petals rain on the black and red wings
Chapter 3

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Ruri wakes up and it's an unfamiliar place and far too white. There's barely any colour to be seen except her hair tumbling down her shoulders. Even her skin is far more pale than is normal for her and she's plenty pale as it is. And her clothes are nowhere she can see.

She panics, at first, before she realises the fog that wraps around her shields her modesty as well. If she can see no-one through the white, then they can't see her as well. But now that she's realised that, she also realises she's in a far more enclosed place than she'd initially thought. It only takes a bit of crawling and feeling about (and, really, that's all that she can manage because she's still trembling badly even though she's not cold and can barely move at all). It's a cylinder of some sort.

Her nightmares have certainly taken a turn for the strange if she wakes up in a cylinder.

.

The Professor is watching his latest subject. She's up now but still groggy, and confused, and she can't blame all the confusion on the concoction she's sniffed either. He wonders if she's realised, yet. Floramon's pollens can be quite noticeable if one knows where to look… But then most of the evidence will have been on her clothes and she doesn't need them right now. They'll only be in the way as he collects more data and works on his next move.

He already has an idea. He doesn't do anything without being fairly confident it will succeed because working on ideas that are sure to fail is just a waste: waste of resources and a waste of time as well. Some people enjoy splurging on those wastes. People like Yuuri are useful because of it, and people like Dennis who do more than simply tolerate it. And he needs people like that because he won't do it all himself.

Or he needs people like that now. Not forever.

He won't be playing with devil arts forever, either.

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Shun finds nothing. They've headed north and they've been on their feet (or wings, in Falcomon's case) until his calves are screaming and Falcomon is hopping from tree to tree instead of gliding past. They should stop soon. He knows they should stop soon but the part of him that's screaming Ruri is in danger and needs him won't let him do that.

It's foolish but love and worry make people do stupid things and he knows this. He knows it very well and yet he goes and does the exact same thing again.

But when he really can't walk anymore, he sits down on a rock and Falcomon leans against it and closes his eyes, and they remember they've left Yuuto and Monodramon behind. Asleep. Without a watch, without any protection.

Yuuto… You should know better than to trust me. Again.

Still, he hopes nothing's happened – even if it is too little, too late. They don't own cellphones or anything fancy like that. They've always meant to save up for when they go their separate ways but it's a mix of practicality and the lack of desire to actually split apart –

But then something happens and they do split apart. And wind up all alone again.

He can only hope nothing happens to Yuuto and Monodramon before they wake up and realise they've been left alone. And he can only hope that Hawkmon is with Ruri, and that they're safe, wherever they are.

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Hawkmon isn't with Ruri. It's the first thing she realises when she wakes up. Ruri isn't anywhere nearby at all, even after she calls: their special bird call when they're fighting, or sneaking about the forest trying to catch someone or something. Their special bird call that won't give their position away to their enemies if they're heard, but will to their allies.

But they're not in a forest and it isn't that effective now but she does it anyway, out of habit. And there's no reply.

Then again, she's trapped in glass and has no way of knowing if she can even be heard outside this prison of hers. She can barely see anything at all, with how the glass has frosted up with some sort of white fog or smoke. It's an odd sort of smoke as well: dense enough to make breathing a little more of a chore than it has to be but only if she concentrates, and human enough to be warm. She can't guess its purpose though. And she can't keep it away from her either, despite her wings. The enclosed space is too small –

And she can only do one thing then: try and break the glass. And then find Ruri and return to everyone else.

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Yuuri appears in the forest again. It's not necessary but purposeful anyway. Not only does the forest have meat-apples in it, but he can peak in on the two knights in shining armour and see what they're up to. Unless they've wandered completely off. But the meat apples come first, because Floramon can process them as they wait amidst the trees and they can eat before they're bored. And then leave when they are, because they're not really cut out for surveillance gigs.

