Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Mistakes We Make ❯ Epilogue VII - "Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December ..." ( Chapter 15 )

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

EPILOGUE - PART VII

Four days after Daisuke was transferred to the Emperor Hirohito Memorial Home of Rest for Boys and Adolescents, a very unusual thing happened. At some point around one in the morning, the television in the deserted and dark recreation room flipped on, flashed white, and disgorged a young boy of perhaps eleven or twelve years of age. He landed lightly on his feet, took a step into the darkness of the room, and promptly tripped over the small companion who had come through the gate with him.

"Shit," he swore under his breath. In a hissing whisper, he said, "Wormmon, I told you to ... Wormmon?"

The Digimon under the Kaizer's feet didn't look like Wormmon, and he crouched for a closer look. The cringe that the little creature had adopted was familiar enough, but he was a lot smaller and more prickly now. "What happened to you?"

"I de-Digivolved," came the terrified whisper.

"Why?"

"... I don't know."

Ken frowned and nudged the Digimon with the toe of his shoe. Just as it always had before, his blue and white and gold Kaizer outfit had vanished once he exited the digital world, leaving him clad in the close-fitting dove-grey Tamachi school uniform and dark, patent leather dress shoes. Annoyingly, the tight bandage wrappings that he'd put around his injured right hand had also disappeared, and the ever-present ache in that hand seemed to amplify and throb in time with his pulse. He put his Digivice into his pocket along with Daisuke's and crouched to pick up the Digimon that had been Wormmon a few minutes ago.

He hadn't thought that Wormmon could become weaker and more pathetic than he already was on a daily basis, but the Kaizer somehow wasn't surprised to find out that it was possible after all. The Digimon dangling from his left hand was only about a fifth of Wormmon's size (and Wormmon was no heavyweight to start), and looked like a pine cone with a baby insect shoved into it. "What are you calling yourself now?" he asked.

"Minomon," whispered the Digimon.

Maybe it wasn't all bad. A smaller Digimon would suit his purposes even better than Wormmon. "You'd better not screw up, Minomon."

"I won't, Master." The tiny thing trembled, and Ken put him onto the floor.

"Off with you now."

Minomon scurried, half-hopping, out the dark door and into the dark hallway beyond. Ken remained where he was, crouching on the floor in the middle of the room, and looked around in the dim ambient light that filtered in through the windows. This side of the room was completely dominated by the television, while the other side seemed to be a confusion of various types of simple games. He scowled at the idea of his slave being kept here, permitted all of these distractions and being spoiled by them. He also didn't approve of the idea of treating Daisuke like an emotionally disturbed teenager. Daisuke was the most well-adjusted, submissive little toy anyone could hope to have, and acting like that was abnormal in some way could have only negative consequences.

The Kaizer briefly entertained the idea, and not for the first time, of altering his original plan for this evening, to include taking Daisuke straight back to the digital world with him. It would be difficult and problematic to do so, but Ken was sure he could pull it off, and it would be so nice to have a warm, firm little morsel to fuck and play with again. The possibility gave him an instant erection, and he put his left hand down inside his pants to awkwardly adjust himself; then he reminded himself sharply that he would get Daisuke back eventually, and it was better this way. Really, it was. No, he would stick by his original schedule and not improvise, no matter how tempting it may be.

But damn. It was very tempting. He could almost smell Daisuke already, could almost feel his beautiful slave wiggling in his arms. The Kaizer closed his eyes a bit and could imagine perfectly how nice it would feel to hold and possess his Daisuke again. But no, that would never do. He had to stick by his schedule.

A few minutes after Ken had re-validated his plans for the evening, Minomon whispered from the darkness, "Master?"

"Did you find him?" said Ken, peering into the doorway in an effort to see the Digimon. He finally located the thing about halfway up the wall, apparently levitating.

"I think so. I found a hallway where his scent is very strong, but there are people watching it. I'm sure he's behind one of the doors. I could figure out which one if I could get closer without being seen."

Ken rose to his feet and said, "Show me." So the Digimon floated out into the hallway and led him through the facility.

