Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Mistakes We Make ❯ Epilogue III - Dancing on Glass ( Chapter 11 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

EPILOGUE - PART III

The emergency room at Yuushoo to Genki Hospital was slightly unreal, as if all of the colors were just a bit off, or as if the edges of things didn't line up properly. Takeru felt like he was moving through water, and watching the world through water as well. This just wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening.

His mother had been hijacked almost immediately and put to work filling out forms. She had attempted to gain Takeru's help in this, asking him things like Daisuke's birthdate, but Takeru had realized that he didn't know any of Daisuke's more vital statistics. His mother was still sitting near the nurse's desk with a clipboard in her hand, filling out everything she knew.

Koushiro had attempted to explain his theory to anyone who would listen. The regular ER doctors, while whisking a writhing, screaming Daisuke away, had been his first targets, but all of their attention had been on Daisuke. As well it should be, in Takeru's opinion. Koushiro had been humored for a few minutes by someone that Jyou said was probably a resident, but eventually she had been called away as well. Finally a nurse, one of the big, solid, career nurses who had seen it all and tolerated nothing, forcibly sat Koushiro down in a chair and told him to be quiet. Koushiro now looked to be wavering between offended poutiness and worry, but he didn't dare budge.

Jyou, who hadn't made quite as big of a pest of himself, was being permitted to hover near the double doors and pick up on at least some of what was going on. Occasionally he would wander back to the ER waiting area, where the others sat, and he would report on what he thought was happening.

"They've given him painkillers, but I don't think it's working," he said quietly. "They want to run a bunch of tests but they can't until he holds still."

"This is horrible," said Hikari brokenly. She had her arms wrapped around herself, and if Gatomon had been present, she probably would have been hugging her Digimon. All of the Digimon had been left at Takeru's place, though, since Chibimon was too loud to be taken outside and couldn't be left alone. "How could he do something like this? How could anyone?"

"I don't know," said Takeru. "It's ... inhuman."

That about said it all, and so they all fell silent, listening to the sounds of frenetic activity for a few minutes. Iori, whose seat was too high to allow his feet to touch the ground, swung his legs back and forth, which made his seat creak. Aside from the sounds from the rear of the ER, that was the only noise for what seemed like a long time.

That all changed, however, when the Motomiyas arrived.

Takeru, who didn't recognize them at first when they swept in, got up and peeked hesitantly around at the scene that quickly developed in front of the double swinging doors that led back into the mysterious interior of the ER. In spite of the sign that discouraged the general public from entering the area, Mrs. Motomiya had to be physically restrained by her husband from going back there. This was not something often seen among the polite and reserved Japanese, and Takeru was momentarily shocked by the extremity of her reaction. The hospital staff, however, was unfazed.

"I want to see my son!" she shrieked. "You have to let me see him!" Mr. Motomiya spoke comfortingly to her, and she sobbed a little into his shoulder. "I want to see him," she continued to repeat, choking.

"Hey, squirt," said someone behind Takeru, and he jumped, whirling around to face, of all the people in the world that he didn't want to see, Jun.

"Hi, Jun," said Takeru, uncomfortable and refusing to look at her directly.

"Do you have any idea what's going on then? What's wrong with him? The people who called us wouldn't say." Her voice was carefully neutral, controlled.

Takeru shook his head, still not looking at Daisuke's sister. "Nobody knows yet. He's just ... screaming, and he won't stop." No need to share stories about Digimon and Kaizers just yet, or theories about poison or torture devices. Perhaps things would work out to where there would never be a need. Takeru could still hope.

"Do you know who found him?"

Again, Takeru shook his head, an outright lie. Jun sighed a little and walked away then. She stood a little bit aside from her parents, who were listening to someone who looked like a doctor. Takeru, who wanted to know exactly how much he should hate Ken, took a few steps closer until he could hear as well.

"... trying to start the physical examination, but it's difficult while he's in this condition. We're trying to find something that will control the pain right now." The woman giving out this information looked very nice, an older lady with gray-streaked black hair pulled back into a practical bun, but there was a serious, earnest look in her eyes that Takeru automatically associated with bad news. "As of yet, there doesn't seem to be any sort of acute injury that would account for it. Does your son have a history of psychotic episodes, or any recent traumatic experiences?"

"Of course not!" said Daisuke's father, pulling his sobbing wife closer. "He's been missing for four months, though. We think ... he was kidnapped."

The doctor looked hesitant for a moment, and glanced first at Jun, then at Takeru. Mr. Motomiya and Jun both turned around to see what had the doctor's attention, and Takeru shuffled a little at being caught eavesdropping.

