A Heroines Innocence
Chapter 1
Missing Tamers
Henry was lost in thought with Rika, a fiery red-headed friend walking beside him. About ten feet behind them was a young half Chinese half Japanese girl named Suzie Wong, who was playfully hopping and jumping with two small digimon with small horns and large ears.
Still, Henry's thoughts (for once) weren't on the little girl behind him. No, all of his worry was for a friend that they all knew and loved, the very core of the Tamers' Team. Takato Matsuki had gone missing two days before, and his parents had freaked. They had called the police, but the investigation had been taken over by Yamaki. Normally, a missing child wouldn't be something that a powerful government sponsored company would take, but then again, Takato wasn't someone you'd call normal. The rest of the Tamers had been given only a little information, about what was going on, that is to say, those who actually knew of Takato's disappearance. Which meant Rika and himself, and Suzie only because he told her.
That little bit was this. Takato was seen last night with Jeri buying packs of digimon cards from File Island, but that was it. He had been missing since, and so had Jeri. Sweet innocent little Jeri.
"Alright, is there any reason that Takato would go to the Digital World without telling us?" Rika asked out loud, very obviously frustrated. "I mean, think about it. The only reason they might not tell us is because they wanted to go get Jeri a new partner, but she doesn't want a new partner, and I don't think even Takato would be that much of a Gogglehead to go in there on his own." Rika said furiously, then rolled her eyes, "Then again, it is Gogglehead."
Henry's eyes kept to the pavement on which he was walking. "No. It's not."
"Then what other reason could it be? Renamon can't pick up Guilmon's location, and Takato's missing with Jeri?" Rika asked him in a overly vicious tone. "I swear if they eloped I am going to pound Goggleheads face in so far that even his mom won't be able to look at him."
Henry hardly paid attention to Rika, however, her comment clicked something off in his brain. "Rika, call Renamon."
"Did this sun get to your head or something, Brainiac?" Rika said snottily, "I told you before, Renamon is my digimon, not yours." She shot at him. Henry stopped walking, not caring about Rika's comment. She was scared for Takato and Jeri, and with no place to channel her fear, insults were her best emotion reliever, and personally, the way his thoughts were going, Henry was scared himself.
Suzie stopped jumping and hopping with Lopmon and Terriermon and walked up next to Henry and Rika. "Henwy? What's wong?"
"Suzie," Henry said harshly, "You are to never leave Rika's side." He glared at his little sister before she tried to protest.
"Hold up, Brainiac." Rika told him firmly, "First off, be lucky you have a little sister. Being the only child isn't all that its cracked up to be. Secondly, why me and what is going on through the neurons in your head?" she asked harshly, various emotions popping up in Rika at the same time.
Henry looked to Terriermon, Lopmon, Suzie and then to Rika. "Because you can protect her better then I can." Henry told her. He glanced back to Terriermon, "I think I've figured out what happened, I just need to sort a few facts out in my brain. Hey Terriermon, how good is that nose of your's?"
"Renamon can track better then that little Dog eared bunny." Rika told him quickly, her pride flaring up.
Henry nodded, "I know, but Renamon's a lot more useful for fighting humans."
"Humans?" Rika asked very seriously.
Henry nodded.
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Takato opened his eyes, only to quickly close them again. He shook his head and went to open them again, using his hands to cover the bright light shining on him. It wasn't as effective as he had hoped, but he could now sort of squint. Somethings wrong. Takato thought tiredly. He glanced at his hands, and was startled, they were both protecting his face, but they were bound together. It took Takato a minute to figure everything out in his brain. It wasn't a dream.
Takato took several minutes to get used to the light. He rolled out of the bed in the cell they had given him. It was fairly plain, but suitable. There was a single old bed with a bright light attached to it with no off switch. When he had asked about it, his guard had told him that it was to make the prisoner get a restless night sleep, and it had worked too. Takato walked over the small sink, and ran some water. He splashed it in his face to get some of the sleep out of his eyes. He dried his face off and glanced up at the clock. It was six-thirty at night. He had been forced to stay up all night while the people had run tests on Guilmon, that is to stay, the pain that wracked his body had kept him up all night.
At about eight-thirty in the morning, whatever they had been doing to Guilmon stopped, and tired and exhausted, Takato had slept for ten hours.
