounds splendid," Yukiko said, as her son had frozen over completely. "You two can catch up."

"Right," Ruki said glowering, "catch up..."

---

Ruki did not like the rain.

It wasn't because the rain was gloomy, or that it was cold, or that it was wet even if it was most or all of those things. No, Ruki didn't like it because the rain was boring. While it was raining, nobody did anything. When it rained people didn't want to hang out or go places or spend time with friends, they stayed at home, indoors and read books or something. If they had to go somewhere they ran from place to place, but they never mingled. They never formed crowds.

You couldn't take a good walk while it was raining. Even if you had a good, warm coat that kept the water away (and Ruki did) there was no point. When you walked around Tokyo half the reason to do it was to be in the crowd. There were ten million people running around the city in any given day, and that meant if you knew the streets well enough you could get swept up in them and fade away. Walking around Shinjuku was the best way to unwind, the perfect way to sort out all her thoughts.

Yeah, sure, there were plenty of things you could do indoors while it rained, but it frustrated Ruki deeply to HAVE to do those things because of the rain. That felt like surrendering. Rain was fine in the evenings and at night when she wasn't going anywhere anyways, but during the day it was miserable. During the day rain made Ruki feel bored. During the day rain made Ruki feel trapped.

Hypothetically getting out of the house should have been a relief and, if pressed, Ruki would have admitted where she was now was far better than the alternative. Most everything she wanted from a walk was here, after all. The rain had died down meaning she was no longer stuck inside, and walking around a whole new place would make it interesting, and as for good crowds… Well that probably wasn't going to happen around here to begin with. But when it came to the last bit about winding down? Yeah, no. There was still the problem of her tagalong.

Akira followed about four paces behind Ruki and his footsteps were obnoxious. As they descended the sidewalk steps down the hill into town Akira very intentionally avoided standing on the same pavement slab as Ruki. He would hurriedly shuffle to the edge of one step, stop, wait for her to progress to the next one, and only then descend down to the next step. Every time she paused to look around he would hurriedly back up a step.

On a venomous lark, near the bottom of the hill Ruki made to descend but just held her foot in the air for a moment and then dropped it back where it had started. To her complete lack of surprise Akira yanked himself backwards so fast his heel hit a stone step and he nearly tripped over his own feet.

Ruki sighed. This wasn't going to work. Two people could be a crowd, but it took rhythm. If one person was walking and the other person was shuffling along behind them there was no rhythm and so no crowd. And you needed a crowd to get lost in the crowd. As it stood, Ruki was just going to get more and more angry at her "uncle" until she snapped at him and then it would be even harder to walk it back and apologize.

A ruined walk would be even be worse than being trapped inside at an annoying dinner. At least Ruki hadn't expected that meal to be any good, meanwhile this was something she had been hoping would be a relief.

So, Ruki turned back to Akira, who immediately flinched. "Look, this isn't going to work. Why don't you just go back home, I'll be fine on my own."

"But if I do that-"

"Really? Well if that isn't going to work, fine then," Ruki interrupted, "why don't you show me around."

"But- what, do you mean that?"

"I wouldn't have said it if I didn't. Besides, that was mama's idea in the first place."

"But I'm not sure I can-"

"Do you like living here?" Ruki said, moving on to another tactic.

"What you mean?" Akira was still flummoxed.

"What I said. Do you like this town? Is it a good place to live? What's good to do around here? Who all lives here?"

"Um-"

"Because I like Tokyo. I like living there. There's always tons of stuff happening in Shinjuku, and I know a bunch of people who live there. We're supposed to be related or something, right? Is it the same for you? Your mom seems like she knows everyone, and you seem like you actually like some of the same things she does. So show me around."

"Well... If you're sure you want to hear it from me..." Akira said haltingly.

"It's better than having you act like you're stalking me."

"I wasn't- was I?"

Instead of answering Ruki very deliberately circled around the boy, climbed a step to be behind him and turned to look down at him. It took him a moment to take the hint, but eventually he started walking (slowly at first) and talking (cautiously at first). And to his credit Akira caught the rhythm pretty quickly and they were off.

Ruki's guess turned out to be right, Akira did know his hometown. He started by taking her into the little shopping district at the bottom of the hill, which was a place without many surprises. The whole place had the sheen of the eighties construction bubble on it creating the disjointed feeling of a little town trying to be bigger and more metropolitan than it actually was. What was clearly a little fishing hamlet had tried to remake itself the city, and it had all the hallmarks of that misguided effort. City girl Ruki couldn't help but be darkly amused at the ways Shinomichi had tried to urbanize itself.

The obvious first tell was with the squat little two-story prefab buildings standing side-by-side like a row of dominoes. It felt like they'd been constructed by people who had heard of cities, but had never been to one or even seen one and were on a budget besides and as a result had concluded upright concrete bricks were all it took to make an urban center. Yeah, sure, they were big concrete buildings and stood out from the rest of the town, but the market center resembled Tokyo in the same way a sand castle resembled the Imperial Palace.

But, stood out from the town they did, and all of them were trying to sell something. Some buildings had little tiny awnings with names on them, others had signs or little placards hung on the outer wall, and still others just filled their narrow windows with posters or hand-painted advertisements. A lot of the buildings had sides or walls of corrugated metal sheeting (many of which were rusting in the sea salt air), way too many telephone poles grew out of the sidewalk with tons of wires going every way into huge knotty masses cutting apart the sky, occasionally there were little cinderblock barricades between properties... It was the whole nine yards of halfhearted urban semi-renewal.

And, of course, here and there the façade fell away. In one spot between a row of cement buildings there was an aged wooden structure with only one floor. One alley that Ruki looked down had gravel, not pavement on its path. At a street corner there was an old wooden telephone box looking like it had fallen out of the fifties. In a few places there were exposed faucets hanging awkwardly out of buildings, probably a symptom of an overly ambitious and incomplete plumbing job. And more than once Ruki saw empty lots that had been converted into a little crop garden.

And Akira seemed to know everything and everyone. As he walked along he named the occasional straggler going somewhere in the aftermath of the rain and greeted them. He also pointed to each business in the market row and identified them all by name with a little review, thumbs-up or thumbs down. The one wooden building over there was a very traditional teahouse owned by very traditional old master. That noodle house was the best but it was also the most expensive. Everyone agreed that one greengrocer wasn't as good as it used to be. Barely anyone went to that beef bowl restaurant, which was fine because it kept weird hours and rumor had it the only reason was still open was the owner was secretly a millionaire who was slumming it. Go to that drugstore for the best selection of drinks. The popsicle sticks in the cooler in that store over there are rigged, you can never get a winner from them. No one knows what hero show the toys in that gachapon machine come from. Over there was the only barbershop in town, and the owner was looking for a successor.

That knowledge only seemed to grow when Akira turned seemingly at random into a little alley that grew into a side street climbing back up around the hill that then grew again into an entire old neighborhood of houses and little apartments. Here the small town was back to looking like a small town. The buildings stood on old, haphazard paths – stone steps that scattered in every direction like a confused spider's web. The concrete was gone from the houses here, instead the buildings had wood and brick walls with clay tile roofing. All around there was greenery climbing over fences and trees dotting the pathways. It actually felt like it was out in the country now, in fact it was only the briny scent in the air that hinted at the idea the ocean was nearby.

And Akira seemed to know everyone in every house. That person did this and this person did that and they did this to them and those two are new and that one is old and so on and so forth. Ruki paid less attention here, but at the same time her appreciation grew. This town was probably, almost certainly, still going to be boring, but if there was any way out of having a dreary time it would be through Akira knowing what was interesting in town. But even beyond that her relative's voice had confidence to it now that showed he knew what he was talking about, and Ruki actually liked confident people who knew what they were doing.

And on through the neighborhood and back down the hill Akira kept going, eventually heading towards the inevitable docks. You couldn't exactly be a fishing hamlet that was a wannabe city without the fishing after all. Walking down towards the pier, with its half dozen sunbleached wooden docks and over twice as many ships tied down and anchored, Akira started talking a little bit more about the town's history (after apologizing for doing it out of order, was she still listening? It isn't boring, is it? Okay good). Ruki again mostly tuned him out, though she did smirk slightly when Akira mentioned in passing how most the big estates were built way back in the day by one governor of the area to try and make himself look important. It took until he was in the 1800s for something interesting finally happened.