"He's my friend," he said softly, by way of explanation.

"Could I speak with the two of you privately?" asked the doctor. The Motomiyas both nodded, and the three adults disappeared down a short hallway.

Takeru swallowed. He was afraid that he knew already what was going to be told to Daisuke's parents, although he didn't know how much was suspected. Torture ... rape ... four months. How much of that is visible the doctors? He found himself watching Jun's back, and wishing that he had Patamon with him. Even if he did get some strange looks for hauling around a "stuffed toy" at his age, he desperately wanted the solid, comforting warmth of his Digimon right now.

Jun and Takeru both looked down the hallway when a piercing wail emerged from it. At the other end of it, the serious, regretful doctor was taking a step back from Mrs. Motomiya, who was having a breakdown in her husband's arms. I guess they found enough, thought Takeru.

"Daisuke!" she sobbed. "My son!"

"I wonder what she said," mused Jun softly. "You don't suppose ... you don't guess he's dying ... do you?"

Takeru just shrugged, even though Jun wasn't looking toward him. There wasn't a lot he could say. He had his own idea about what information could do that to Daisuke's mother, and he wasn't sure whether to hope that his suspicions were right or wrong.

The doctor came back out of the hallway, caught the arm of a young man in surgical scrubs and directed him toward the Motomiyas, and then went back into the back of the ER. When the doors opened and shut, Takeru could hear Daisuke, still screaming brokenly. The sound made him feel cold, and he engaged in a brief fantasy about beating the shit out of Ken.

Takeru turned then, as the doors to the outside opened again to admit more of the last people Takeru wanted to deal with right then : Taichi, with Yamato on his heels.

"Where is he?" demanded Taichi. He looked lost for a moment, and then spotted the other children and made for them. "What's happening? What did that bastard do to him?"

Takeru walked back toward the group in the waiting area, wincing. Taichi looked ready to go Kaizer-hunting right at that moment, but then Hikari collapsed, sobbing, into her brother's arms, and that took some of the fight out of him. He stroked her hair and glared angrily at the floor.

"Hey, TK," murmured Yamato softly. "Tell me what happened."

Wrapping his arms around himself, Takeru murmured softly, "Pegasusmon and I found Exveemon early this afternoon, that's Veemon's Champion form. He had a spiral on him, so I called the others, and we all went back together to rescue him. Chibimon told us where Daisuke was, so we went back again this evening to rescue him too. Only ..." He looked back toward the double doors that separated Daisuke from the rest of them.

"Only what? I assume he's hurt ... how badly?"

"I don't ... I don't know." Takeru looked around, located Jun at a safe distance, and lowered his voice even further. "Ken was ..." Breaking off, he tried again. "When we found Daisuke ..."

Yamato's hands closed over his shoulders, and he found himself looking up into his brother's eyes. He looked calm and serious, but because Takeru knew him well, he could see the same sparks of desperate worry there that he'd seen in his mother's eyes as well.

That could have been me ... but it wasn't, and that's bad enough.

The numb horror that had closed in over Takeru began to crack then, and he leaned gratefully in toward Yamato to conceal his weakness as the waves of the day's shocks crashed over him all at once. Burying his face in the shoulder of Yamato's jacket, Takeru started to sob as well, comforted by the feeling of his brother's arms around him, and not caring if he was too old to cry. He was only eleven years old, and the awful things that had happened to one of his best friends were evils that nobody should have to deal with at any age.

Was there something that he could have done? Takeru thought that he'd done his very best to find Daisuke as quickly as possible, but had he overlooked something? Some method of searching that would have found the boy sooner? Had there been some way of preventing Daisuke from being captured in the first place? Hikari had always believed that, deep down, Ken wasn't truly evil, and honestly Takeru had tried to believe that as well. He was human, evil wasn't hardwired into him the way it was in Virus Digimon. Their encounters with the Kaizer after the loss of Daisuke had been ... strained, to say the least, with a minimum of one demand for Daisuke's return every time they ran across Ken. Ken had always refused, laughing madly and usually retreating on the back of a slave Airdramon, whether in victory or in defeat. Takeru wondered, as the poisonous emotions within him drained out with his tears, if Daisuke had suffered for the Kaizer's occasional defeats. It seemed likely, considering how he'd been found, shortly after the recovery of Veemon.

Takeru felt sick again. He may as well have been holding the whip himself.

Yamato suddenly staggered backward, and Takeru let him go to keep the both of them from falling to the floor. Looking quickly up at his brother, Takeru saw him lift a hand to his jaw and send an incredulous look to someone behind Takeru. So then he turned around, and came face to face with a furious Jun, her fists clenched and one of them raised.