Luckily, they don't have to be. There is someone in the glade. Only one of the two and it's not Kurosaki. It's the guy with the Monodramon instead. Yuuto with no family name. Standing exactly where Kurosaki Ruri and her Hawkmon had been when he'd nabbed them – and it was such a shame that Floramon isn't in position to take them out too. It would've been such a fun prank.

But there's another one he can play. 'Go ahead, Floramon,' he says, and watches her scamper out. 'Tease them a little, won't you?'

And he'll stay in the forest and watch and then scamper off because he wants to dangle a bit of carrot in front of them, and not the entire pie.

Otherwise it'll be over too quickly and good entertainment is hard to find.

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Yuuto and Monodramon stand in the centre of the gale: Ruri's favourite spot. There doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary at first but Monodramon is sniffing at the flowers and then he spots it. Powder scattered over the petals, but not from the flowers that grew there. Ruri knew the flowers best, of course, but Shun and Yuuto had been there plenty of times as well. None of the flowers in the gale had that orange pollen.

'It smells like a digimon,' says Monodramon.

'Does it now?' asks Yuuto, straightening up. The digimon were temperamental. Some loved the humans. Others hated them. Others still were indifferent and beyond that, there were groups with their agendas. Some structure to the world they were only slowly starting to pierce together. But if the digimon uses a powder based attack, they can at least narrow their scope. Only insect/plants do that, right? And it made sense, for a small one to be able to hide in the gale. He'd heard of the Palmon playing a prank on Sayaka but they'd been pretty harmless in the end – and had had the living daylights scared out of them by an angry Allen before the mess had been sorted out.

He scans the flowers. They look the same but he doesn't have a photographic memory of them. They sway gently – no, wait. His eyes narrow. They're not swaying at all. They're rustling, and a small patch of them at that. A small, moving patch.

He kneels and whispers to Monodramon. Monodramon grins. 'Tiny Tornado!'

His aim isn't quite spot on, but only because the Floramon panics and runs.

Yuuto runs after it and Monodramon after him, because it's definitely suspicious, too suspicious. Floramon is a digimon that can use powder based attacks and now it's lurking around in the gale and fleeing from them? And –

Into the forest. They were idiots to not think to search there as soon as they'd noticed Ruri wasn't anywhere in view nearby.

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The glass won't break. Hawkmon tries until she starts to bleed bits of data and then she has to stop because her desperation is simmering and slow and not enough to power her up to the next level. If she knew where Ruri is, it'd be different. If she knew Ruri is in danger, it'd be different. But she doesn't and Ruri's not here to lend her strength otherwise. Ruri's not here and she doesn't know where Ruri is, or what she's doing, or even what happened at all.

What did happen? They'd been in the gale and then… She couldn't move. And now she's sluggish and slow and maybe that's why the glass won't break, because she's not at full power again yet. Or maybe the glass won't break even then. She feels as though she's been pecking at it for hours but there's nothing. Not a dent. Not a crack. Not a bit of hope to tell her to keep on trying, to not sink to the bottom of her glass cage and wait.

She can only hope to regain her strength and wait. Wait for someone to come, or for the glass to crack. Wait for Ruri to come to her, or some news as to her whereabouts. Or for someone to just gloat. Because they'd been captured. That's for sure. And surely, whoever had captured them would come to gloat, whatever reason they had.

.

That's the question Shun asks himself, as he starts moving again. The only question he can ask himself because everything else slips away from him like water, or sweat rolling down his forehead and his chest and back. Why. Why Ruri and Hawkmon? They're not even the most dangerous of their group. If it's sheer power, it's Allen. If it's strategy, it's Kaito though Shun prides himself on being a close second. If it's rationality, it's Yuuto. If it's kindness… Well, he pegs Ruri for that but he's biased. The more objective view might be a three-way tie between Ruri, Sayaka and Yuuto, but at least he knows Yuuto can have his back in a fight.

It's not that he doesn't trust his little sister. He just never wants her in a situation where she needs to protect his back because that's his job: to protect her.

And he's failed, miserably. And he doesn't even know how, or by whom, or why.

He doesn't know anything. Not a thing at all.