Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Matter of Perspective ❯ Hikari ( Chapter 22 )

DISCLAIMER: See previous parts.

A/N: The whole lot of you have probably tried to reach through the computer screen and strangle me for that last cliffhanger. I'm sorry about it. But not too sorry. As an evil author, half my job is to keep you guys on the edge of your seats. For those who didn't know, Biohazard is the name Resident Evil goes by in Japan and Europe. I think the reason why they changed it when they brought it over to America -- and Canada -- is that there's a music group also called 'Biohazard' here and its copyright is older.

When 9:30 rolled around, Hikari began to wonder about her brother. Not worry, exactly, because part of her hadn't really expected to see him until noon the following day with his shirt buttoned in all the wrong places. He'd done it often enough in the past, although usually not after he had actually bothered to learn someone's name. Hikari glanced again at the clock and then sighed. She knew her brother was big enough and old enough to take care of himself -- no matter what, but somehow knowing didn't help. There remained in her a sense of vague uneasiness, almost as if...as if something had shifted. The sort of thing that wasn't ever supposed to shift.

"Make me popcorn."

That imperious voice could only have belonged to a ten-year-old boy, and Yuusuke gazed at her with narrowed eyes that said he knew she might get angry but wasn't afraid of her. She blinked back, startled from her thoughts and momentarily confused by the unfamiliar apartment. She knew Yuusuke, of course -- he and his parents lived three doors down -- but not very well, so she had never been to his home before. She usually liked to get to know kids a bit before she offered to babysit them, but Hikari felt sorry for his parents who were clearly struggling with the last few years before their child could be left home alone.

Besides, she had wanted to give Taichi and Yamato a little privacy in the event that they went back to her apartment instead of the blond's. Her parents had apparently thought of the same thing, and left quickly to see a movie or go to dinner or whatever would keep them away from home for as long as possible. They weren't doing a very good job of pretending not to know, but then again, Taichi and Yamato weren't doing a very good job of pretending not to date. And the idea of hearing the two of them while they made the bed in her brother's room squeak...well -- it was slightly more unpleasant than having to deal with Yuusuke had turned out to be.

"Why do you want popcorn?" Hikari countered now. "You just finished dinner."

"Duh," he said. "But it'll be good while I watch you play Silent Hill!"

She rolled her eyes. "Yuusuke-kun, I've told you before -- I'm not going to play that game. I didn't even bring it with me."

"Oh, and it's so far away. Not like you could go get it."

"It's not about inconvenience. Every single game in the series has gotten a 'mature' rating."

Yuusuke squinted. "What, I'm not mature? C'mon, my mom won't care! She lets me play Biohazard..."

"But Yuusuke-kun..." How could she explain that they were completely different games without making him even more defensive than he already was? "That's not the point. Wouldn't you rather watch a movie or something instead?"

"It's not going to scare me."

The sheer stupidity of the statement caught Hikari off-guard. She found herself walking around behind him and leaning casually over the back of his chair. The little boy looked up at her in confusion, and she smiled her most patronizing smile. "Of course it's going to scare you. The only people not frightened by Silent Hill are people with no sense of atmosphere. Think about it, Yuusuke-kun. You wander alone down a misty street, slightly out of breath. You haven't seen another human being for hours. The only thing echoing in the cold air is the sound of your own footsteps. Times like this make you intensely aware of how loud your own body is -- your breathing, and your heartbeat. And of course...somewhere in the distance, a monster that wants to eat you alive. You, Yuusuke-kun, because this series has always been about ordinary people. Heather is only a year or so older than me."

He stared up at her belligerently. "Okay, great. Will you play now?"

Damn. Where was Taichi when you really needed him? He'd spent years scaring her when they were little, he would have been able to scare Yuusuke. At least to the point where the boy stopped badgering her...

It was at this precise instant that her phone rang. The brunette glanced from it to Yuusuke's curious face and then picked up. "Hello?"

After a pause, Koushirou's droll voice said, "I hope you haven't strayed too far from home, Hikari-san."