"How dare you!" she screamed. "How dare you!"

"What?" Yamato backed off as Jun practically flew at him, and caught her wrists to prevent her from decking him again. Takeru took a step back as well, and wiped his face off on his sleeves.

"How dare you!" she repeated, flailing wildly and forcing Yamato to tighten his grip. Yamato and Taichi, who was still holding onto a sobbing Hikari, exchanged baffled looks, until Jun worked her left hand free and used it to lay an open-handed slap across Yamato's face. He caught her hand again.

"How dare I what? Jun, I haven't done anything! Calm down!"

She went down on her knees then, tears running down her face, but Yamato didn't let her go just yet. "How dare you," she repeated softly. Then, "I hate you! I hate you! I want my brother too! Who did this to him? You know, don't you!" She directed this venomously at the floor.

Takeru wiped off his nose on his sleeve, not knowing what to say, while Yamato gave him a what-do-I-do-now sort of look. He let go of Jun's wrists, and she slumped the rest of the way to the floor, wailing in her grief, until Yamato sighed.

"Come on, let's go sit down," he said, and drew her back up to her feet by the shoulders. Her moment of fury expended, she leaned against his side and allowed herself to be guided over to a chair. For once, Takeru was actually glad of Jun's obsessive crush on Yamato, as it meant that she trusted him instantly in a crisis. He didn't envy Yamato after this was over, though, since he rather unkindly suspected that his brother's efforts to calm her down were going to be misinterpreted after the fact.

"So why did it take you guys this long to tell me what was going on?" asked Taichi. The leashed rage in his voice was unmistakable, although his arms around his sister were still gentle.

"Because we knew you'd fly off the handle if we told you," replied Takeru bluntly. "Just like you're about to now."

"I am not about to fly off the handle!" said Taichi furiously. "I just want to go do a little damage to a certain somebody, but first I want to know what's happening! Why won't anyone tell me anything? What the hell is the matter with Daisuke?"

"I'm all right now," said Mrs. Motomiya, from somewhere well behind Takeru. "I'm all right, I want to see my son." Takeru winced a little as he heard the double doors open and shut again, and Daisuke's choking, animal cries emerged for a moment. Taichi looked blankly back over Takeru's shoulder, and a dangerous scowl began to take root in his expression.

"Takeru, what did he do to Daisuke?"

"Excuse me," intruded a new voice, and all of the children who had been intent on the exchange between Taichi and Takeru turned to see who it was; Jun kept sobbing into Yamato's shoulder. Takeru's mother was standing a little way away now, and beside her was a middle-aged woman with darkly burnished hair and a friendly, sympathetic smile. "I'm Dr. Rokusei, and I'd like to have a word with all of you, if you don't mind."

"Well, that's just fucking wonderful," said Taichi.

"Tai!" said Takeru's mother, scandalized.

There was an office near the ER which was currently empty, its normal occupant being gone for the day. Dr. Rokusei herded all of the children except Jun and Yamato into it, and shut the door after Takeru's mother came in as well. There was a young gentleman in a policeman's uniform already sitting in the corner with a notebook, in which he scribbled. He smiled brightly at the children, but Takeru was too unsettled by the implications of all of this to smile back.

"I'm sorry that there aren't enough chairs," Dr. Rokusei apologized. "The nearest conference room is halfway across the hospital."

"That's all right," said Koushiro, offering blanket absolution from everyone. Taichi sat Hikari into one of the three available chairs, and after the boys and Miyako had all glanced at each other uncertainly, Miyako took one, and then Iori, as the youngest, was put into the last.

"Now, I want you all to know that nobody thinks that any of you did anything wrong," said Dr. Rokusei. "You're not in trouble, and if you want to wait for all your parents to get here before you talk to us, that's fine. Ms. Takaishi has already called most of them, right?" Takeru's mother nodded.

"So, um ... why are you wanting to talk to us?" asked Takeru, although he was pretty sure he knew the answer already.

"Well, I'm sure you know that your friend is hurt." Dr. Rokusei folded her arms, and took on what Takeru was beginning to think of as the Doctor's Serious Expression. "And I'm sure you know that he's been missing for the past several months. Since you all came in with him, we were hoping that maybe you knew what had happened to him."

"Is he going to be okay?" asked Hikari in a small voice.