"Ruki, there's a Digimon nearby," came the soft voice from behind her.

Ruki spun around in surprise, not at her partner's presence but her words "what? But there isn't a Digital Field anywhere around here!"

"Nonetheless, I'm certain I can sense a Digimon," Renamon said, her thin eyes and soft voice silently asked the question.

"Let's go," Ruki responded. The fox Digimon nodded and darted forward, flickering out of view.

"Hey, wait, Ruki? What's going on?" Akira said as Ruki bolted past. She ignored him and kept running. After a moment, Akira's face changed from one of bewilderment into alarm and he chased after. He didn't catch up to her, but he did match her pace well enough to follow.

Renamon led the way, appearing and disappearing as she leapt between vantage points atop signs or trees or telephone poles. Her path led Ruki between two dockside buildings, up a fenced in concrete path that was overgrown with weeds, and towards an old rusting warehouse.

"In there."

Ruki stepped up to the old sliding doors, grabbed the handle and pulled. At first it protested, but when Ruki heaved a little harder on it the door came loose, slowly at first, then the creaking slab of metal did finally came free and opened, rattling and shaking all the way. Ruki walked through the maw of the building flanked by her partner.

The old building had looked abandoned from the outside and a quick glance seemed to confirm that nobody had cared about this building for years at the bare minimum. Given that there were no surprises here. Along with the rust on the walls and the broken windows that had been visible from outside on the path there were weeds all over the floor growing through cracks in the cement. Patches of the roof had given way letting the recently departed storm leave puddles all over the green speckled ground. A huge chunk of the back wall had also fallen out, above it a second-floor walkway had collapsed and through it a squat bush and creepers of vines and moss climbed in from the outside. The only remaining hint as to what the building had been when it was alive was some kind of huge machine Ruki didn't recognize squatting off to one side of the building like a discarded toy.

It was pretty in a strange way. Tokyo had its own fair share of abandoned buildings, but way out in Shinomichi town the abandoned place felt more "organic" somehow. The whole place had the feeling of some kind of overgrown terrarium.

Ruki glanced at Renamon, who nodded. She fished in her pocket for her digivice and a pack of cards (never leave home without them!) then she cast her gaze across the room. If she believed Renamon (and she did) her quarry was hiding somewhere around here. The two of them stepped forward cautiously when-

"Ruki! What's going on?"

Akira bumbled onto the scene yelling and panting, apparently he'd broken into a sprint at some point.

"Be quiet!" Ruki snapped, she glaring at him with flashing eyes, "and stay out of the way or you'll get hurt."

"I'll get hurt? What's going on?"

"Ruki, it's coming!" Renamon called. Ruki spun back around. A ghostly flame had appeared in the air casting a flickering blue light. At first it was stationary, but then it began to dance about in an erratic figure eight. Then another appeared, and another after that, all floating about strangely.

Ruki held her digivice up, the holographic screen expanding to show her partner's field of vision. "C'mon, you can't hide forever, why don't you just come out and make it easier for us..."

"Easier?" Akira turned from Ruki to the gathering lights to Renamon then back to Ruki, "what are you-" he turned back "wait- WHOA! You…You're a fox?!"

Ruki rolled her eyes. "Did it really take you that long to notice Renamon? Look, don't answer that, just stay back!"

Akira was about to protest yet again, when the lights in the air suddenly spiraled into one point. The pinpricks of fire roared into a bright blaze and shot downward at the three in the shape of a flaming fist.

Renamon reacted instantly, grabbing Ruki and Akira and pulling them to one side as pavement shattered from the force the blow.

"There it is!" Ruki's digivice came to life as a black and white figure suddenly came into view. "Soulmon. Adult Level, Virus Attribute. A ghost Digimon. I guess it's supposed to be a Bakemon in a witch hat?"

The Soulmon muttered something and turned towards the duo below it. More blue flames came to life as it pulled back the right side of its sheet body, winding up for another big punch. The will-o'-the-wisps gathered, and the ghost moved for another punch and-

Renamon's foot slammed into the Soulmon. The ghost spun through the air, whirling end over end, crashing into the overhead catwalk bending the metal railing inward in a tangled heap.

The ghost moaned, lying in a heap as Renamon casually landed on the railing across from the dazed Digimon.

"A small fry, huh? I doubt you'll even need my help for this one, Renamon."

"Don't be careless, this kind of Digimon might have a trick up its sleeve," Renamon called from above.

"You- You two- are really fighting-" Akira began, but Ruki ignored the rest of what he was saying.

The Soulmon pulled itself upright and floated into the air wobbling unsteadily. Ruki gave a smirk, if it was winded in a single hit there was no way it could put up a challenge.

The ghost turned itself to face Renamon, and then began to chant something unintelligible in a high voice that was trying too hard to be spooky, but whatever the spell was worked and more ghost lights came to life all around it. The Soulmon threw an arm forward and the flames roared and launched themselves like a hail of tiny meteorites.

Renamon leapt forward and the blue streamers curved upward after her. The fox did a pirouette in the air, spinning out of the way of the fireballs and landed another hit, an overhead strike that sent the ghost Digimon crashing into the ground. Renamon landed neatly on the factory floor, a couple of meters away from where the Soulmon lay in a flat heap.

"If that's the best it's got then just get it over with Renamon, before-"

"Get it over with!? What are you going to-"

"It's not done yet!" Renamon shouted.

The Soulmon rose again, hat crumpled, it's sheet body ragged and shaking. It held out both its hands and began chanting again, a different and more desperate sounding spell. Its body blurred, then with a whoosh, it split.

In the blink of an eye there were two Soulmon, then four, then eight, then sixteen circling around Renamon.

"It duplicated itself?" Ruki called, unbelieving, but the tamer quickly recovered her confidence, "well if they're all that weak it won't be a problem. Go for it Renamon!"

At the command Renamon shot forward at one of the ghosts in the circle, but the fox Digimon's gloved fist passed right through the hovering Digimon like was empty air. Worse, when she landed the phantoms immediately rearranged themselves around her and began to spin in a wide circle. The ghosts raised their hands, once again conjuring fire.

"They're illusions. Only one of them is real," Renamon called.

"Shoot, then which one is the real body?"

The ghosts threw their arms forward and blue flames crashed down from all directions.

Renamon jumped! Leapt! Spun! Rolled! She moved with speed and grace, dodging and juking until the fires burned down.

But the ring of identical Soulmon raised their arms yet again and more blue flames began to appear.

"Where is it?" Ruki said, desperation creeping in. Her eyes flicked between her partner, the ghosts, and the hand of cards she held.

"Clever," Renamon said darkly, "if it spins around with its illusions there's no way to tell which one is really commanding the flames."

"Maybe if we could get a better look, there must be SOME way to tell but- Watch out! Here it comes!"

Again, fire rained from the sky. Renamon moved to dodge again, but this time the volley of fire caught her once, twice, three times, singeing her tail, grazing her side, and nicking an ear. The fox was breathing heavily, and her movement had slowed.

And yet, when the flames burned out she was still standing. She turned towards Ruki and their eyes met. Ruki held up a card and turned towards her. Renamon nodded.

"A card?" Akira asked in bewilderment, still wearing that same shocked expression he'd worn since he'd followed her into the factory.

The ghosts rose up again. Again they spun, again blue flames came to life, and again ghostly fire blanketed the factory floor.

" Card Slash !"

This time, however, Renamon stood stock still until the blaze fully consumed her.

Akira stared in horror, "wait! Don't! You can't!"

Ruki, besides him, just smiled.

" Alias !"

Once again, Renamon's foot slammed down into the body of the Soulmon.

"A shoddy trick," the fox commented at the crumpled ghost in a crater before her, "throwing enough fire to light up a room is dangerous when your doubles don't cast shadows."

"It's over," Ruki said calmly walking forward. "Renamon, finish it off."

Renamon nodded. With an almost casual manner the beast Digimon launched into the air and crossed her arms, gathering light and-

"Fox Leaf Arrowheads! "

Threw them to her sides, scattering gleaming leaves through the air. For a moment they hovered and then-

"Waaaaaait! Wait wait wait wait wait!"

The blink of an eye Akira was there in front of the Soulmon, flailing his arms and shouting, his whole body in the way of the attack as the glittering blades began to fall.

Ruki's eyes widened in shock.

