Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digital Awakenings ❯ Tainted Hunter ( Chapter 10 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 10:Tainted Hunter

Ken looked over the city of New York with dismay. Most of the city had not been seriously harmed
in the attack, but there was still a lot of it that was destroyed. The ashen remains of
skyscrapers leaned over precariously, looking like they might finally give up and collapse soon.
But he was not hear to ponder New York's fate. He was here to do a job.

It was really quite an unusual series of events that brought Ken to this path--that of an
assassin. He had been sent to a prestigious school in America when he was fourteen, based on his
excellence at all he pursued--both mental and physical--in his native Japan. Once at the school,
his performance was not as spectacular, as the whole school was filled with Ken Ichijoujis from
around the world. He got on the school soccer team, and got in the top 10 for some math tests,
but other than that was average. And that had driven him nuts.

Ken quit the school at eighteen, when he was legally allowed to, and headed to New York to eke
out a living. He managed to make a decent living as a clerk, but it wasn't satisfying. And
then, somehow, he had acquired a debt to a local gang and was forced to come with them on one of
their "operations."

Things had gone wrong, and Ken had killed a man. But strangely, as relived the moment in his
head over and over again, he found that he had enjoyed it. A couple months later, they offered
to pay him to off a rival gang's leader, and he succeeded admirably... and everything had pretty
much gone from there.

Which is what brought him to today, taking a hit on a second-tier fashion designer. It wasn't
something he'd usually do, but when the demonic lord of your city comes to you, you don't turn
him down. Ken wondered why Daemon had chosen him, and her as the target, but those were
questions he knew wouldn't be answered.

Ken flattened himself against the grass, keeping one hand on his gun holster just for
reassurance, as he infiltrated the home of Mimi Tachikawa.

* * *

I shouldn't be doing my hair right now, thought Mimi as she scrubbed some more of the dye into
her hair. I should be out saving the world again, or at least helping. But she knew that even
if she had Palmon again, she would be no match for Daemon, and since the phone lines were cut in
the attack she wasn't able to reach the others in Japan.

Mimi finished up with her dye job, and wrapped a towel around her head. Her hair was like a
personal billboard:she often used it to express herself, or get a message herself. In wake of
the recent attacks, she had died it an almost flesh like peach colour, with crimson
streaks--almost like bleeding flesh. Not that pretty, but a statement none the less.

Since moving to America shortly after her adventure in the Digital World, Mimi had taken up the
illustrious career of fashion design. She wasn't a big name, but she made decent money--enough
to afford a two-story home in New York, which she was usually alone in.

All of a sudden, Mimi was overtaken by an urge to help--if not to solve the problems, at least to
help somebody, one life would be all it would take... Maybe if they all worked together...

Mimi was brought out of her reverie when she noticed a bullet speeding at her. Gasping, she
stumbled back, and it managed to only clip her shoulder. Ken, opposite her, cursed and brought
his gun to bear once more before she could do or say anything.

"Poison Ivy!" A long, vine like tendril snapped out of apparently nowhere and wrapped around
Ken's hand. The shock caused him to jerk, and his shot hit only the roof.

Mimi gasped-- Palmon, her Digimon partner of twenty-five years prior, was now standing in the
hallway between the her and her attacker, looking very irate. Her vines were wrapped around the
assassin's gun hand, and the others were drawn back as if ready to attack. "Don't mess with
Mimi, okay buddy?"

*What is this thing?* Ken wondered. Then he again remembered that it was not his business to ask
questions. He lunged to the side, taking advantage of his sly strength to break out of Palmon's
grapple, and shot at the green monster again.

However, Palmon had already used her hold on Ken's arm to thrust herself into the air at the
black-haired assassin, letting out a battle cry. The bullet missed again, hitting the ground as
she slammed into the right side of Ken's chest and bit down into his shirt.

"Gah! cried Ken, waving his gun and pointing it straight at Mimi. "Let go of me, you freak, or
I'll kill the girl!" However, this only made Palmon even more angry. She released her pollen
straight at Ken, who stumbled. He fired repeatedly, but all his shots missed and instead took
a good chunk out of Mimi's walls.

Out of bullets, and with Palmon's tendrils wrapped around both of his arms, Ken had no choice but
to surrender. He kneeled down uncomfortably. *Damnit...I screwed up.*

* * *

Jou held his head in his hands, more than a bit miserable. The four assembled DigiDestined
seemed to have given up on strategy. Now dusk was setting over Tokyo, Sora and Tai were playing
with/consoling their kids, Yamato was brooding, and Daisuke was watching TV while
muttering angrily about Kari. They were no closer to forming a plan than they had been this
morning.

A ringing distracted Jou from his thoughts. He absentmindedly dug into his pocket and pulled out
its source--his top-of-the-line PDA. *Who would be messaging me now?* However, when he read the
message's tag line, he was immediately shocked.

"Sora, Tai, Matt!" called Jou urgently. Daisuke looked over, but decided it wasn't worth the
effort. "It's from Gennai!"

"Really?" said Agumon hopefully. "What's he got to say?"

"Let's see," replied Jou as he opened the message. To his surprise, it wasn't an animated
graphic but a text message with an attachment.

Jou,

Just thought that with everything that's going on, this little program would be useful.
It's a digital gate, though I'm not quite sure how it'll work if you try to run it on
a machine this small... knew I wouldn't get you at home. This is the last I can do for
you, it's up to you kids now!