"We certainly hope so. I'm not going to lie to you, though. The doctors can't figure out exactly what's wrong with him, and the pain medication they've been giving him doesn't seem to be working. Maybe he'll start to feel better now that his parents are here, but until they can get him comfortable, most of the tests they want to run can't be done." She swept the children with the Gaze of Authority, and Takeru looked away. "Now, again, none of you are in trouble, but I want you to understand how serious this is. From what the doctors have seen so far, some terrible things have happened to your friend, and we would like very much to catch the person who did this to him. Wouldn't you like to help us out with that?"

Miyako started to shiver then, and she took off her glasses and put her face in her hands to sob quietly. Dr. Rokusei crouched down next to her chair and put her arms gently around Miyako's shoulders.

"It's all right now," she said soothingly. Takeru glanced around, and saw Taichi's fists clench.

"What kind of terrible things?" asked Taichi softly.

Dr. Rokusei looked at up him, and Takeru could tell that she was weighing how much she could say to a child Taichi's age. Suddenly, Takeru wanted his suspicions confirmed, no matter that they were likely to send Taichi into a rage. Taichi's righteous fury would be Takeru's righteous fury, the fury that his own shock would not permit him.

"He was raped, wasn't he?" asked Takeru softly.

"What?" Taichi turned on Takeru, hazel eyes wide. "Tell me you're kidding!"

With a sigh, and while rubbing Miyako's back, Dr. Rokusei said after a moment's hesitation, "Yes, he was."

"I am going to ..." Taichi shot a glance at the policeman and shut up, turning sharply away. Hikari started to cry again, though, so he turned back a moment later to rub her shoulders. Takeru swore that he could hear the older boy's back teeth grinding together. Dr. Rokusei gazed at Takeru, so he looked away.

"Your name is Takeru, isn't it?" she asked, so Takeru nodded. "How did you know that?"

"Because ... um ... " Takeru stuttered. This was just what he'd been afraid of being asked, and he didn't know what to say. Should he say anything at all? Taichi sure wasn't, and if anyone would know what should and should not be revealed, it was Tai.

While Takeru attempted to find a way to avoid answering this question, Miyako bawled all the louder, and for the second time that day, Takeru was rescued in a way he would have preferred not to happen.

Hanging onto the older woman, Miyako wailed, "We found him! It was horrible! Chibimon distracted Ken so we could sneak in and get Daisuke, but when we found him he was ch-chained up and Ken was torturing him and then we took him out and there wasn't any code anymore and he started screaming and he wouldn't stop! This is all our fault!"

"Well, shit," muttered Taichi.

"Tai!" said Takeru's mother sharply. "Watch your language!"

When Takeru glanced at Taichi, he wasn't sure what exactly had elicited this comment, whether hearing about what had happened to Daisuke, or the fact that Ken's name had been spoken. The older boy stared angrily up at the corner of the ceiling.

"No, it isn't," said Jyou. "Miyako, this isn't your fault."

"Yes it is, if we hadn't taken him out of that room this wouldn't be happening and he wouldn't be dying!" Miyako buried her face in Dr. Rokusei's shoulder and sobbed. Takeru turned away and faced the wall.

"I don't think he's dying," said Dr. Rokusei softly. "They'll find out what's wrong with him and fix it, you'll see. Now, just tell us what happened so we can find the person responsible. What's Ken's clan name?"

"Good luck," said Takeru bitterly.

Miyako went quiet for a little while, and it was Iori's voice that finally said, "Ichijouji. And I really wish you could find him, because he deserves whatever you could do to him, but I don't think you're going to have much success."

Takeru didn't hear anything out of the adults for a few long seconds, and he couldn't see what they were doing because he refused to turn around and face them. Dr. Rokusei eventually said, "Why is that?"

Silence from the other Digidestined. Takeru's mother, after probably a minute of uncomfortable silence, said, "Takeru. You have to tell them. They want to help you. They want to help Daisuke."

Still facing the wall, listening to Miyako sob incoherently, Takeru found his hands balling up into fists. He wanted to tell them ... but he couldn't. They would never believe it, for one thing; for another thing, he found his voice blocked by an unfamiliar emotion, something that he had rarely felt before : shame. He wasn't sure what he was ashamed of, exactly, since he hadn't done anything really wrong as far as he could tell, but there it was. And it closed up his throat so that he couldn't speak.

This was just one horrid nightmare, from start to finish. The digital world was not something that was supposed to become part of a criminal investigation.

"Well, that's it, then," said Koushiro, speaking up for the first time. Takeru had almost forgotten that he was there. "We may as well show them our Digivices, if it's going to help. Do you remember seeing something strange in the sky about three years ago, and how the news tried to convince you afterward that it was just a mass hallucination?"