"What? Well, no. I'm only a few doors down, babysitting one of the neighbor's kids."

"Babysitting?!" Yuusuke responded hotly. "You can't babysit me, I'm not a baby!"

Something clicked and whirred in the background. "Is that him now? He sounds like quite the little charmer. I suppose it would be most difficult for you to tear yourself away..."

Despite the jovial sarcasm, Hikari couldn't quite bring herself to laugh. There was a very different tone behind that cheerful facade, and it sounded like desperation. She looked at the clock; swore softly.

"Maybe I can take him with me." It was a long shot, but... "His parents aren't going to get home until midnight at the earliest, and they warned me that it might be as late as 2 AM. If I left a note saying that there was an emergency and gave them a phone number..."

"Use your cell." Koushirou laughed a weak little laugh. "Just in case we have to go somewhere else."

Somewhere else?

She had to fight to keep her own voice steady. "Koushirou-san, please won't you tell me what's going on?"

"No time. Listen, can you stop over at Takeru-kun's place on the way here?"

"Sure, it's on the way. But why?"

The Keeper of Knowledge seemed to hesitate. "Because we've been trying to get in touch with her for ten minutes already, and Yamato-san is certain she had no plans for the evening."

Her fingers went numb on the keypad. Even after the dial tone began to chime, it took Hikari several tries to turn it off properly. Already, her skeptical charge was watching her expectantly. She took a deep breath and tried to smile.

"How would you like to go visit a good friend of mine? He doesn't live all that far from here, and he's really into computers so I'm sure he'll have plenty of games for you to play."

Yuusuke cocked his head. "Buy me an ice-cream cone."

She stared at him in disbelief. "Excuse me?"

"Well, you're going to see your boyfriend, right? How much is it worth to you?"

"Koushirou-san is not my boyfriend," Hikari protested before realizing how little point there was in such an argument. "Fine. But not right now. Just get your coat and hat. We have a train to catch."

Every minute that passed between when they left the apartment and when they arrived at Takeru's familiar door felt as if it were being torn from Hikari's heart. The pieces collected in a trail, though she tried to pick them up again as soon as they fell. She didn't want to resign herself to anything, least of all losing the person she loved. It was only paranoia. Takeru had probably just unplugged the phone for some reason. Even if she couldn't think of one that made sense.

A small tan-colored blur swooped at them when they opened the door, and Yuusuke shrieked, ducking frantically against her like a boy half his age. Hikari might have laughed under other circumstances, but now she patted him gently on the back and tried to calm Patamon. He seemed to think Takeru was dead, or at least very sick, and he alighted on her head, pulling on her hair to make her move faster. It didn't help that the first thing Yuusuke did after he had recovered from his fear was grab an umbrella from the open closet and knock Patamon out of the air.

"Yuusuke-kun!" she exclaimed in her best admonishing tone. "You put that down right this instant. Patamon, are you okay?"

"Patamon?" Yuusuke repeated in a stunned voice. He looked from the woozy creature to her and back again. "But that would make you..."

Hikari smiled grimly. They had made the papers for a while, after all. "One of the 'Chosen Children', that's right."

She left him in the hallway to absorb this information and, gathering Patamon in her arms, asked softly where his human partner was. The little digimon waved vaguely in the direction of the kitchen, and then she saw him -- sprawled unconscious on the floor. He seemed to have collapsed very suddenly against the counter, and Hikari came close to collapsing herself at the sight of him. She sucked in another long, cleansing breath; between Patamon's obvious panic and Yuusuke's morbid interest in the supposed corpse, she knew she had to keep the screws in place.

However, before Hikari could do much more than struggle to remember the first few lessons from health class, her boyfriend sat up all at once. He frowned slightly and rubbed his belly, looking after a moment at her -- and apparently surprised by the relief on her face. "Hikari-chan?" he asked doubtfully. "What are you doing here?"