The tamer threw out an arm on reflex and began saying something. Everything slowed down as she frantically tried to do something, yell something, before her stupid relative got torn to shreds. The best she could do was choke out the name of her partner in a strangled cry.

Renamon frantically slapped her paws together, and mercifully, that did it. The fox's spell on the handful of leaves was undone and all that fell from the sky onto Akira was a handful of Wisteria leaves.

"You absolute moron! You could've been killed!" Ruki shouted. Her heart was still beating so fast she almost couldn't hear her own voice.

"But you- you were going to– KILL!" Akira shouted back, gesturing at the ghost in the hat behind him, "that's-!"

"That's what a tamer does! It's what we HAVE to do!"

"Well you can't do it here!" Akira retorted. For the first time since they'd met the boy's green eyes actually had some confidence behind them. They'd sharpened with honest to god conviction. He really was just like Takato, coming alive when he got passionate. And just like Takato he was being an idiot.

"Says who?" Ruki retorted right back.

"The Sea King."

"The who?" The tamer asked incredulously.

"The Sea King. He says that Digimon should get along with each other, that means no fighting and no deleting and loading each other."

"The Sea King? The guy from the festival? Oh, well in that case," Ruki said rolling her eyes. "Renamon-"

"I'm serious," Akira yelled. And the hell of it was that he sounded like he was, "the Digimon around here are protected by the Sea King and in return they don't make trouble for the people who live here. All the Digimon listen to the Sea King, don't you?" He spun around to direct the question at the Soulmon that was now cowering behind him.

The ghost Digimon nodded its head frantically, the floppy tip of its hat flailing about, "That's right! That's right! We all listen to the Sea King! I don't go and cause trouble or anything and we don't fight each other!" the ghost said desperately.

"Unbelievable. That Digimon attacked you too, remember? Wild Digimon are dangerous! There's a reason Tamers like us take them out."

"But I wasn't! I didn't!" the Soulmon pleaded with sleeves outstretched, "I only fought to defend myself!"

"Seriously? You attacked us the moment we walked through that door," Ruki yelled at the cowering specter.

"I was just trying to scare you when you first came in. We're not supposed to hurt humans, that was only trying get you to leave…"

"Do you honestly expect me to believe that?"

"Actually, he might be telling the truth, Ruki," Renamon said softly.

"What?" Ruki spun on her heels.

"I noticed it immediately, but the angle of that attack was too shallow. It seemed like it was going to miss entirely-"

"Uh-huh! That's right! That's right!" The Soulmon said desperately, "I only started fighting for real when you started fighting me for real, miss. Please don't hit me anymore," the ghost begged.

"-but of course," Renamon continued, glaring at the Soulmon, "there was no reason to take a risk when I could have been mistaken. Tell me then, Soulmon, who is the Sea King?"

"Yeah, and how do you know about this 'Sea King', Akira?" Ruki added. She folded her arms and gave her relative a glare.

"The Sea King is a big Digimon who lives in the ocean! A REALLY big Digimon!" The Soulmon replied going first. "He's really strong and everyone listens to him."

"What kind of Digimon is he?" Renamon pressed.

"Uhhh, I dunno, I never really asked," the Soulmon scratched its hat. "But he's BIG! Really really big! And strong! Really really strong!"

"That's all, huh? Okay then, your turn Akira," Ruki said. "Talk."

And Akira was back to being totally overwhelmed. Just like at the table an hour ago he was trying really hard to avoid meeting Ruki's eyes, his own kept flicking off the right, only to bounce back, catch her narrowed eyes and tight lips and immediately run away again. "I just, I've heard about him."

"From who?"

"From, from some of the Digimon who live here…"

"There are other Digimon who live here?"

"Yes! I mean, there are some, here and there. I know Shinomichi, right? You said that, right?" He asked the question as though her permission was what allowed him to know his hometown. "And I've heard there's some fish Digimon who live in the ocean somewhere around here also, but they also don't make any trouble for humans either."

"And that's where the Sea King lives?"

"Um, maybe? I've just heard what some of those Digimon told me, about how the Sea King says they should live peacefully."

"I see," Ruki said. She said the two words slowly, carefully, and deliberately. And her eyes gleamed dangerously, shining like razors. Then she turned to the Soulmon, "If those ARE the rules and you aren't causing trouble thens I guess for now we'll let you off the hook. But if I find out you have been attacking humans next time we won't pull any punches. If you couldn't take Renamon you don't have a chance if she evolves."

With that said the Tamer left behind the crumpled up sheet of a Digimon and headed out the door. Behind her, Renamon give another glance at the Soulmon and flickered out of sight.

"Um, Ruki," Akira said nervously, "what are you going to do now?"

"Go home."

"And, after that?"

"I'm going to go find the Sea King"

---

It was about 20 minutes of walking to get back to Ruki's grandmother-in-law's estate and as she set off Ruki was jubilant in her preferred focused, aggressive way. The girl walked with vigor, taking broad strides in a confident march back through town and up the hill.

Akira follow along behind her, he was officially back to being intimidated. Not that she could blame him, after all he'd never seen a Digimon fight before. It was a bit of a surprise hearing he'd run into wild Digimon before, but that was swept away by the surprise of hearing that some Digimon had set itself up as a petty despot and had carved out a little fiefdom for itself. And it must have been a pretty strong one to intimidate all those Digimon…

"Um, Ruki?" Akira's voice was plaintive. It had taken him a dozen minutes of walking and another dozen steps up the hill to finally muster the courage to say something. He was definitely back in the mode of early Takato, wincing after every sentence.

"What is it?" Ruki snapped. Probably still too harsh. Oh well.

"Where's that fox, that Digimon that was with you?" That was always the first thing they asked, and it had taken him that long? Ruki rolled her eyes.

"She's around," Ruki said vaguely.

"Oh."

"What else?" She had to ask directly or he'd be dithering for another couple of minutes.

"Were- are you serious when you said you were going to go find the Sea King?"

"Of course I am. I already told you, I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it."

"But, why?"

"I already told you, I'm a Digimon Tamer. It's our job to deal with wild Digimon."

"But the Digimon around here are all living in peace-"

"IF they're living in peace," Ruki interrupted, "I don't buy it. Whoever the Sea King is must be really powerful if he can intimidate an entire town's worth of Digimon. Someone that strong is dangerous, and that means we've got to take care of him."

"I-I see. Um, what's a 'Tamer'?"

That got Ruki to stop and turn around. "… You're kidding right?"

Akira winced extra hard. "No, I'm not. Um sorry," he offered pathetically.

"How can you not know what a Digimon Tamer is?"

"I just don't. I've never heard about anyone being a Digimon Tamer. Really!" He added seeing Ruki's look of disbelief.

"But it's all over TV, there's a bunch of people on the news who won't shut up about Digimon Tamers" she protested.

"Well, we're pretty far out here, and I don't really watch much- well any television," he offered.

Ruki stared at him in disbelief. "Okay, but you DO realize the world almost ended two years ago, right?"

"I guess I heard about that, yeah."

"You GUESS?"

"Well I heard about it, but it seems hard to believe. I mean, it was so big, and it was so far away from here, so-"

"Unbelievable. After everything we went through to and you- oh forget it." Ruki turned and kept going, a good halfway into a sulk.

"Wait! Ruki!?"

She ignored him.

The summer meant it wasn't a sunset a few minutes later when they got back up the house, but it had started cross into evening. The shadows of the house made the old building seem even older, caught in the shade the little windows seemed more like eyes, eyes that had seen so many things, had seen so much history. History…

History. There was a word that was on TV a lot back home. Usually they used it in sentences like "first time in history" or "unprecedented in history" or "rewriting the history books".

Ruki sighed. Maybe it was because she was a city slicker to her core; maybe things were different out in the country. She'd lived in Tokyo all of her life, and if you lived in Tokyo you sort of assumed that people you met also lived in Tokyo. I mean it stood to reason, right? They were in Tokyo after all. And if you lived in Tokyo, even if you didn't watch TV you heard stuff, right? When news happened and you missed it well that didn't matter because you were always only a meter or two from someone who hadn't missed it and would talk about it. If something happened it rippled outwards like a rock falling in a stream. You couldn't not know about something as big as there being kids with Digimon who fought other Digimon! It was all over the news!

When big patches of fog suddenly appeared most people remembered the PSAs and scampered. And when Ruki showed up with Renamon people usually understood what it meant and let her through to do her job. Even if they didn't really UNDERSTAND her and Renamon and Digimon in general they at least knew enough to get out of the way, and they knew enough they didn't have to ask "what's a Tamer?"