Barely able to contain his excitement, the Kaizer crept on his toes after Minomon, almost completely silent in his well-worn Tamachi uniform. There were some lights on in this end of the building, dimly lighting the darkness for those who kept an eye on the inmates, and the Kaizer began to slow and walk more carefully.

Another boy in a similar situation would probably have introduced a shot of imagination into the walk between the recreation room and the dorm area. Ken was aware of this, aware of the fact that, were he normal in any sense of the term, he would be making up a little story about ninjas or secret agents to act out while he sneaked through the building. A little pang of regret ran briefly through him then, silently mourning everything that he'd lost, everything that had been taken from him, and everything that he'd given up freely without a fight on the assumption that he was better off with it out of his life. My childhood is gone. Maybe I never had it in the first place. This was a very depressing thought, and he felt the silence pressing against the edges of his mind. He hadn't spoken for over two weeks after losing Daisuke, crushed by the weight of silence until he'd hit upon this plan. If he could just keep his mind on it and off of other things ...

Minomon suddenly stopped at a corner and gestured around it; Ken guessed that there was someone there, and after a moment he heard the person clear his throat. Putting his back against the wall, still out of sight of the unseen person, the Kaizer reached gingerly into his right pocket and, with much pain from his injured hand, pulled out a small vial of poison and a needle. He had originally intended for Wormmon to surprise the expected guards with his appearance and then jab them with the needle when they got close to investigate. Minomon's small size and ability to float made him alter his plan, and with a few gestures, pointing at the corner between the wall and ceiling, then at the needle, and so forth, he attempted to communicate this to his incompetent Digimon. Minomon gave him a somewhat blank look at first, but then seemed to catch on, so the Kaizer gave him the freshly-poisoned needle and wondered why he was cursed with such a moronic partner.

The poison wasn't lethal, much to Ken's chagrin. His first impulse had been to slay whoever stood between himself and his property, but after putting a little thought into the matter he decided that it would cause needless trouble. His planned infiltration of the facility had been placed in the dead of night from the outset, and it wasn't beyond reason to assume that bored and tired watchers would occasionally fall asleep. Having one such watcher discovered asleep might cause trouble for Ken's target, but it wouldn't raise any alarms the way a dead one would. The Kaizer wanted this entire operation to cause as little fuss as possible, and he'd prefer if the entire thing was simply overlooked by everyone who wasn't supposed to be involved. So, the poison that Minomon delivered to the young college student who was studying an anatomy textbook at the desk at the end of the hallway merely knocked him out, rather than stopping his heart the way Ken would have otherwise preferred.

The Kaizer heard a light groan of protest and then a bit of clatter as the fellow fell over across his textbook and desk, but he waited for Minomon to signal to him that it was safe to come out before he did so. "There's only one?" he whispered to his Digimon. Minomon nodded, and then was off, sniffing along the edges of each door for Daisuke's scent. Ken smirked at Minomon's back. Wormmon had protested to his part in this plan, until Ken had proposed simply leaving the Digimon behind and using a spiraled Gazimon instead. Jealousy had then engaged, and Wormmon had practically begged to be allowed to accompany and help his master. He could tell that Minomon still wasn't really into the plan, but at least he was doing his part. The Kaizer didn't much care how much the Digimon disliked what he was doing, so long as he did it.

Minomon paused at a door about a third of the way down the hallway and gave it a thorough twice-over, and then whispered breathlessly, "Master. This one." The Kaizer glanced down either side of the hallway before trying the doorknob. He was mildly surprised to find it unlocked, until he decided that it was probably a fire hazard to lock the doors. These kids weren't in prison, after all. Not yet, anyway. The door opened silently and he let himself and Minomon inside.

The window in the room wasn't shaded, and it let enough light in for the Kaizer to be able to pick his way through it. It required only a glance to determine that there was only one occupant, and that this occupant was, indeed, Daisuke; nobody else would have a Chibimon sleeping on his chest, even if he hadn't been able to recognize the form of his slave. There was something odd about the way Daisuke was laying on the bed that was shoved against the wall, and Ken padded forward a little to get a closer look. His erection, which had gone away during all of the sneaking around, suddenly returned when he realized that Daisuke had been strapped down with pale leather restraints.