He had been thrown in his cell for about an hour before two men came in and interrogated him about Guilmon and his digivice. He hung his head pitifully thinking about that. He had caved in so easily. Still, he had been given decent meals and a livable area. Takato glanced up as the door opened. The two men from last night came in. One held a bag with McDonalds in it.
"I hope you like Big Macs." The shorter one said.
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Thirty Minutes earlier
The two men belonged to the Akuza, the Japanese Mafia. They were both high school friends and had grown up always hearing about their parents and the latest scam that they had run. At age 18, they were taken in by the Akuza and given a special assignment. To monitor Hypnos and all of its dealings. They had done so, gathering information about Digimon, watching and waiting. Learning everything they could. Then the D-Reaper struck, and all records in Hypnos were destroyed. They couldn't have asked for a better deal.
They continued to study the digimon and the Tamers, under the alias Youzan and Metsuo. The two walked out of McDonalds with the three bags in their hands, and hopped into their car. "Well?" Youzan asked, "What do you think?"
"Most of what the kid told us we already knew. Still, this idea of him creating a digimon disturbs me. I'm not sure what to make of it. It's the first time we've known anything about how the first three Tamers got their digimon." Metsuo replied, munching on some fries.
"I wonder... do you think that Renamon could be a created Digimon too?" Youzan asked.
Metsuo shook his head, "No. The Rika girl had Renamon long before Takato did, and Renamon is very much an older digimon. She doesn't have this baby like flare to her that Guilmon does. Still, I would like to know how she came about, we looked through all of Hypnos records and couldn't find another Digimon like her or Guilmon."
"Well, we have one mystery solved." Youzan told his partner, "I'm not sure how much more we can learn from the kid though. We have to come up with something though. The supervisors would just prefer us to kill him and have everything done with."
"You know as well as I that we can't do that." Metsuo said. "You saw the bond for yourself. The kid was in about as much pain as the digimon. We kill the kid and we may just kill the Digimon."
"Yeah, but how do you explain that to people who will just chalk it up to some sort of magic trick?" Youzan asked.
"We give the kid a purpose to still be around... and I may have just the thing." Metsuo explained his idea to his partner.
Youzan thought about it for a moment, before pulling into their hideout. "That will only last so long though. Once they know that the first time was a fluke accident."
"It'll buy us some time though, and the more we research the Digimon and kid, the higher the odds we find some physical proof of this bond."
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Takato munched on his fries. "Let me get this straight. You kidnap me, my friend and my digimon so you can use Guilmon as a weapon and expect me to make you another Digimon?"
Youzan smiled, "That's basically the idea. You give us another Digimon, we give you a drug that wipes your memory and we dump you on the street somewhere near your bakery. You'll be able to get on with your life without any memory of doing it. You'll be guilt free, kid."
Takato looked at his burger, then glanced back up to them. I really don't have a choice do I. If I say no, they'll torture me and I'll say yes anyways. Still, I don't know how I made Guilmon in the first place. This will at least buy me some time, especially if I do a really good job on the picture. "Alright, I'll do it. I'll need my hand though, paper and colored pencils." Takato told them, "and I get to see Jeri."
"The first two is no problem. The girl has already been injected with the Amnesia drug. So, at least get to know that she's safe." Takato sat back in his chair. At least Jeri was safe. That was good to know.
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Terriermon sniffed around the area of Guilmon's hiding spot. "Phew, I can't tell if that's Guilmon or a Numemon that's been around here."
Lopmon smacked him on the back of his head with her ear, "Be serious for once." She told him.
"Then you have the smell?" Henry asked.
Terriermon nodded, "Yep, I could smell him from a mile away now."
"That's the idea." Henry said.
"I don't know why we're bothering." Rika said shortly, "This is really just a stupid idea."
Henry glanced at her, "Rika... can I ask you a personal question?"
"What?"
"Are you going through a period? You've been really all over the place today." Henry's voice was caring, and it seemed to affect Rika. Her body tightened then relaxed.