And hell, there was that one time that some sleazy news reporter had tracked her down specifically. That had been scary, but in hindsight maybe inevitable. Ruki had won the nationals, after all, and they'd been recorded by the D-Reaper that one time and put on national television. As embarrassing as it was it was kind of an open secret who they all were (and of course Takato's bakery had been marketing itself off of Guilmon for a couple of years now). Thankfully Renamon had removed that creep and that spooky blonde guy from the government had tracked him down and arrested him for violating some kind of privacy law and that seemed like it nipped that problem in the bud.

Ruki didn't like being in the spotlight, but at the same time she kind of liked being recognized, if not as herself then as a Tamer. It made things easier.

Ruki stepped through the door, kicked off her shoes, and turned to go down the hall. Easier…

She turned back.

"Look, Akira, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For being way meaner to you than you deserve."

"Wha- no it's just, you don't have to be-"

"No, I mean it. I was too harsh. I was wet and having a bad day, I wasn't thrilled to be here, and, a lot of stuff happened, but that's no excuse and none of it is your fault. I'm sorry." And she bowed.

Akira, face froze once again, arms out in front of him confusedly waving, mouth open, he just stared. Ruki rose and turned to go.

"Were you there two years ago for that thing?" Akira managed.

"We were. And a lot of things of things happened." Ruki said without turning back.

"Can you-" he began, but Akira stopped. Ruki had turned the corner and vanished from view. Akira turned and looked out beyond the front gate and down at the town, and even further out to the ocean, dyed a deep, inky blue. He shivered.

---

The Soulmon had heard once from another Digimon that it was called Omagatoki, the hour of twilight when the spirits came to meet each other. It was the period between the sun setting, and the light truly fading from the sky. That was the signal to go out, though today he waited a little extra just to be sure. When he was certain it was dark enough he used his Necro Magic to conjure a tiny ghost light and headed out towards the ocean.

As he left his little home in the old building the ghost turned and looked both ways. Then he floated out through an old fence, between a line of overgrown trees, past an old wooden structure overgrown with ivy, and around the fence of a humming power station. Every step of the way was slow, cautious, and fearful. When the fence clattered the ghost started. When the wood creaked he jolted. When a branch snapped he stumbled in the air and had to clamber to catch his will-o'-the-wisp. And when the wind blew and leaves fell around him he yelped and spun holding his flame out in every direction, certain the golden beast had come back to claim his unlife.

It was a relief to reach the shoreline, where the tide was coming in on a steep bluff. The dreadful fox couldn't hide herself underwater, right? Right? Nonetheless, Soulmon stared down at the dark water, casting his covered eyes fearfully, paranoid for bubbles or for unexpected motion.

But there was nothing. The waves continued to roll. A vast blanket of blue curling in under the fading light of dusk. Each time he came here Soulmon was overwhelmed by the raw size of it, the weight of the ocean. There were places like it in the Digital World, but the scale of the Real World was still jaw-dropping. And not just because it was so vast but because it was complete and all-encompassing as well. This world had no sub spaces, no shells, no layers, it just was. This ocean was the same ocean whose water spilled onto the rocks and the sand on the far side of the world. Each wave rose, curled, splashed, and receded in a way uniquely its own. There were no shortcuts in this world, there was nothing stock, no animations to replay, no textures to repeat. It was all live. It was all real.

Soulmon had always wondered why the world in the sky was called the Real World when the Digital World wasn't fake. It was when he managed to cross over and come to this town, when he first looked out at the ocean, the first time he had been a ragged speck of white above the churning black depths, the first time he felt the wind from the sea flap at his rags and ring through his ears, it was that moment when he finally understood the meaning of the word.

It had been on a night like this he'd first seen the endless ocean, and he'd first met the Sea King and sworn to follow his laws. Now here he was again, coming at the hour of twilight to seek him out. He had to be warned of the dangerous Digimon on the loose…

To his great relief, the Sea King's vast presence was there. He wasn't always here, not every night, but tonight Soulmon felt his presence almost immediately, and shortly after that his shadow began to rise from the depths, long, vast, and narrow. The ghost Digimon had never seen him clearly because he had never known the king to rise all the way to the surface, and since he always remained beneath the waves his shape was hard to make out through the rippling water and the fading sun. The immense shadow reminded him of a snake Digimon, but it didn't slither like one at all. Indeed, the Sea King rarely moved at all except to rise into view and then fall away. Soulmon's friend in the ocean, Seahomon, had told Soulmon once that the Sea King was actually quite colorful under the water, but even the undersea Digimon didn't know where he went a lot of the time. There were a lot of rumors that when he wasn't here he was ruling another ocean kingdom in the digital world, though of course nobody knew if that was true. Still, they whispered that if anyone could cross between worlds someone as strong as him surely could…

"Sea King! Sea King! We've got a problem and we need your power!"

"Problems can be dealt with. I had heard a whisper from the waves that I should expect you tonight, Soulmon. Tell me, what has happened in the town?" came the voice of the Sea King, his words ringing out clearly from under the water. Despite his size, the king's voice wasn't deep or gravelly or menacing, in fact it was strangely ordinary. His words were even in tone. at a middle-of-the-road octave. It was the sort of voice any average Digimon might have, and certainly didn't sound like should have come from his enormous form.

"There's a dangerous Digimon on the loose in town! A scary beast Digimon with a scary human girl beside her with strange powers! They attacked me earlier in my home for no reason, I barely escaped! They were going to, going to try and kill me! And they're going to go after you next! You have to stop her!"

"And I will. I don't tolerate such things. If they strike against this domain I will crush them."

"You will? Oh thank you thank you thank you!" Soulmon cried out.

"Now, calm yourself and tell me everything that happened. All of it, in detail. Starting from the beginning, from the moment the Digimon appeared before you."

"Sure, but why?"

"To hear your story, and know who our enemies are."

So the Soulmon spoke, his wispy voice going from the moment the door opened and the human girl had stepped through, and ending with her announcing she would find the Sea King and threatening him again.

"I thought as much."

"She said she would hunt you down, Sea King sir!" The ghost's voice still quavered.

"She is welcome to try. And if she does she will feel the weight of my jaws. Do you believe that she will follow my laws?"

"That's what she said she would do, but, well no..." Soulmon admitted, "if Akira hadn't been there I'd have been loaded by that Renamon by now. Thank goodness there are good humans like him. What will you do?"

"Perhaps nothing. If she abides by my law the problem is solved. She can be as angry as she likes as long as she follows the rules. But, if she crosses the line I will stop her. Until we know for sure whether she is an enemy we should be cautious. Go warn the Digimon in town, Soulmon, and our human compatriots. Let them know this girl and her Digimon are dangerous and should be avoided."

"Of course sir! Right away!" Soulmon's hat once again flopped backwards and forwards with how fervently he nodded his body.

"It would be best for everyone if we all stand united, and it would be best if they joined us. But if they will not join with us for the good of our community, then she will be punished. I will become the stick that punishes her. I will see if these outsiders incur my wrath."

"What will you do until then, sir?"

"I'll watch from the depths, to see if I must consume this Digimon. Until we meet again, be careful Soulmon." And with that the Sea King's immense shadow descended into the deep void of waves and was gone.

The final streamers of sunset had left Shinomichi as Soulmon, guided by his flickering ghost light, returned to the shore. The night was young, and his appointed mission had just begun.

---

Next: Crossing Straits

Chapter Text

Standard Disclaimer: This work is a non-profit derivative work. I claim no ownership to Digimon or its characters.

Crossing Straights First Part - Ebb and Flow

Ruki got up the next morning, stretched, got dressed, and had a pleasantly quiet breakfast. Her mother was off somewhere and Akira was shooting her nervous looks but not saying anything.

Ruki woke up about a minute after breakfast when the phone rang and the housekeeper (Reimu?) very neatly sidled into the room and told her that a girl from Tokyo was calling for her, a "Katou Juri".

Akira just stared as his relative noticeably perked up and eagerly ran off to answer the old rotary phone in the drawing room. The city girl had been frozen all of last night, closed off and hostile, and now she was actually smiling?

"And how's everyone else holding up? Well obviously if it's those two. Of course. Yeah, that sounds just like him. Well I'm not the one making eyes at him. Oh yes you were! I was there! Yeah right."