-Gennai

"Last I can do for you..." frowned Taichi, his intuition telling him that something wasn't right.
"What's that mean?"

"I don't know, maybe it's some sort of prophecy," guessed Yamato. "But in any case, we have a
portal now, right? That's one problem solved, at least."

Jou nodded. "But Gennai said we should run it on a more powerful computer... Daisuke, do you
have a computer here?'

"Of course," replied the spiky-haired young man. "It's in the bedroom. I only use it for por--
er, games." He had corrected his sentence at the last minute as he noticed that there were
minors nearby.

The group quickly dispersed to Daisuke's cramped bedroom. Jou had transferred the program from
his PDA to the computer (a few years old, but still useful) with ease, and ran it. After a tense
few seconds, it came up. The Digital Gate program was a single window with settings that allowed
you to alter your destination and the visitors. An image showed the destination in real time.

"Where should we go?" asked Sora.

"I think the default setting," said Gabumon. "Maybe the old man set it to where we should go
naturally."

"Good idea," said Jou. "All right, are we ready to go now?"

"Basically," said Taichi. "I mean, we don't have much of our stuff with us, and less of it that
would be of any use. Daisuke, look after Nick and Anzu while we're gone."

"No way," said Daisuke defiantly. "I'm coming with you. I want to look for Kari."

"That's nice," said Sora testily. "But it's tough in the digital world, and we need someone to
look after the kids. I'm sorry, Daisuke but you'll have to stay behind."

"No!" yelled Daisuke.

"Yes!" insisted Sora.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!

Sora began to argue back, but ended it prematurely with a sigh. They were wasting time here, and
Daisuke didn't look like he was going to budge. "All right, have it your way. Me and Biyomon
will stay here and look after the kids."

"Wha?" replied Daisuke, expecting to be arguing for at least another ten minutes.

"You don't have to--" began Taichi.

"Save it," said Sora curtly. "Biyomon can go Mega now, so I'll at least be of some use if any
evil Digimon try to attack. Besides, Nick and Anzu need someone better to look after them than
this deadbeat."

"Hey!" Daisuke protested, but decided not to push his luck.

Sora left the room, heading into the living room where the TV was still blaring. Taichi quickly
followed her, while the others decided not to pry. The leader of the DigiDestined rested a hand
on his wife's shoulder, stopping her. "Sora... are you sure?"

The red-haired woman paused for a moment, and turned to face Taichi. "Yes. I...can't leave them
behind."

Tai nodded, remorsefully. Sora's strong maternal instincts were not something he would have
expected long ago, but it made sense considering her crest and her strong feelings in general.
"I understand."

Sora hugged her husband one last time, feeling the comforting warmth of his body. "Tai... this
is all so terrible..."

"I know," said Taichi distantly. "But we'll pull through, Sora. We always have."

"All right," said Sora shakily, breaking away. She dried her watery eyes with her sleeve.
"You had better get going."

"Yeah," said Taichi reluctantly. Spontaneously, he hugged his wife fiercely, then released her.
"See you in a little while, okay Sora?"

"I'll count on it," she said determinedly.

* * *

Ken was still in the same position as he had been in an hour ago, although his hands were bound
with silken rope instead of Palmon's vines now. He was disarmed and facing a virtual inquisition
from his target and her mysterious guardian.

"I'm telling you," Ken snapped, "I don't know why! All I know is that Daemon asked me to kill
you and he's one person I'm not going to argue with."

"Hmph," remarked Mimi. "So you don't have the spine? You'll just stick to killing defenceless
women, Mr. Ichijoji?"

"It's not--" Ken hissed, before changing his mind. "I don't have to justify myself to you."

"Whatever," said Mimi. "Well, we'll just have to keep you here until there are some authorities.
Who knows, maybe me and Palmon will bust out later on. Right now, I have business to do.
Palmon, watch over him so that he doesn't escape, m'kay?"

"Right," said an obedient Palmon.

"Oh," Ken said to Mimi as she hurried up the small flight of stairs. "By the way, your hair
looks ugly."

"Thank you," Mimi shot back.

There was some movement upstairs, but then it calmed down. There was the vague sound of
something burning nearby, but other than that everything else was quiet. Palmon sat on the faux
leather couch, watching Ken from a higher vantage point. She stared, unmoving, in her quiet
vigil, occasionally baring what passed for claws.

Eventually, Mimi's voice came from upstairs again. "Palmon, get ready. We're going back to the
Digital World."

------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---

Author's Notes:

Chapter 10! It's kind of a landmark! Personally, I'm surprised that this story is still going.
I tend to have a history of starting impossibly large projects and then abandoning them. But
hopefully this (and some of the other fics I'm writing) will break the trend.

As for this chapter, it sees the introduction of Ken and Mimi, leaving Iori as the only
Digidestined yet to be included. I think Ken is probably my most drastic adjustment
personality-wise, because so much of his personality was shaped by the events of and preceding
02. Of course, TK and Izzy are very much changed as well... the AU in this fic pretty much only
affects characterization (the plot is completely different from the replaced season's), as the
characters are aged 21 years older than we've seen them in canon.

And that's just about it for this chapter. I think I'm going to work on some Shaman King things
for a little bit before returning to Digimon--but don't fret! If all goes smoothly, the next
chapter will be posted at least before the end of the year! *inches along*