Chibimon was in the way, so Ken removed the obstacle by taking Daisuke's D-terminal out of his pocket and whapping the Digimon sharply in the back of the head with it. This wasn't easy, seeing as how he was using his off hand for it, but he was using his off hand for everything these days, and besides which he was just that good. Chibimon let out a muffled squeak and went limp. The Kaizer picked him up off of Daisuke and dropped him like a washrag on the floor, with the D-terminal beside him.

"I'll be getting you back eventually, too," he whispered softly to the unconscious Digimon. Minomon made a rather complex little sound from off behind the Kaizer, but was ignored. Ken knelt down beside Daisuke's bed then, watching his precious possession sleep.

The restraints kept Daisuke's arms crossed over his chest, with each wrist bound to the opposite side of the bed. He wasn't tied down very tightly, but there was still no way he was getting loose, and Ken licked his lips at the ingenuity of it. Content at first to just watch Daisuke breathe, the Kaizer eventually wanted to touch him, and reached up to run his hand lightly over the boy's forehead and hair. Daisuke jerked a little, so Ken withdrew his hand immediately, until he settled again back into sleep.

Part of Ken was demanding that he stop this nonsense, do what he came to do, and then leave. The rest of him, including the part that had wanted Daisuke in the first place, and the part that whispered irresponsible temptations to him all of the time and frequently made him drop everything to go screw his pet, held him where he was. His hand moved down Daisuke's body, beneath the light blanket that covered him. It was so considerate of the facility staff to put Daisuke at his mercy like this, it would be a shame to waste their efforts. A little tug on the waist of Daisuke's pajamas revealed that the waistband was elastic. It would be child's play to gently rouse Daisuke, pull the bottoms of his pajamas down a bit, and have his way with the captive boy.

Do it, do it, whispered Irresponsibility. And then, when Ken's mind balked at the disagreeable consequences of it, that part of himself offered justifications : waking Daisuke to take him now would let the slave know that he couldn't escape his master no matter what. Neither the real world nor all of the adults in it could keep the Kaizer from having what he wanted. Ken's body added in its own counterpoint, his erection demanding and insistent, reminding him that he hadn't even been able to properly masturbate since he broke his hand, much less have actual sex. Daisuke's scent, his beauty and vulnerability, all twined together into a seductive siren song that Ken could all but feel physically drawing him closer. He licked his lips again, almost able to taste the sweetness of Daisuke's skin, and before he knew what he was doing, he was leaning over for a kiss.

But no. No, no, no. The Kaizer stopped when his lips were a breath away from Daisuke's, and he could feel the warmth and moisture that passed between them. Alerting Daisuke to his visit would spoil everything. The cost of this moment of pleasure that he was so tempted to indulge himself in was just too high. No matter how desperately he might want to slide his tongue into the welcoming warmth of Daisuke's mouth, or how much he might want to slide his cock into the equally welcoming warmth of Daisuke's body, he couldn't afford to let himself slip like that.

It was with a pain similar to having his skin ripped off his muscles that Ken pulled himself away from the still-sleeping Daisuke. He eyed the curve of his slave's hip, and almost dipped back down again to lick and taste the fragrant, tender flesh there, but instead he exercised the most willpower he ever had to pick up Chibimon and deposit him back on Daisuke's chest. He then picked up the D-terminal from where he'd dropped it on the floor and tucked it under one of Daisuke's hands. The blue-and-white Digivice came out of his pocket next and went under the other hand.

Ken felt like he was leaving part of his soul behind here as he returned to the door and opened it to peek out. Nobody in sight but the drugged guard. Making sure that Minomon was following him, the Kaizer darted out into the hallway, closed the door behind him again, and slipped silently out toward the dark section of the facility. He wondered for a moment if he was doing the right thing, but then he shook his head and snarled at himself. Of course he was doing the right thing. He was Ichijouji Ken.

"Good morning!"