Yes, she was definitely smiling as she said that. Akira knew that Ruki had to be physically capable of smiling, but seeing it happen was, well it felt out of character for her. Of course they'd known each other for less than a day, but after a day of her looking bored or tired or angry it was a deeply alien feeling watching Ruki laugh and gossip about completely ordinary things over the phone. It was like the moment she'd picked up the phone she'd suddenly been replaced by a different person. The look in her frigid, violet eyes had made it hard to imagine her having any friends, much less ones she was eager to chat on the phone with. Five minutes ago Akira wouldn't have thought Ruki could laugh.

And yet she did. Ruki laughed, a good honest laugh listening to whoever was on the other end of the phone.

"What did I tell you?" Ruki said. "Nobody's been paying attention to-" and then she began to rattle off a string of names and phrases Akira couldn't make heads or tails of. Some of them were the names of Digimon, some others sounded like they were probably Digimon names (they all ended in "mon" at least), others sounded like things out of storybooks or computer parts or were weird phrases like "Is it true you can't fly?" Still, whoever she was talking to seemed to understand her, or at least Ruki never sounded frustrated at what she heard through the receiver.

"Well good luck. I wish I was there, but I've got, you know, family…" Ruki pronounced the last word with the same kind of voice most people would use for wood lice. "Oh that's right, you have relatives over too, right? How is it? Yeah, yeah I know…" Akira continued to watch with disbelief as the girl gave a sympathetic wince to whoever she was talking to. "Yeah. I have no idea either, I'm in the same boat as you. I've never even met him and mama expects me to be friends just because we're related." (Akira glanced around nervously) "Of course not. Yeah, I suppose. Well listen, even if I'm not there you have a lot of friends okay? And some of them even know what they're talking about, so if you can't get me at least Jian will be there. Hah, I'm glad. Wha! Wait! Bye-"

Ruki held it away from her and looked at the now silent phone. She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Of course one of her kid cousins would find 'The red doggy', I told her she should have…" Then she smacked her forehead. "Shoot, told her! I should've told her-" Ruki's eyes caught sight of Akira and sharpened to razor points. "What are you doing?"

"Uh, nothing, I was just-"

"Do you listen in on everyone's phone calls or am I special?"

Akira froze. He was out in the cold, frantically fumbling for words, when he was rescued by an interruption: the loud clattering of the front door.

"That's gotta be Kirie!" Akira shouted, utterly relief.

"Who?" Ruki asked, but her whatever relative was practically a blur shooting out towards the front hall. "This better not be another family member..." she grumbled.

Thankfully it didn't look that way, at the very least the girl in the front hall didn't have a suitcase or something with her. She looked like a completely ordinary local girl, also about the same age as Ruki and Akira.

"I came over right after breakfast, you sounded scared on the phone what's up?" Asked the girl, who was presumably named Kirie.

"There's a lot of stuff, it's um," Akira looked behind him at Ruki he gulped. "Um, Miss Ruki?"

"Don't call me Miss."

He cowered, but to his small credit the green eyed boy rallied and managed to meet her eyes "Could we um, could we talk in private, I was going to-"

"Yeah, sure. It's your house after all."

"Oh, right, yeah!" Akira almost sounded like he'd forgotten that. "If it doesn't matter to you-" but Ruki had turned and was already pulling open the doors to the central courtyard.

Ruki hopped down the step and settled herself on a slightly damp stone bench, well out of earshot of Akira and his friend. At the same time she turned herself around to get a look at the two of them.

So, Kirie. Likely a personal name, definitely local. A mild tan, less than Akira's. Wide expressive eyes like Akira's too, but hers were pale blue instead of his green. Her hair was sandy blonde (a foreign parent?) and tied up in a pair of girlish pigtails. She was wearing a canary yellow sundress of a style that was a little too much like Ruki's mother for her to like it, and interestingly when they'd started talking the girl had fished a pair of glasses out of her front pocket to meet Akira's gaze.

Left to her own devices, Ruki weighed the odds on what they were talking about. The easy money was her. Akira was perpetually on egg shells around her, a position Ruki was neither fond of nor completely opposed to. At the very least being intimidated meant she could probably twist his arm into giving her a tour of the town this time focusing on the Digimon residents. Whoever the Sea King was, Akira was probably her best lead for finding out more about him.

And following that train of thought, Ruki then began to weigh the odds and whether or not [family-name-unknown] Kirie also knew about the Digimon lurking around town. It would make sense, why else would her relative immediately want to take his friend aside and start whispering at her? The two of them sure seemed to be throwing a lot of nervous glances her way. If they were trying to be discreet they needed to do a lot better than that.

And following that train of thought even further Ruki started to wonder what exactly they were going to do now. "Get in her way" was obvious and that meant she would be fighting on two fronts. Well fine, Makino Ruki was up for it. She had to be, or else.

For someone who had met a lot of Digimon, Akira seemed to know next to nothing about them and not just because he had no idea what a Tamer was. Wild Digimon were dangerous. Digimon fought each other to load data and become stronger. Akira had gotten lucky so far, but he was skating on thin ice. If a bunch of random Digimon were towing the line and following all the rules "The Sea King" had laid out that didn't make the mystery Digimon some kind of noble figure, it meant he was dangerous. It took a supremely powerful Digimon to make other Digimon knuckle under like that. You had to be so strong that fighting back was simply unthinkable, like it had been for regular Digimon against the power of the Zhuqiaomon. If there really was a Digimon around here who had the kind of power that could match the Four Holy Beasts then Shinomichi was heading towards disaster.

Kirie and Akira once again shot a pair of worried looks her direction. Ruki resisted the urge to give a little wave. Who were they kidding? The two of them were like kids playing pretend. And yeah all three of them were about the same age, but the difference was that Ruki wasn't playing games.

And there it was, that eerie feeling of distance had come again. It came when Ruki caught herself thinking about who she wasn't. It rolled in like a wave, an odd prickling sensation that crept up her spine, up and up until it hit the back of her head as a kind of vertigo, a cold, sobering dizziness. It was like seeing the world around her shrink down and hollow out, and it all came from the reflection that Ruki was not normal, not anymore. Once upon a time tomboyish, fashion insensitive, card game loving Ruki stood apart, but she was still ultimately just an elementary school girl from a rich family chasing whatever hobbies interested her. Now? Now she was a Digimon Tamer. Now her soul was joined to a digital being born on the network. She chased down and fought monsters side-by-side with her partner in life and death battles to protect Tokyo. She'd seen more action and violence and fighting than most police officers. Her day-to-day life slid between totally ordinary and completely extraordinary at the drop of a hat, and she was in so deep she didn't even notice it anymore until something reminded her how far she was from all the other kids her age.

No, Ruki wasn't ordinary, but that just meant she had to fight even harder. If she couldn't track down the Sea King and stop him then Shinomichi would... Ruki didn't even want to finish that thought. If Akira wanted to play games with his friend like normal kids then fine, okay, Ruki was absolutely not interested, but they should absolutely be able to. The two of them should be allowed to be kids and do normal kids things. That wasn't Ruki, that had never been Ruki, but normal? Being Normal meant nobody got hurt. Being Normal meant nobody lost their families or friends or loved ones. Being Normal meant you could laugh and play games and have fun and smile, really smile.

Juri would have killed to be "Normal".

Ruki leaned back. The stone bench was still a little bit slick from yesterday's storm, but the morning sun had warmed it nicely. Even now the drops of dew clinging to the garden flowers were blinking out one by one. The heat of the summer would probably dry out the town by nightfall, but this close to the sea Shinomichi town was still going to be muggy. No doubt her mother was already formulating some perfect stratagem against summertime split ends or whatever.

And so, left out of the conversation at the front door and uninterested in family matters at the back of the house, Ruki returned to the project she'd started the previous night: naming as many aquatic Digimon as she could remember. Surely one of them was the target of her hunt. Of course it was still vaguely possible that the mystery Digimon with an iron grip on the town wasn't some kind of big fish, but those were long odds given its moniker of "the Sea King" and it apparently living in the ocean. As it stood Ruki was 50-50 on it being either a Dagomon or one of those really evolved Seadramon, but there was that new big gold cyborg water Digimon...

The little shishi-odoshi went "clack". A moment later she heard a quiet whistle.

"What do you think of those two?" Ruki asked her partner without looking back.