"I... I... I'm worried Henry. It doesn't take your brain to figure out what's happened. With Hypnos not telling us what's going on the only logical conclusion is..." she let the sentence trail. "I don't know, I just feel as if I should've been there, I should have protected them. That night... Takato called me up and asked if I wanted to go with him and Jeri to check out the new cards. I.. I didn't want to feel like a third wheel, and now look what happened. I may never see him again..." Rika's voice trailed off softly, her eyes threatening to spill water.
"Don't cwy Wika." Henry's little sisters voice piped, "I don't think its your fault that Jerwi and Takato are gone." Rika glanced at Suzie who seemed to hold a slight smile on her face. "We'll see Takato and Jerwei again. You'll see. Henry and Wika will save them."
Rika glanced across Suzie in utter astonishment. How... how dare she... it wasn't her fault. She doesn't know what it's like to lose somebody. Her dad hasn't walked out on her, she hasn't been lonely her entire life with no one watching over her. Her mom didn't neglect her! She has no right to tell me to be so hopeful and cheerful because that's all she's ever known. Rika's brain raged.
Has she? Renamon's voice came to her. Rika shot a glare up at her partner who was calmly standing on a tree branch. Tell me, Rika. Why is it that Suzie always wants to be with Henry? Why does she whine and fuss and complain when he tries to send her away? Haven't you noticed Rika? Suzie's... different, she's always thinking of something else then what people expect her too. Her speech impediment probably hasn't helped either. Tell me, when was the last time she spoke of her human friends?Why does she always want to hang around with you guys instead of her friends at her age.
Renamon's words startled Rika. It took a minute, but a small smile crept to her lips, "Funny, Takato always told me he thought it was funny that the two most powerful crests would go to the youngest Destined."
Henry understood her words, "Wise beyond their years."
Suzie looked at the strangely. "I'm confuwsed." she complained.
"Oh, Suzie." Lopmon muttered as she face palmed.
"Well, shall we go?" Henry asked.
"Yeah, Gogglehead needs to learn we can't bail him out every time, but I'll give him an extenuating circumstance this time around." Rika smirked. "Still we need to hurry. I'm not sure if Takato will survive long. He's always been the weakest physically among us."
Henry glanced at her, "I don't know about that." he told her.
"What do you mean?" Suzie asked, "Even I can westle him down."
"Well, think about each of our individual bonds with our digimon. As our digimon get hurt, so do we, and yet..." Henry left off.
"We can still manage to pull off card slashes when are arms feel like their broken." Rika muttered.
Henry nodded, "Yeah. I'm going out on a limb here, but I think our digimon bonds have changed us so we can withstand the same kind of a beating as our digimon."
"I don't understand why that would make Takato the strongest out of all of us though." Rika told him. "I mean, until Guilmon goes feral, he hates pain just about as much as Takato. They'll do everything they can so they don't have to endure it."
"That is true... but here's another idea." Henry glanced at his sister, then back to Rika. "You and me have had our digimon for the longest, and yet Takato always seems to be one step ahead of us when it comes to using the Digital Bond. He was the first to increase WarGrowlmon's movements with his own body, and yet he was the last to Digivolve to Champion."
"I don't follow you." Rika said.
"What I'm saying is this. Me and Terriermon have a really good bond, so lets say that I take 70% of the damage Terriermon does." Rika nodded, showing that she was following him. "You and Renamon have had the same time to develop a bond... but that Mental connection has allowed you to know each other to a degree that Terriermon and I will never reach. So you take 85% of the Damage."
"But Takato cweated Guilmon. So he would have the strongest bond." Suzie said, glad that she was understanding what Henry was saying.
Rika thought for a moment, "So these bonds... give us a superhuman endurance, and Takato has the strongest bond."
Henry nodded, "It's just a theory, and not one I'd be willing to test out purposefully, but this seems just like the right time to get a look at how far a Tamer's body can go."
"Well then, lets hope that we can get to Gogglehead before we find out that limit." Rika said. Henry agreed and the group started to walk towards the card shop so that Terriermon could find Guilmon's scent. Suzie stopped for a moment.
"Wait." She said, running back up to Guilmon's hideout. She scooped up some dirt and placed it into a plastic bag in her purse. She ran back down and showed everyone it, "This way we don't have to come back fow Tewriermon to get the scent."
Henry smiled down at his sister. "Good thinking Suzie. But don't forget what I said."
Suzie nodded. "Always stay by Wika's side. I know Henwy."