The next year, a bus hit and killed Takato while he was riding his bike to
school. It was humorous in a way, no Digimon no matter how powerful could
kill him and yet something as simple as a bus did. He was buried quickly
atop an office building, a marble headstone, flowers and a Terminal left to
mark where he'd been laid.
Guilmon eventually wandered into the Digital World. They offered to give him a home, but he swore that Takato was simply playing a game of hide and seek there. After a month of no contact, they assumed that he had been deleted or was someplace where he was happier than on Earth.
With the two concreting members of the Tamers gone, the group began to slip apart. Kenta's parents, the over protective people that they were, moved him to America to be away from the monsters. Everyone assumed he'd smuggled MarineAngemon in his pocket, just like the old days.
Juri became a gothic, complete with black dress and makeup. But it was over Takato, and the D-Reaper was nowhere in sight, so they assumed everything was all right. They would just watch.
Jenrya joined a regional team for karate, moving farther into the country to train, someplace. He called every once and a while, but he never told anyone where he was. He said it screwed up his concentration or something of the sort. He'd taken Terriermon and Suzie with him.
Ryo, well, no one really knew what happened to him. He left the park one day with a headache and never came back. A few claimed he'd left for the Digiworld again. It was later discovered that his father had been stationed in China, taking his son with him. Ryo never called, no one knew whether he wasn't allowed to or he simply didn't want to. Either way, he lost contact.
The Tamers Ai and Matoko, well, they'd never really joined. Sure, they'd been introduced, but they'd never come again. No one missed them, no one knew to.
The group had fallen, leaving Ruki in Tokyo to her studies and Renamon.
Hirokazu still hadn't come back. His parents, well, they disappeared. Kenta had gone the next day and their house had been emptied rather hurriedly. There were many of Hirokazu's possessions left. Only weeks later, the home caught fire and went up in a gigantic blaze of flame and ash roughly thirty feet tall. It took hours to calm the inferno. The fire department claimed it was an electrical fire, nothing more than routine. They turned their backs when a man ran out of the area, a can of gasoline under his arm and a box of matches falling out of his pocket. Mrs. Asagi refused to speak of the incident, and all traces of Shiota Hirokazu were wiped from the records. Files were shredded in record time; they didn't have many on him to begin with. With that done, they never allowed anyone to speak his name. He wasn't a human, he never was, he was only a curse word.
Thus, ten years passed. Ruki finished school early to take a government job as close to the Digiworld as she could while the portal was still closed.
She was simply an apprentice to the doctors when she was assigned to her first project.
***
"Now Ms. Makino," Dr. Kumigi told her, turning his gaze lightly from his clipboard, "You do understand that you will be in this project alone? You won't be allowed to ask for assistance unless he lashes out physically."
"Yes sir," She nodded mechanically, keeping her eyes on the metal floor that passed beneath her feet. Its silver coating glistened in the artificial light, staying just before her feet before swooping under them to be replaced by another shine. It always happened this way when they walked down the hallway of the experiments.
"And, then, your Digimon," the Doctor said firmly, clutching the clipboard to his chest and turning around. Ruki looked up.
"My Digimon, sir?" She asked, giving Renamon a sideward glance. The fox paid her little if any mind, choosing to focus her attention on one of the doors to an experiment's cell.
"You'll have to control her, Ms. Makino. We can't have her breaking any of them out before we can learn anything about them, now can we?" He asked matter-of-factly. Ruki was stunned.
"Sir, with all due respect, she has never caused any trouble here," Ruki told him, keeping her eyes on the floor as she stepped between the doctor and her partner. Renamon looked over with faint interest, she'd heard these arguments before.
"Ms. Makino, are you telling me that you are so experienced in this field that you could recognize if a Digimon is a threat to the progress of an experiment or not?" He snapped. She shook her head.
"No sir, I apologize. I'll keep an eye on her," Ruki muttered, her eyes still on the floor. The doctor looked pleased at the obedience.