"They aren't sure what to make of you," Renamon said from the far side of an ornamental boulder.

"Well I'm not sure what to make of them. I'm amazed no one's gotten hurt yet. Even if I barely know him I don't want him to, no I don't want anyone to get hurt, and if he keeps on messing around like this it's only a matter of time..."

Renamon stood in silence. Ruki glanced over her shoulder, "what are they saying?"

"Akira is concerned that we are dangerous. He says he is sure that there's been a general alert among the Digimon of the town after last night. He also says he's not sure what they should do."

"Join the club."

"The girl, Kirie, says that for now they should keep eyes on us. Both of them seem to agree that this would be a prudent first step. Akira is concerned that some of the outlying Digimon have not yet heard the alarm and that we may track down and delete them. Kirie says that it would be wise to scatter and send the message out. Both repeat they are not sure what kind of person you are. Kirie says she intends to go and tell someone right now."

"A human or a Digimon?" Ruki asked.

"I cannot be sure, she has not given a name. The two of them now wonder if they can do all this without you noticing anything suspicious," Renamon's voice was tinged with faint amusement, faint enough that only Ruki would recognize it.

"Tell me that they don't think they're being sneaky."

"Fortunately they do not, both agree it is far too late for that."

"Well then there's some hope for him. What about you? Do you have a sense of what's going on with the Digimon here?"

That was a call to talk business, and so Renamon knelt down at Ruki's side, "a cursory survey of the town last night confirmed that there are a number of Digimon spread around it and in the outlying countryside. The rain and its aftermath interfered with getting an accurate sense of them yesterday, and I am ashamed to admit that many of the rest have managed to elude me. I'm not sure if it is some element of the town or because of the nature of the Digimon here, but many of them seem able to hide their presence."

Ruki sighed, "I guess we're going to have to get him to give us another tour. I was hoping he wouldn't need to get involved, but I wasn't counting on it. What do you mean about it being hard to find other Digimon because of this town?"

"It is something that is difficult to put into words. Something about this town leads me to believe my senses are not as sharp as they should be when it comes to other Digimon."

"Is it the same for them?"

"I am not sure. It would be wise to be cautious."

"Got it, I'll be careful," Ruki said. Then she stood up, "but I'm bored of waiting for them."

The Tamer strode confidently up the little stone pathway and hopped up into the house. Head cocked to one side and eyes half lidded, Ruki noted with a little bit of amusement the way Akira pulled backwards and the way his friend immediately looked away from her. Two peas in a pod is what they were.

"Ah, Mi-, er Ruki! We were just..." Akira's extremely honest green eyes practically spun in circles across his round face as he flailed helplessly for an excuse.

"Talking!" The other girl put in.

"Right! About, about-, about how…" He was actually sweating.

"Akira was telling me about, well about what happened yesterday," Kirie's eyes met Akira's, both pairs doing a little interpretive dance.

"Yeah about all of that stuff and things and-" he was trying to force some kind of smile that was more like a grimace. The two of them were still frantically pantomiming with their pupils.

"And we were thinking about, about what he said that you said was what you were going to-" Kirie was trying to simultaneously look at Ruki, avoid her gaze, pay attention to Akira, communicate with a glance, pay attention to what he was wildly mouthing to her, come up with an ending to her statement, and act completely naturally. It didn't work.

Ruki might have let them go on in spite of the secondhand embarrassment, but the promise of something interesting was a powerful lure. "Alright, let's go."

"Go?" Akira froze. "Go where?"

"To wherever the Digimon around here live."

"That's... Going to be... I mean they've-"

"Gone into hiding," Ruki finished his sentence for him. Akira pulled back so quickly he nearly fell over. "I know you put out a warning last night and told them all to avoid me. That's annoying but whatever. You know where they are normally so we can start looking from there."

"What are you going to do to them?" Kirie asked, for the first time looking straight on at Ruki through her glasses. Ruki turned her to meet her blue eyes.

"I'm not going to pick a fight if that's what you're asking. I want to find out what they know about the Sea King."

Kirie glanced at Akira and then back at Ruki. "Why do you want to find him?"

"Because if I don't figure out what's going on around here this town might not be here next week."

Silence fell as the two locals stared at each other, their faces frustratingly opaque. Surprisingly it was Akira who rallied first, his round face and eyes sharpening and pulling themselves into focus to match Ruki's. Unfortunately he didn't get any further than a "what" when his voice was drowned out by the peal of a loud gong.

"Ah, that must be Ms. Hata at the door, right at the top of the hour like he said," came a crisp voice from the other direction. Ruki turned, the maid lady had suddenly materialized in the corridor behind the group. The housekeeper professionally acknowledged the existence of Ruki and the other two children as she passed them before she grabbed the door handle with both hands and give it a mighty swing.

On the other side was not Ruki's grandmother, she was next to a white car out on the tarmac, instead it was a stout man in a florid red Hawaiian shirt who is presumably the driver of said car. The man exchanged professional courtesies with the housekeeper while Ruki's grandmother approached the front gate, carting a rolling suitcase behind her.

"Reimu! It's good to see you again!" grandma said cheerfully, pulling her luggage up the steps. "I take it I'm in the usual room?"

"It's just as you left it," the housekeeper said. Her voice was flat and professional, but long experience with Renamon let Ruki catch the older woman's quiet regard. "allow me to help you with your bags."

"Thanks! Watch out though, they're heavy. I brought over all the rest of my daughter's 'essentials' that didn't fit in the first car."

"We'll help grandma," Ruki said, hopping down the porch steps. Reaching into the trunk after Reimu, she pulled out a surprisingly hefty canvas bag. Beside her, Renamon hauled out a monstrous suitcase, ignoring several stunned looks.

"Wow, that Digimon can also just appear out of nowhere…" Kirie muttered as the two of them crossed back through the front gate. She paused and turned to the driver who had pulled a lollipop out of a shirt pocket and popped it in his mouth. He seemed utterly unphased by the appearance of the golden beastkin. "Um... Are there a lot of, I mean is stuff like that normal in Tokyo?"

The driver shrugged. "I guess it's getting that way, one way or the other. You hear about them, of course, but it's still kind of wild to see one of them in the flesh, or whatever they have. As for me I'd be more caught off guard if the lady hadn't told me that a Digimon would be helping with the unloading." Sure enough, as he spoke Renamon reappeared behind the car to grab another handbag before vanishing once again. The round man looked down at her and shrugged. "It's a weight off my shoulders at least. I'm more surprised you're totally fine. I don't know every little town in the country but I bet Digimon are all brand-new to you."

"Yeah… Brand-new…" Kirie murmured. She turned to Akira, "I'm going to go. I'll make sure to send him out to keep an eye on things. This is really-" she fished for the words were a little bit, but then just shook her head. "I'll let you know."

"Right," Akira watched as Renamon returned for a third time alongside her partner and her partner's grandmother. As the Digimon and Tamer pulled out the last of the luggage and the driver got set to pull away.

"I know it's a surprise when you first see her like that, but I don't know what we'd do without Renamon these days." Hata Seiko said pleasantly.

Akira once again looked between Ruki, Renamon, the driver, Reimu, and then at Ruki's grandmother. "You already knew that Ruki was friends with a Digimon?"

"Well of course, it isn't a new thing after all," Seiko frowned "did nobody say anything to you?"

"No!"

"But I thought that- oh of course," the woman sighed. "Well let this be a lesson to you, Akira, grown-ups can be just as silly and forgetful as children. I suppose Rumiko seriously believed that Renamon would just stay home or come with me and leave Ruki alone for the night."

"And that's just, she's just normal?"

"Well I wouldn't put it that way, Ruki has always been an exceptional girl. But I suppose it's become normal to see her Digimon friend around the house or hear them talking to each other or catch a glimpse of her from the shadows. There's less reason to hide now it's all out in the open, but she's still a bit skittish. You know I thought she was a fox spirit watching over my granddaughter at first, it turned out I was only partly wrong."

The two of them walked as Seiko spoke. Akira once again was left to stare with his green eyes. The older lady didn't much resemble her granddaughter in hair color or in eyecolor or in fashion sense, but there was a slight similarity in the way she walked. Just like Ruki, Hata Seiko moved with assured confidence. She knew who she was and what she was doing. And yet her smile… If wrinkles really were laugh lines then-

"It's all set grandma!" And here was Ruki again, also, implausibly smiling as she passed her grandmother (Renamon had, once again, vanished).