Just as he had every morning for the past four, Daisuke jerked awake to this cheery greeting, and attempted to bolt straight up in bed. And, just as every morning for the past four, his effort in this direction was rewarded with a sudden shooting pain in his back and the snapping taut of the restraints that held him down before he was even halfway toward sitting. Chibimon squawked in complaint at the sudden movement, but wasn't thrown off onto the floor the way he had been the first two mornings. Relaxing again onto his back, Daisuke looked over at his keeper, a rather handsome fellow in his mid-twenties named Muraki.

"How do you feel this morning?" asked Muraki, as he roughly and efficiently unbuckled the straps holding Daisuke down. Daisuke stretched a little and didn't bother to answer. He had yet to dignify this daily question with a response, but this didn't seem to deter his keeper. After the straps were off, he carefully sat up.

The baffling lack of pain that he'd experienced in the hospital had turned out to be due to painkilling drugs that were injected into his IV every few hours. Now that the IV and the drugs were gone, a little soreness had returned, mostly in the vicinity of the surgical incision in his back. It wasn't very severe, so he didn't complain about it; in fact, he was more reassured by it than bothered, and he wondered what he would do when the wound had completely healed and didn't hurt anymore.

Muraki sighed pointedly, and Daisuke glanced at him to see what was wrong. "Daisuke," he said, in a disappointed tone that, had it come from the Kaizer, would have made Daisuke fall to his knees and offer anything, up to and including his soul, to avert some the punishment that would surely follow. As it was, he found himself cringing away a little, wondering what he'd done wrong.

Reaching behind Daisuke, Muraki picked up something and said, "You agreed when we let you keep Chibimon with you that he would follow the rules. You and Chibimon both promised."

Silence after that, until Daisuke figured out that a contribution from himself was expected here. "He has been," he whispered.

His expression changing a little in the face of Daisuke's fear, but still attempting to be stern, Muraki said, "One of the rules was that he couldn't bring you anything after lights-out."

Chibimon gasped. "I didn't!" The Digimon drew himself up as tall as he could and protested again, "I didn't!" Daisuke automatically reached out a hand to comfort him, but didn't quiet him. Chibimon had promised, and he'd stuck by his promise; his honor was at stake in this accusation.

This rule was just one of several that had allowed Daisuke to figure out in fairly short order that he was under a suicide watch. Nothing else really accounted for them, and the rule that Chibimon was not allowed to retrieve objects for him was only the most bizarre unless viewed in this light. He also wasn't permitted to be alone except when he was asleep, and he was still put into restraints to sleep even though there was no possible way for him to slip out of this hospital. He'd thought at first that tying him down was just to keep him in bed while his back healed, but that obviously wasn't a consideration anymore and it hadn't stopped. The second afternoon of his confinement here, the various factors had clicked together, and he'd realized that the purpose of it all was to keep him from doing damage to himself. He personally thought this was quite silly. He didn't want to die, he just wanted to go home.

"If you two can't follow the rules," Muraki was saying, "then Chibimon is going to have to go."

"But I did!" said Chibimon, outraged. "I promised I'd follow your stupid rules and it's not fair to say I'm breaking my promises!"

"Chibimon," said Daisuke softly.

"What's this then?" said Muraki, producing the objects that he'd found when Daisuke had sat up.

Daisuke's eyes widened, while Chibimon gasped again. "That's my D-3," Daisuke said in wonder. Was it real? He reached for it and the D-terminal, but drew back his hand again in bitter disappointment when Muraki raised both devices so that he couldn't touch them. He looked up at his keeper. "How did it get here?"

"Why don't you tell me?"

Chibimon just stood on the bed with his mouth open for a few seconds; then he began to bounce. "Daisuke, Daisuke, it's your Digivice! And your Digimentals! Now we can go get that Kaizer and whack 'im good for what he did to us!"

"Chibimon, hush," murmured Daisuke.

"I'm going to tell Saeko about this, and we'll see what she says. But don't be surprised if she wants your parents to come take Chibimon for not following the rules."

"But I did!" said Chibimon again. "I don't know how those got here!"

Muraki frowned at them both and said, "We'll see what Saeko says. Now get up and get dressed for breakfast."