It was all she could do not to cry. "Koushirou-san called me a little while ago and said I ought to check up on you before I went over to his apartment. Said he'd tried several times to get in touch with you. For some reason this worried him." She smiled, but the pretending hurt too much and finally she threw her arms around him anyway.

"Hey, easy," Takeru murmured; still, he cradled the back of her head with one of his hands and stroked her hair. "Be careful with me."

"Do you remember what happened? I would think you'd tripped, but there's nothing in here to trip over."

"My own feet?" He laughed and shook his head. "I don't know, I was going to make myself a snack and all of a sudden I had this really terrible stomachache. Like there was something inside clawing to get out. I think I blacked out from the pain."

She squeezed his hand with bloodless fingers, and asked him to come with her in a voice that sounded inexplicably faraway. Maybe, Hikari thought as her boyfriend slipped into his shoes, this was what she had felt shifting. Yuusuke followed them reluctantly. He seemed to feel that he had disgraced himself over Patamon's sudden appearance. "I just want you to know that I wasn't really scared," he said at one point.

Takeru glanced at him briefly, then looked back at her questioningly. "Who's the kid?"

"I'm not a kid," Yuusuke protested, but in a subdued voice.

"Oh, yeah?" The Keeper of Hope nodded. "Do you know what I was doing when I was your age?"

"No. But I can guess." He grinned, almost nervous. "Saving the world, right?"

As this wasn't a conversation they particularly needed to have, Hikari stepped between them. "No. When he was your age, Takeru-kun was taking his exams just the same as you. Our adventures happened when we were eight and eleven. Not ten."

"That's a technicality, and you know it."

"The only technicality, Takeru-kun," she replied, scowling, "is that Koushirou-san has something very important to tell us. We shouldn't be wasting time with this nonsense."

The two boys exchanged irritable glances. "See," the older one said quietly, "this is why you should never get a girlfriend. It's like having a big sister you can never piss off."

At this, Yuusuke's face went completely blank. He snuck little glances at them, back and forth, all the way to the train station, but said nothing. And he was still staring when they reached their stop. He almost didn't remember to follow them onto the platform. Hikari sighed; she couldn't tell whether he thought they were cool or disgusting or just odd, but he had better damn well keep his fool mouth shut if he had anything nasty to say. One word. That was all she needed, and then she would dump him into the street and leave him there.

When Koushirou let them in, Hikari realized immediately that they weren't alone. Her brother might not have been waiting in the entrance, but she felt his presence all the same. And his worry. He was worried in the dark, all-encompassing way that she remembered from far too many final confrontations. Asking Koushirou to set Yuusuke up in his room, she hurried into the back room where Taichi sat with his head bowed -- and then slowed cautiously, because it was like walking into a storm. He did not look at her until she touched his shoulder, and even then she couldn't have said he actually saw her.

"Hello," she said softly.

He lowered his head again, and abruptly she knew.

"Where's Yamato-san?"

Before Taichi could respond, Jyou came nervously into the room. He was wringing his hands, slowly and deliberately. "She's here," he said. "Resting in Koushirou's room." The Keeper of Faith paused, and turned to peer at Takeru uncertainly. "Maybe you ought to be doing the same."

"What's the matter?" Hikari demanded sharply, frightened by the way Jyou was so clearly trying not to frighten them. "What's going on?"

"Well..." Again, Jyou paused. He was obviously considering his words with great care. "We're not exactly sure."

She started to say something else, not even knowing what it would be, and at that exact moment Takeru stumbled, wrapping his arms around himself protectively and hitting the floor before he even cried out. Hikari dropped to her knees beside him, and this time she couldn't keep the panic at bay. From a great distance she saw Koushirou pulling Takeru away from her, and she knew that she was screaming at him, that Jyou was restraining her; but mostly, she knew that Taichi hadn't so much as glanced up at these proceedings. It had all happened before with him.

Jyou's soothing voice was in her ear, murmuring the same basic thing over and over again. "Calm down. I know it's a lot to ask, Hikari-chan, but you have to trust us. There's nothing you can do for Takeru right now except stay out of our way. Please calm down. My brother's on his way, he'll know what to do."