"Well then, I'll show you to your subject," The doctor smiled, continuing to walk down the seemingly endless hall. "He was captured ten years ago, but our agents have reason to believe he'd been here much longer than that," he went on.
"What is he, sir?" Ruki asked, quickening her pace to keep up.
"One of the creatures assigned to guard the border between the real and Digital world. There are quite a few of them; we were lucky he escaped so that we could study them. They're clever little bastards," he smirked as if he'd been the soul reason that the guard had been captured. "He's a rare capture, you'll have to be careful with him. We can't afford to loose him if there's no grantee of another one coming along." The doctor stopped in front of cell number 19276. The light was streaming from the single window of unbreakable glass, as it always did. They wanted their experiments under surveillance twenty-four hours a day. She peeked in the window, but saw nothing.
"Does he have a name, sir?" She asked, "I don't think he would appreciate me going in and calling him 19276." She peered further in, but could see no more. He must have been sitting against the door.
"He's been tamed into that name, Ms. Makino, and that is what you shall call him," The doctor told her firmly. "I'll leave you to your work." He turned on his heel and headed down the hallway. In a second, he had disappeared down the twisting of the passage.
"I guess there's nothing left to do but go in," she shrugged, knocking upon the metal door. She heard scurrying inside, waiting for it to silence before she pushed open the cell's heavy blockade.
"So, now I'm just something to test their children?" 19276 asked, looking over her with unforgiving gray eyes. He stroked a smaller Digimon, which he clutched to his chest possessively, to stop it's whimpering.
"That's not what I'm here for," she assured him, letting Renamon enter before she shut the door.
"Liar. Just like the others," he sighed, curling his bare legs up to enclose the small Digimon. "Just get out of here."
"I can't just leave," she protested.
"That's what the door's for."
She ran her hands through her hair. Renamon stepped between the two of them.
"You aren't going to get rid of me that easily," she told him firmly. He stood, leaving the Digimon on the ground. He was only a boy of thirteen, scrawny yet firm as he stood upon wiry legs. He'd been stripped of all clothing except which kept him decent, his thin body showing the black and blue welts coming from years of heavy abuse. His shaggy hair hung down to his stomach, allowing him only to peek through the greasy bangs.
Yet, he looked like he could take care of himself, that she couldn't stand in his way no matter how hard she told herself she could.
"He's only an experiment," she told herself in her head. "Completely controlled. He's nothing more than that."
"What part of get out aren't you understanding?" 19276 snarled, clenching his fists.
"I can't leave you," she said, sitting down on the worn cot and crossing her legs.
"Why not?" He snapped.
"Because you're my job," she told him. He narrowed his eyes.
"That's all I am anymore, isn't it; someone's damn job," he let out a frustrated sigh. "You can't see through anything anymore." He crossed his arms and turned away from her. "Just leave."
"I can't. I have a…" she began.
"A job, I know," he said, interrupting her, "You and the millions of others they've dragged through here."
Her mouth drawn into a firm line she left the room. Renamon trailed out quickly before the door was shut with a heavy thud. 19276 watched her from the window, not finding any joy in her leaving. He never did. Another would be there soon.
She'd pressed the button.
***
"That was him, wasn't it?" Ruki asked as she made her way down the hall. Renamon walked behind her, her eyes fixed on the ceiling.
"If by him you mean Hirokazu, then yes, it was," she said softly.
"What happened to him? He's so…young," she shuttered, clutching her shoulders, "It's been years."
"He's like me. He evolves, he doesn't grow," she explained lightly. "And with a Digimon like him, he has to have permission to go up higher. After getting captured, I guess he isn't in their favor any more."
"Ms. Makino, did you have trouble?" The doctor asked, two men standing beside him, punishers in their hands, charged and ready to go.
"Not…not that much trouble," she said softly. But the two men were already half way down the hall, running at full speed. The punishers glowed with blue electricity, humming loudly. Inside the cells, she could hear the experiments cringe.
"Sir, this isn't necessary," Ruki protested. The doctor led her back to the laboratory, the clipboard tapping in his hand.
