Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digital Heart ❯ A Plan ( Chapter 3 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]
“I don’t think we’ve got enough information to decide if she’s actually one of the bad guys,” Yolei stated boldly. “Sylvie doesn’t seem that bad!”
“Yeah, I agree with Yolei!” Davis declared. “Sylvie seems like a perfectly nice girl who is interested in soccer and would probably love to go watch one of my games!”
“Aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself?” TK started. “I mean, I guess I can agree with the first two statements, but nothing she said or did gave me the impression she wants to watch you play.”
“I’m not saying I think she’s a bad person,” Kari said pointedly, trying to drag the conversation back to its original thread. “I just think that, until we get to know more about her, we should be careful.”
“I agree with Kari,” Cody stated. “Sylvie may be a good person, but she’s done and said very little to indicate we should trust her.”
“Well, she distracted the Digimon Emperor for us while we were fighting,” Davis said irritably. “I bet that was deliberate.”
Yolei’s tone turned conspiratorial. “But maybe it was part of an elaborate plan to get us to trust her. Maybe she’s really working for Ken and he’s trying to get a spy in among our ranks.”
Davis sighed in exasperation. “Just whose side are you on?!”
“Oh, right, sorry. Got distracted. I think she’s way more honest than that!”
TK and Kari looked at each other, and both got up and left the computer lab to talk in the hallway in peace.
“What do you think?” Kari asked. “Do you really think we should trust her?”
“I think we need more information first,” TK stated. “I don’t want to doubt her, but we counted Ken as a good person, and we know how that turned out.”
Kari nodded. “How do you propose we find out more without a full interrogation?”
“That’s what I’m not sure of.” TK sighed, leaning against the wall and resting his head on his chin as he thought. “We need to figure out some way of getting her to talk openly without adding any pressure or raising suspicion.”
Gatomon peaked around the door before walking into the hall, looking a little disgusted. “They eat like little Pigmon in there. What are you two talking about?”
“Sylvie.” Kari picked up the cat Digimon and started scratching her under the chin. “What do you think?”
“Whatever you want, as long as you don’t stop scratchin‘…”
“Gatomon…”
Gatomon forced an eye open. “Well, she seemed to get along with Davis all right, which means either she’s really good at charity work or is honestly interested by him. If you want more information, send Davis and Veemon.”
TK snapped his fingers. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?”
“No feline intuition?”
“Davis wanted to play some soccer with Sylvie anyway; if we send him in under that pretense, we’re bound to get some sort of information!”
Kari smiled and nodded in agreement. “Wanna tell him what to do?”
TK’s eyebrow twitched. “You know, maybe it’s better if you do it. He’ll actually listen to you.”
Kari laughed. “Good point. Hey, Davis!”
Davis turned at the sound of his name and bounded over in a way that reminded Kari of a puppy. “Yeah? Finally ready to take me up on that date?”
“Actually, it’s about Sylvie.”
Kari had to bite her tongue to avoid laughing out loud at the visible internal conflict Davis suffered at the name. She didn’t need her sixth sense to know how much trouble the new female influence was giving him.
“I promise, Kari, I wouldn’t blow you off for anyone else!” Davis rushed. “I don’t even know her, but I’ve been going to school with you for years!”
“Don’t worry, Davis,” Kari hushed, “I’m not concerned about that. Actually, I was wondering if you’d like an opportunity to get to know her better.”
His expression shifted from glee to reconsideration to feigning disinterest in 2.3 seconds.
“Maybe. What for?”
“Well, none of us know her very well, and it’d seem really mean if we all ganged up and started asking questions. Since she seemed to take to you the easiest, we thought it’d be good for you to go talk to her.”
“She took to me? I mean, Yeah, that’s cool, I can do that for you. What did you want to know?”
“Well, if you could delicately see if she’ll tell you about what she’s been doing in the Digital World, that would be useful, Or why she doesn’t like Gennai. Other than that, maybe ask her what her favorite ice cream is or something? Whatever questions you want to know.”
“All right!” He said, punching his hand. “I’ve got a mission. Oh! And I can bring my soccer ball, too! Hey Veemon, guess what!” Davis ran back into the room, gleeful for his trip, excitedly relaying his now very important mission to Yolei and Cody.
“That went surprisingly well,” commented TK. “He didn’t even notice me.”
Kari winked. “That’s the power of distraction.”
“I’d call you manipulative, but I wanted him to do it, too,” he said, laughing. “Now that that’s over, do you wanna come over for dinner tonight? Mom’s making meatloaf.”
“So is my mom. So yeah, I’ll eat at your house tonight. I’ll just call home from there, okay?”
“Fine by me,” he agreed, and the two headed home.
*
In the Digital World, Sylvie and Monmon sat in the branches of a high tree, eating digital munchies out of a to-go bag.
“Who’d have thought Digitamamon would start offering Crab Rangoon?” Sylvie said happily around a bite of said food. “I can’t get enough of this!”
“And free samples, too!” Monmon jubilated. “And he was so pleased with our reactions, he took half off of our meal!”
“I know, can you believe it?” Sylvie cried. “I don’t think I’ve ever eaten this well!”
The two lapsed into silence as they finished their meal. Monmon took their paper bag-- now filled with the garbage left over-- and fired it from his sling shot over the tree tops, watching it disappear into the distance.
“You shouldn’t litter,” Sylvie told him.
“I probably hit a Garbagemon, he won’t notice. Sylvie?”
“Yeah?”
“I think you really should go to the Real World some time. You should at least go see Jimmy and see how he’s doing.”
Sylvie sighed. “I know. I felt really bad, not getting on that street car with them, only because of that look on his face. He looked like his heart was breaking.” Sylvie struggled not to let the memory get to her, biting back tears. “You know, I don’t really get upset about much, but when I think of Jimmy looking at me like that, I feel like the worst person in the world.”
“I’m sorry, Sly. You shouldn’t feel like that.”
“I absolutely should,” she insisted, and she hurriedly brushed away a tear that escaped. “Jimmy was such a sweet kid, he didn’t deserve to be abandoned like that.”
“Sly, you didn’t abandon him. You chose to stay behind and sent him back to his family. That’s not abandonment.”
“It’s what it felt like.”
Monmon sighed. This was an old argument, one that the pair of them had been through a million times at least, but it never resolved anything. Sylvie still felt like she had committed a great disloyalty, and-- as far as Monmon could tell-- would continue to feel that way until she saw Jimmy and the others again.
“They’re all going to be so much older.” Monmon looked at Sylvie; This was a new challenge, one he hadn’t given much thought to. “I’ve been stuck at 14 for the last 8 years,” she continued. “Jimmy was the youngest, and now he’s 19. Everyone else is in their twenties already.” Tears were flowing freely down Sylvie’s cheeks. “I’m completely unjustified, but now I feel abandoned.”
Monmon hopped from his branch to land on Sylvie’s lap. She looked at him and started giggling despite her tears. “Frog eyes.” Then she pulled him into a hug, because she didn’t want him watching her while she cried.
“Sylvie, if you don’t go and see any of them, they’ll just keep getting older and you’ll keep staying the same.”
Sylvie’s chest heaved in a sigh. “I know,” she said heavily. “It’s still kind of scary, though.” More softly, she added, “I don’t even remember anything about the real world. I never really did.”