"I hope it wasn't too much trouble," Seiko said with a chuckle.

"Of course not." Ruki said. She immediately turned to Akira, "we're going out after lunch once grandma settles in."

Akira blinked several times, then he ran a frustrated hand through his black hair as she passed by him. Makino Ruki. His relative. A Digimon "Tamer". Apathetic and bored. Cold, yet short tempered. Prideful. On a hairtrigger. A violent hunter. Driven. Aggressive. Forlorn. Distant. Lonely. Upbeat. Friendly. The picture of a doting and reliable granddaughter.

A minute later he went after Seiko.

The boy knocked on the doorframe three times. This door was still a sliding Shoji screen, unlike Ruki's room it hadn't needed to be replaced after a scuffle ages ago.

"Yes? Who is it?"

"It's, um, me, Akira. Sorry to bother you but, I was hoping to ask you, it's about, well-"

"You're confused about my granddaughter," Hata Seiko said, wry understanding in her voice, "well come in then."

The door opened with a rattle. Beyond it, Seiko sat on the bed looking expectantly towards Akira. The boy stepped through and closed the door behind him. When he turned to face the older woman he took a moment, struggling to find the right question. No change there, he could swim through a storm, but when it came to the sea of words he drowned. Why was saying it out loud so much harder? And painfully it seemed like his relative was going to let him keep struggling. After many agonizing seconds he was pulled under.

"Why is she like that?" Akira hated the words even as they came out of his mouth. He hadn't even managed her name, and it sounded like he was accusing her.

Seiko tilted her head, "that's a difficult question, isn't it?" Akira cringed, but she continued "it's not any one thing that makes her who she is, but that's true for all of us. Everyone has many different sides to themselves, if Ruki is different it's only because of how extreme hers are. She whips from hot to cold and back in the blink of an eye. I have to say I'm glad Renamon is there keep an eye on her."

"I heard, I remember she mentioned that... What happened two years ago?" that idea had finally come to mind, it was a good starting point. Probably.

"Well that's another difficult question, quite a lot of things happened. I guess for starters the two of them met, became close, were separated, and then managed to reunite a few months later. Thank goodness, I don't want to imagine what would've happened to Ruki if her Digimon friend had never come back. She's very sensitive you know," Seiko paused, "or well I imagine maybe you don't."

"No, I don't," he paused, the words catching up to him, "but I don't mean that- I mean that-"

"Oh it's quite all right," the lady smiled, "she can be quite a hellion when she wants to be. Ruki just isn't very good at being honest with her feelings. She doesn't seem like it, and she certainly doesn't act like it, but underneath it all she's someone who cares deeply about other people. There aren't a lot of people she really likes or respects so she's usually cold, but she has a very strong sense of responsibility nonetheless. Usually she does whatever interests her, but she'll drop everything to do what she thinks she has to to keep everyone safe. Deep down she's a caring, even loving girl, but she would probably never admit that to anyone. Well, maybe she would admit that to Renamon, but Renamon would never need to ask. Those two," Seiko shook her head amusedly "they really are like peas in a pod."

"Right. But I'm not sure, is there any way to get along with her?"

This got Seiko to raise an eyebrow. "I take it from that you two haven't hit it off? Well that's not surprising," her words cutting off his sputtering, "and it isn't your fault either. Like I said, Ruki is a complicated person and she doesn't make friends quickly. There is no secret to it, sadly, just be confident and she'll come around."

"That's not, what if she-" Akira hesitated, but Seiko nodded him on. "What if, like as an example, she was doing something wrong? Like what if she was going around, scaring people and it was... I'm worried something bad is going to happen. Because of what she might do."

"Hmm... I don't suppose you could be more specific?"

"NO, because I mean, it was just like an example of maybe something that could, if something like that was going to happen how would I, like convince her to..." Akira gave a hopeful glance. To his relief, Seiko seemed to have got the gist of it and met his green eyes.

"Well all I can say is to believe in your, well your relative's better nature. She isn't a bad person, she's just a little bit awkward. Try to show some confidence, Akira, this is your hometown and Ruki is a fish out of water here, show her that she can trust you. That girl really does want to protect everyone."

And that seemed to be the end of conversation, though Akira only knew that because the older woman turned to her suitcase and began to sort her belongings.

"I'm sorry," she'd said last night. And she'd meant it.

Akira shuffled back to his room even more confused.

---

True to her word Ruki pounced on Akira the moment lunch ended.

"Promise that you won't hurt anyone!" Akira said. Confidence! Be confident!

"I'm not here to start a fight," Ruki said. But I'm going to have to finish it.

Those weren't the only words they shared, of course, but it was about as far as they got. Akira wasn't sure he could believe Ruki and Ruki flatly didn't believe Akira and so their words went wide and they talked in circles. Akira fretted and hemmed and mumbled all the way out the door as Ruki gave curt dismissals. He was still lost trying to find some perfect sequence of words to make Ruki change her mind about everything by the time they reached the first cross street going into town, and so was completely unprepared when she turned to him.

"Where to?"

"What?"

"You're the one who knows about the Digimon that live around here, so which way do we go?" Ruki had to bite her tongue to keep it at that, the features on Akira's expressive face were practically dancing all over his face. The boy was so close to unscrewing his head Ruki felt the need to throw him a bone: "Okay, think about it like this, why don't you show me around so I can meet the local Digimon so I can see how peaceful it is and they can tell me all about how great the Sea King is. Is that a better way to do it?"

Apparently it was because after another lifetime of tripping over his words Akira finally pointed out in a direction, down a pedestrian side path cutting across an S-curve road in the side of a steep hill towards one of the beach houses. For whatever reason (probably just to keep him occupied) the boy started to talk about the town again. Just like yesterday he seemed to know something about everything that had ever happened; as he walked he told a story about how this side path used to be nothing but sand but then it was worn out badly by a heavy storm and a local kid slipped and fell down the path and cracked her collarbone so they had it properly paved but for some reason they couldn't put signs pointing this way so it was mostly a local path and most tourists used this other road and...

And he was off again in his own little world, of course Ruki had stopped listening about 30 words in. It was funny that this was something he could talk about without stumbling twice a sentence. Just like Takato he really did come alive when it was something that excited him, though why it was boring civic history was beyond Ruki. Well at least he'd probably make a good mayor someday. No, on second thought that was too harsh. Even if it was just about the least interesting thing Ruki could possibly imagine, talking about his town made Akira light up. He was better this way.

A good ways out along the beach stood a beach house, one of those prefab wooden rectangles that sprang up like mushrooms anywhere a tourist might possibly put a foot on the sand. It was the kind of place that was always ready to offer half quality fast food with double the sand for triple the price. Ruki nodded to Renamon as the beastkin Digimon shifted into view. Akira was nearing the end of a dissertation on how the 80s bubble economy had popped early for Shinomichi and closed some of the beach houses but it was a mixed blessing because it had let them blah blah blah when the two of them passed him by. The boy blinked and chased after them.

"Abandoned, huh? Makes sense a Digimon would hang out here. Any idea on what kind Renamon?"

"Unfortunately not. It doesn't feel particularly strong, but we should still be cautious."

"You said you wouldn't pick a fight!" Akira cried.

"I said I wouldn't START a fight," Ruki said testily, "and I'm not going to, but I'm also not going to be dumb. It's a wild Digimon, and I'm not interested in someone getting hurt."

"But it's harmless!" he protested.

"Good, then this should be easy."

The wooden building was bleached gray from years of sunlight and the three steps up to the porch creaked underfoot as Ruki climbed up to the front door. The odds weren't good, but nonetheless she put a hand on the wooden door and gave it a push. Not surprisingly, the door jiggled in its frame but the old lock held. Ruki thought for a moment about giving it a good, hard kick to see how sturdy it really was, but instead she decided to file that for later. She still had plenty of other options, and the Digimon must have found a way in there in the first place... A quick glance through the window revealed nothing, the windows were tinted heavily (and dirty besides) so they obscured the inside even under the summer sun. Sticking her nose up close only got Ruki a whiff of mildew.

Ruki took another look around. One way around the building lead to an empty veranda that had probably been full of tables, once upon a time, but the Tamer turned the other way and walked around towards the back of the house. The back door was metal for some reason and heavily rusted from the sea salt air. It screeched and moaned when Ruki put a hand to it, but after a shove it creaked opened.