"It's always necessary with creatures like him," The doctor told her, with a smirk. "It's the only way they learn. One day, you will two, Ms. Makino. One day, you will two."
Guilmon eventually wandered into the Digital World. They offered to give him a home, but he swore that Takato was simply playing a game of hide and seek there. After a month of no contact, they assumed that he had been deleted or was someplace where he was happier than on Earth.
With the two concreting members of the Tamers gone, the group began to slip apart. Kenta's parents, the over protective people that they were, moved him to America to be away from the monsters. Everyone assumed he'd smuggled MarineAngemon in his pocket, just like the old days.
Juri became a gothic, complete with black dress and makeup. But it was over Takato, and the D-Reaper was nowhere in sight, so they assumed everything was all right. They would just watch.
Jenrya joined a regional team for karate, moving farther into the country to train, someplace. He called every once and a while, but he never told anyone where he was. He said it screwed up his concentration or something of the sort. He'd taken Terriermon and Suzie with him.
Ryo, well, no one really knew what happened to him. He left the park one day with a headache and never came back. A few claimed he'd left for the Digiworld again. It was later discovered that his father had been stationed in China, taking his son with him. Ryo never called, no one knew whether he wasn't allowed to or he simply didn't want to. Either way, he lost contact.
The Tamers Ai and Matoko, well, they'd never really joined. Sure, they'd been introduced, but they'd never come again. No one missed them, no one knew to.
The group had fallen, leaving Ruki in Tokyo to her studies and Renamon.
Hirokazu still hadn't come back. His parents, well, they disappeared. Kenta had gone the next day and their house had been emptied rather hurriedly. There were many of Hirokazu's possessions left. Only weeks later, the home caught fire and went up in a gigantic blaze of flame and ash roughly thirty feet tall. It took hours to calm the inferno. The fire department claimed it was an electrical fire, nothing more than routine. They turned their backs when a man ran out of the area, a can of gasoline under his arm and a box of matches falling out of his pocket. Mrs. Asagi refused to speak of the incident, and all traces of Shiota Hirokazu were wiped from the records. Files were shredded in record time; they didn't have many on him to begin with. With that done, they never allowed anyone to speak his name. He wasn't a human, he never was, he was only a curse word.
Thus, ten years passed. Ruki finished school early to take a government job as close to the Digiworld as she could while the portal was still closed.
She was simply an apprentice to the doctors when she was assigned to her first project.
***
"Now Ms. Makino," Dr. Kumigi told her, turning his gaze lightly from his clipboard, "You do understand that you will be in this project alone? You won't be allowed to ask for assistance unless he lashes out physically."
"Yes sir," She nodded mechanically, keeping her eyes on the metal floor that passed beneath her feet. Its silver coating glistened in the artificial light, staying just before her feet before swooping under them to be replaced by another shine. It always happened this way when they walked down the hallway of the experiments.
"And, then, your Digimon," the Doctor said firmly, clutching the clipboard to his chest and turning around. Ruki looked up.
"My Digimon, sir?" She asked, giving Renamon a sideward glance. The fox paid her little if any mind, choosing to focus her attention on one of the doors to an experiment's cell.
"You'll have to control her, Ms. Makino. We can't have her breaking any of them out before we can learn anything about them, now can we?" He asked matter-of-factly. Ruki was stunned.
"Sir, with all due respect, she has never caused any trouble here," Ruki told him, keeping her eyes on the floor as she stepped between the doctor and her partner. Renamon looked over with faint interest, she'd heard these arguments before.
"Ms. Makino, are you telling me that you are so experienced in this field that you could recognize if a Digimon is a threat to the progress of an experiment or not?" He snapped. She shook her head.
"No sir, I apologize. I'll keep an eye on her," Ruki muttered, her eyes still on the floor. The doctor looked pleased at the obedience.
"Well then, I'll show you to your subject," The doctor smiled, continuing to walk down the seemingly endless hall. "He was captured ten years ago, but our agents have reason to believe he'd been here much longer than that," he went on.