Bit by bit, she did calm down, but only to shake her head at him. Why were they calling Shin? They barely knew Shin. Takeru had said three words to him at most. Oh, he had seemed like a nice enough person, but what could he do about something like this? Maybe Jyou knew more than he was telling her -- but surely if Takeru needed a doctor, they should go to the hospital...and that was wrong. It was all wrong. This had nothing to do with medicine. She could feel it. Hikari reached out, and caught Jyou's shirt when he let her go.

"Ken-kun and Daisuke-kun," she began, with an urgency she didn't entirely understand. "They are coming, aren't they? They need to come. We should find the others. Miyako-san and Mimi-san. This is wrong, Jyou-san. It's not supposed to be happening."

"But it is," Taichi said dully. His voice had the same rough edge she'd heard over the telephone so many nights ago. As if he'd been crying or was about to start. She looked at him desperately, knowing how he felt but begging him not to let it go. Not here, not now. If he did that, she would cry, too. He looked back at her, and his face closed very subtly. "She's right, Jyou. Takeru...Yama...they're not sick. Not in that way."

Now instead of staring merely at her, Jyou stared at them both, and Hikari could almost see the gears turning in his head. He thought they were hysterical. He was going to ignore them!

"Jyou-san," she whispered desperately. "Please. I know it sounds crazy, but you've got to believe me. Bring Shin-san if you have to, but at least call the others. What can it hurt to have a few more friends right now?"

For a horrible moment, she thought he was still not going to listen, but then Jyou nodded uncertainly. "Koushirou? Do you think you could try and reach them?"

The redhead blinked, and nodded distractedly. When he went to the phone, Hikari watched him. She couldn't help thinking that he looked strange -- and not just in the way that would have been expected. More as if he were on some other plane of existence that had nothing to do with the one the rest of them experienced. She wanted to ask him about it, but he was doing as she had asked. Besides, for all she knew, he was just thinking about some computer program of his. It probably had nothing to do with their current situation.

When Shin arrived, he did so with the air of one who has been deeply harassed. She didn't know it at the time, but Jyou had summoned him on his day off -- the one time each month when an intern was guaranteed his full night's sleep. To Shin's credit, though, he went straight to his patients without bothering to actually complain. He obviously knew better than to waste words in a crisis. Still, Hikari couldn't shake the feeling that asking him here had been pointless. She went to the window and strained her eyes to see Daisuke and Ken's approach.

Ten minutes later, Shin came back out of the bedroom scowling and blinking rapidly. She spared him a fleeting look, and he shrugged unhappily. It was just as she'd suspected, then: he had no idea what was wrong with either of her friends. Hikari closed her eyes tightly, and listened with only half an ear while Jyou talked to his brother. What were they supposed to do now?

"No luck, Shin-niisan?"

"That depends on what you mean by luck, little brother."

"...You know what's wrong with them?"

"Oh, sure."

Startled, the Keeper of Light whirled around. If she was wrong, then this was one time when she truly did not mind admitting it. Taichi's head jerked up, and for the first time since she had arrived she felt like something had his complete attention. Yet, Shin still wore his mystified expression -- and that didn't make sense.

"Well?" Jyou prompted. "What is it?"

The other young man shrugged, somewhat reluctant. "I really wish you'd just taken them to the Odaiba General. Without proper equipment, I can't say anything for sure..."

"But can you make a guess?" Taichi climbed slowly to his feet, the life coming back into his eyes. "Because if you've got any clue -- and I mean any clue at all -- then spit it out."

"Quickly," Hikari added. "Before we kill you."

Raising his hands in surrender, Shin smiled awkwardly. "Okay, kids. They're pregnant."

There was a sharp gasping noise from the doorway, and Daisuke caught Ken just in time to keep him from fainting completely. "Hi, everybody," he said in a horribly cheerful voice. "It's good to see you haven't all died of boredom in our absence."

End Part Twenty-Two