Chapter I

"What do you think?"

Takeru eyed the apartment in a sort of mixture of curiosity and awe. It had only been a day since he came back from the hospital. But the night before had been filled with too much excitement for him to actually look around the new apartment that their parents had moved into after they got back together. His room was almost exactly like his old one, everything in its proper place with some new additions. It was much larger and had a great view of the city. Yamato's room was right across the hall and their parents at the end of the hallway.

The blond turned around to face his brother.

"It's nice," he remarked quietly. Quite frankly he still didn't believe where he was. His parents back together was surprise enough and everyone seemed so tense. It was like they were holding their breaths. But Takeru had enough of hospitals and he wasn't going back. Of course that meant he had to hold his tongue.

Yamato sighed and ran his hand nervously through his hair. He never remembered being this nervous before except maybe at his first show. This was Takeru, though. And yet he felt as if he were welcoming a stranger to their home.

"Well, um, I gotta get going. Sorry, I would like to spend some more time with you, but I promised my friends a while ago that-"

"It's all right," Takeru suddenly interjected. Yamato had always been a busy person. That much at least didn't change. And he really needed some time to himself to think. "Go, I'll be fine."

Yamato eyed Takeru suspiciously. "Are you sure…?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. Already it seemed that he wanted to be alone. He wasn't sure if that was good or not…especially since no one else was there with him.

The blond shot an exasperated look at his brother.

"Positive."

Yamato shrugged off his discomfort and grabbed his keys off the counter, walking towards the door. He opened it slowly and started heading out when he suddenly looked at Takeru again.

"I'll make it up to you later. Promise," he said. Takeru looked at him in surprise. His face suddenly broke into a smile.

"Sure," he murmured. Yamato grinned and closed the door, leaving both Takeru and the apartment alone.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

His eyes had been glued to the computer for nearly two hours. Frowning, he typed in more commands. He had never been much of a computer genius. Usually that was left to Koushirou…or Ken…or Miyako. Those names caused Takeru to glance away from the computer to the empty wall in front of him. How long had it been since he said the names of the others?? Time passed too quickly in his eyes. It was as if they never even knew each other. Well, in their eyes they never knew each other. But Takeru knew better. He was the only one who knew the truth. But the truth was too much for Yamato and his parents to grasp. And he barely even started to look for the others before his parents sent him away to some psychiatrist. Maybe he was going crazy during that period of his life, but they wouldn't believe him, not even Yamato, who was with him.

The worst came when the doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia. Takeru narrowed his eyes. He was never hallucinating at all. But the fact was that he was so angry with everyone for not believing him that he lashed out at everyone who tried to get near him. He even attacked Yamato when he tried to reason with him. Then he tried to escape from the hospital. It was then that the doctors suggested sending him to a psychiatric ward for better treatment. The only problem was that the ward was in the middle of a forest, far away from society.

His parents were reluctant at first but then he tried to escape again that night. Takeru grimaced. He should have never attempted escape for that stunt had convinced his parents to agree. A week later much too kind nurses and doctors greeted him along with other mentally ill patients. That year had been a horror to him and half the time he was depressed and sick. The patients there were enough to drive one mad and for a while he started believing he was like them: mentally ill.

He had gone through psychotherapy that nearly made him puke. He only went through them because if he rebelled, the doctors immediately thought something was going wrong or that he was pivoting more towards the stages of incurability. They gave him drugs also to help with his illness. All he ever did was hide them carefully under his tongue and spit them out afterward. The guards fell for it all the time. It was a fact that he was the sanest out of everyone in the hospital. For the first few months he had a roommate, a man who had obsessive-compulsive disorder. His case was extreme however and in the end Takeru felt that he was going to explode if he stayed with him any longer. But the doctors said he would eventually get used to him. So then he forced himself to act like a schizophrenic more than ever and began to pretend to hallucinate and his roommate grew to be very scared of him and that was how he obtained his own room.

Sighing, he closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. The thought almost made him laugh if not for the seriousness of the situation. He had to find a way to bring the others back together without his parents or Yamato knowing, though he was part of the group. He would deal with him last. He frowned. But where was everyone else?? It seemed Pathogen had done a very good job at separating everyone. They didn't even live in the same places anymore. If only Ken were with him. He would have been able to track down everyone in ten seconds flat.

The blond opened his eyes and thought for a moment. How strange it was that he was the only one who remembered. His eyes flickered for a moment. He probably wouldn't even be in this world if it hadn't been for Daisuke's interruption. And now he was trapped in the Digital World alone and Takeru wasn't even sure if he was still alive. He sat up and stared at the computer again. No, he was positive he was alive. And once he found a way back to he Digital World, he would find Daisuke and bring him back then deal with Pathogen.

He blinked at the search results. How would he be able to track down everyone when he had no idea where to look? Pathogen could have sent them to Australia or England for all he knew. The thought unnerved him as he continued typing away. Different windows were open, one with a search engine for each of his missing nine friends: Taichi, Hikari, Jyou, Iori, Miyako, Ken, Koushirou, Sora, and Mimi. Any one of them would have been fine to track down. But if Pathogen made him and Yamato brothers still, then everyone else should still be in Japan. The demon was never much of an imaginer. Suddenly his eyes crossed over a name and picture. His eyes moved slowly towards the picture and instantly he was stung with familiarity.

Ichijouji Osamu.

~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

TBC