"What is he, sir?" Ruki asked, quickening her pace to keep up.
"One of the creatures assigned to guard the border between the real and Digital world. There are quite a few of them; we were lucky he escaped so that we could study them. They're clever little bastards," he smirked as if he'd been the soul reason that the guard had been captured. "He's a rare capture, you'll have to be careful with him. We can't afford to loose him if there's no grantee of another one coming along." The doctor stopped in front of cell number 19276. The light was streaming from the single window of unbreakable glass, as it always did. They wanted their experiments under surveillance twenty-four hours a day. She peeked in the window, but saw nothing.
"Does he have a name, sir?" She asked, "I don't think he would appreciate me going in and calling him 19276." She peered further in, but could see no more. He must have been sitting against the door.
"He's been tamed into that name, Ms. Makino, and that is what you shall call him," The doctor told her firmly. "I'll leave you to your work." He turned on his heel and headed down the hallway. In a second, he had disappeared down the twisting of the passage.
"I guess there's nothing left to do but go in," she shrugged, knocking upon the metal door. She heard scurrying inside, waiting for it to silence before she pushed open the cell's heavy blockade.
"So, now I'm just something to test their children?" 19276 asked, looking over her with unforgiving gray eyes. He stroked a smaller Digimon, which he clutched to his chest possessively, to stop it's whimpering.
"That's not what I'm here for," she assured him, letting Renamon enter before she shut the door.
"Liar. Just like the others," he sighed, curling his bare legs up to enclose the small Digimon. "Just get out of here."
"I can't just leave," she protested.
"That's what the door's for."
She ran her hands through her hair. Renamon stepped between the two of them.
"You aren't going to get rid of me that easily," she told him firmly. He stood, leaving the Digimon on the ground. He was only a boy of thirteen, scrawny yet firm as he stood upon wiry legs. He'd been stripped of all clothing except which kept him decent, his thin body showing the black and blue welts coming from years of heavy abuse. His shaggy hair hung down to his stomach, allowing him only to peek through the greasy bangs.
Yet, he looked like he could take care of himself, that she couldn't stand in his way no matter how hard she told herself she could.
"He's only an experiment," she told herself in her head. "Completely controlled. He's nothing more than that."
"What part of get out aren't you understanding?" 19276 snarled, clenching his fists.
"I can't leave you," she said, sitting down on the worn cot and crossing her legs.
"Why not?" He snapped.
"Because you're my job," she told him. He narrowed his eyes.
"That's all I am anymore, isn't it; someone's damn job," he let out a frustrated sigh. "You can't see through anything anymore." He crossed his arms and turned away from her. "Just leave."
"I can't. I have a…" she began.
"A job, I know," he said, interrupting her, "You and the millions of others they've dragged through here."
Her mouth drawn into a firm line she left the room. Renamon trailed out quickly before the door was shut with a heavy thud. 19276 watched her from the window, not finding any joy in her leaving. He never did. Another would be there soon.
She'd pressed the button.
***
"That was him, wasn't it?" Ruki asked as she made her way down the hall. Renamon walked behind her, her eyes fixed on the ceiling.
"If by him you mean Hirokazu, then yes, it was," she said softly.
"What happened to him? He's so…young," she shuttered, clutching her shoulders, "It's been years."
"He's like me. He evolves, he doesn't grow," she explained lightly. "And with a Digimon like him, he has to have permission to go up higher. After getting captured, I guess he isn't in their favor any more."
"Ms. Makino, did you have trouble?" The doctor asked, two men standing beside him, punishers in their hands, charged and ready to go.
"Not…not that much trouble," she said softly. But the two men were already half way down the hall, running at full speed. The punishers glowed with blue electricity, humming loudly. Inside the cells, she could hear the experiments cringe.
"Sir, this isn't necessary," Ruki protested. The doctor led her back to the laboratory, the clipboard tapping in his hand.
"It's always necessary with creatures like him," The doctor told her, with a smirk. "It's the only way they learn. One day, you will two, Ms. Makino. One day, you will two."