The redhead was halfway into her first step across the threshold when she stopped and frowned. The wooden floor had given out. The first step forward was also a hell of a step down onto the stone slabs of the building's foundation. No wonder this place was abandoned.

And no sooner had that thought crossed her mind then Renamon reappeared below her holding out an arm. Ruki accepted it, dropping down and catching herself on her Digimon partner's outstretched paw.

"Is it some kind of amphibious Digimon?" she asked.

"I doubt it," Renamon said, unhooking her arm, "look over there."

Ruki followed the direction of her partner's arm towards a strand of something silvery gray that glistening in the summer sun. The line was peeking out from a section of the building, hidden from the outside by a section of the floor that was still mostly in place.

Ruki grimaced in recognition and grabbed for her digivice. "Here we go again"

Behind her the door clattered open, "Ruki?" called Akira from up above. Ruki only glanced backwards for a moment, long enough to see the boy drop down with surprising grace, but still only for a moment. A moment after that she was following behind her partner as they followed the thread.

One streak of silver lead to another lead to many, many others, into some kind of den, or nest. All together the many strands created what was unmistakably-

"SKREEEECH!"

"As I suspected," Renamon said, coolly, as the shrieking shape leapt out at the two of them. The fox Digimon took a combat stance, but no sooner had she that the 8-legged shape suddenly yanked backwards like it was on a bungee cord.

"Kodokugumon," Ruki read off her digivice as the spider ducked out of sight. "Child level, Insect type, Virus attribute. Special attack is Poison Nails. Apparently it uses those gloves because it can't generate poison on its own, but it doesn't look like its going to attack."

Indeed, the spider Digimon had frantically buried itself under a pile of webbing and then gone completely still, peering out between strands of spider silk through some of its eyes.

"...I know you're in there," Ruki said after a couple of moments of silence, "I can still see you." The Kodokugumon shuddered in its nest and immediately yanked in several more gray strands to cover it completely. "That's not going to work, you're still there."

*Chitter Chitter* "Skree!"

Ruki glanced at Renamon. "It's afraid we're going to attack it," the fox provided.

"After it jumped out at us? Well whatever. We aren't looking to pick a fight, if we were it would be over already," Ruki said. Her words did nothing to calm the spider, which screeched and chattered from out of sight.

"Not at all, Soulmon struck at us first. It was only natural to respond in kind," said Renamon.

"Skreee!" *Chitter skritch skritch*

Renamon turned, "It says it and Soulmon were both told humans would run away if they feigned an attack."

"Most humans, sure," Ruki shrugged. "Not us. Not Digimon Tamers."

"Um, Ruki?" Akira tried to interject.

"I'm not going to hurt it," the Tamer said.

"But, I mean-" Ruki ignored him.

"Shreeeee!" the Kodokugumon made a string of clicking noises with its jaw. Ruki made a frustrated sound. She took a step forward and put a hand on Renamon's arm. The chittering continued.

"Perhaps. Who did you hear all of this from?" Renamon asked.

"Chreeek! Criiiii!"

"Hm, so not, the 'Sea King' then? Have you ever met him?"

"Cri! Cri-cri!"

"So no? Of course, that would be too easy," Ruki sounded annoyed, but not surprised. "So why are you living out here in an abandoned beach house instead of in a forest or something?"

*Chittt-chit-chit-chit!*

"I imagine it is, but one can see the sunset from anywhere."

"Scriii-" *chi, chi-iiiir...*

"Even so, an old human building is not what I would consider ideal for a Digimon like you."

"Kree! Kree kree~"

"That is unfortunate," Renamon said. "It is true that not all of us can say we travelled to the Real World by our own wills. But this is your answer?"

"Screee.... *Chit-it-chit!* "Chikitch?" the spider carefully peeked its head out of its web.

"So you're a shut-in," Ruki shrugged. "I mean, I know humans like that, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised there are Digimon like that, but you're really just gonna shut yourself away in here? You're happy with that?" When the Kodokugumon continued chirping she just shrugged again. "I guess. Look, if you want to live that way, okay. I get it... well okay I don't mean I GET IT get it, but I get wanting to do things your way, and I also know what it's like when your home gets messed up."

"Scri..."

Ruki just nodded.

"What are you going to do now?" Akira asked as Ruki turned took a step towards him.

"Leave," another step.

"And then what are you going to do?"

"You're going to take me to another Digimon."

"I mean, what are you going to do about Kodokugumon?"

"There's no reason to do anything," Ruki replied, "for now at least."

"For now?" Akira's screech was almost as loud as the Digimon.

"An agoraphobic Digimon is unlikely to be dangerous, but it's also unwise to be uncautious." Renamon provided.

"But it's, um," Akira said as Ruki strode past him. About two steps beyond him she stopped and looked back past him.

"I know you like this place, like you said it means a lot to you to have a place you can call home," Ruki called past Akira,"but don't get too comfortable, when you evolve you're going to need a bigger place to live. Trust me on this one, I know."

The spider screeched some more. Ruki turned her head the other way to look at her partner.

"It isn't sure it can trust you."

Ruki gave a sigh and rolled her eyes. "Can't say I didn't try."

"How do you know about what it's going to evolve into?" Akira was suddenly curious.

"We fought a grown up Dokugumon. And before you ask, we won." And that was that from the tamer.

The green eyed boy fumbled to find more words. His stammering ended with a yelp when Renamon suddenly grabbed him and his relative and leapt up into the air and out the back door.

Outside, deposited under the sunlight, Ruki once again turned her sharp gaze onto the boy. "Where to now?"

---

The Digimon and two humans had left the beach behind them when a black shape flowing across the sands slipped under the front door of the beach house. Like a shadow, it cast itself along the wall of the old building and flowed downward through the broken timbers of the floor. Unlike a shadow, when it came before the mass of webbing under the floorboards it folded itself upright and turned to face a pair of mismatched eyes at the spider's nest.

Kodokugumon chirped excitedly at the sight of its visitor.

"I see. It is good you were not hurt. Tell us what happened."

The insect Digimon hissed, chattered, and screeched. Its visitor listened intently.

"Understood. The Sea King knows. He will bear this in mind."

The black shape flattened itself out again, but stopped on the way out when Kodokugumon chittered haltingly. It paused.

"I am not sure. I do not know much of Digimon from the Nature Genome. It is possible, maybe even likely."

"Kree-ree?"

"No, there are very few Digimon like me. That's why I can help the Sea King like this."

The spider screeched worriedly.

"Not at all, whatever you evolve into I'm sure it will be a fine Digimon."

*chitter chit* "Scree?"

"I don't know, but I can ask around."

"Screee?"

"Of course. We would love to. As he says, everyone must have a place, or none will know peace."

Kodokugumon watched as the shadow climbed up through the rotten floorboards and out under the front door. Then it went back to feverishly reinforcing its webs.

---

And here we go again.

It's funny, my physical health has dramatically improved, and as a result my writing output has dropped distressingly. Swings and roundabouts I guess. I do want to update more often, but time is fake. C'es La Vie.

As can be determined by the title, this is a little over halfway through my initial outline of chapter 2, but that's not surprising to me anymore. I think I've made some degree of peace with the fact that the actual act of writing is going to pace differently from the initial sketch. That's just a fact of how I write, so whatever. Hopefully those of you who read this far feel like this chapter covered enough stuff. There's some setup happening, but goal here was to try and give more context for Ruki, put forward both her and Akira's perspectives on each other, and push the story a little bit forward to the next big plot turn.

A fun fact is that "Is It True You Can't Fly" was and is a real card from the original Digimon Card Game that the Tamers (roughly) played, and it was meta defining in the game's very early days. It's the reason why it was remade into the current Digimon Card Game, where it sees absolutely no play at all! Funny how that happens. Also shouts out to anyone who can recognize the cameo character I pulled in from a modern day classic anime, and anyone who recognizes the unnamed Digimon from the end there. And HUGE shouts out to anyone who gets ahead of the plot on this one, I was inspired by something recently that got me to reshuffle what's going on in the story and I'm very interested in anyone who sees the next chapters coming, (whenever they get here..).

Beyond that, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed and commented and left a kudos, Xavier Rail, Eternal Rain Spirit, NiftyGolifty, the color of television, siggy164, and all the rest of you. As always it means the world to me, and hopefully it won't take 14 months for another update! Fingers crossed!

To Be Continued