Daisuke did as he was told, his mind whirling. How had his Digivice and D-terminal managed to appear in his bed literally overnight? The last time he'd seen them was right before the Kaizer had caught him, and he'd assumed that his master was keeping them. Was there some kind of property to his Digivice that made it return to him, as if by magic? Or, and this possibility made him shiver and made his cock harden, had the Kaizer somehow managed to bring it to him while he slept? He gave his bed a surreptitious glance while pulling on his shorts. Just the idea that the Kaizer had been here, had been within inches of him while he was asleep ...

"Daisuke," said Muraki warningly, and Daisuke realized that he'd stopped with one shoe on and one off and was staring wistfully at where he imagined his master must have been. He stamped his other foot into his shoe.

Being dressed was ... really different after having spent four months naked. All of the old, habitual motions had come back to him immediately of course, but the feeling of rough fabric on his skin when he was accustomed to the open air or, at most, the soft sheets on the Kaizer's bed, was irritating and galling. The pajamas had kept him awake the entire first night that he was here and most of the second, feeling itchy and uncomfortable and clinging to him in places he wasn't used to feeling things cling to him. He'd been unable to do anything about it, though, because he'd been bound down. Those squirming, sleepless nights had been a slow torture worthy of the Kaizer himself, and had made him think about his master constantly. There was also the fact that he hadn't had any sex for almost three weeks now.

Between all of these discomforts, the way that he was deprived of basic dignities like privacy and personal possessions, and the highly structured nature of his days, Daisuke rather liked this place.

One of the rules of Chibimon's presence was that the Digimon had to stay in Daisuke's room most of the time, as it was felt that a small monster companion would be too disruptive an influence on the other children. Chibimon had expressed a private preference to Daisuke to not leave him alone and vulnerable, but went along with the rule because otherwise he wouldn't be allowed into the facility at all. So, after Daisuke was dressed, he went with Muraki and left Chibimon behind.

Breakfast was taken in the cafeteria with Muraki, who had given up his stern act and had reverted to his usual pose around Daisuke : pitying kindness. Daisuke had figured out pretty quickly that Muraki felt deeply sorry for him and, although he was willing and capable of being a complete hard-ass about the rules, he was basically a nice and sympathetic person. He wasn't permissive, but he wasn't needlessly cruel either. Daisuke was, by turns, afraid of him and mildly contemptuous, depending on which pose Muraki was in at the moment. It was obvious that Muraki was a sheep, blindly following the norms of the majority, and wanting Daisuke to do likewise. In his more lucid moments, the times when he wasn't thinking about having sex, or being tied down, or his master's beautiful face and body, Daisuke felt sorry for his keeper.

He felt sorry for Muraki now as the man chattered on about his sister's youngest daughter, who was apparently around Daisuke's age and was involved in a play in school and who had Problems. The same tiny, miserable concerns that plagued children his age, children who didn't know the things Daisuke knew and who therefore thought that the world would end if they didn't get all of the lines in a play memorized on time. Daisuke already knew that things like school and school plays weren't what was important in life, and he felt sorry for Muraki that this much older man didn't seem to realize this. So, although his pulse sped up with the daring of it, he interrupted his keeper mid-sentence between eating the last of his breakfast and drinking his milk.

"None of that is important, you know," he said, and then he was drinking his milk and refused to respond to Muraki's curious inquiry as to what he meant by it.

After breakfast it was time to see Saeko, his case worker, who kept her office at the other end of the building where visitors and the women who worked at the facility were allowed. She was an older lady with white hair, whose manner reminded him a bit of Dr. Watanuki, and in spite of her age she looked quite athletic and insisted that Daisuke call her by her given name without any honorifics attached. This rule suited Daisuke just fine.

Muraki herded him into Saeko's office, which actually looked more like a living room than an office, as there were two sofas, three chairs, and no desk in it. Daisuke's keeper then described how he'd found Daisuke's Digivice and D-terminal, and delivered these over to Saeko before leaving and closing the door behind him. Daisuke stood in the middle of the room just inside the door and said nothing.

Giving the devices a brief look, Saeko said, "What are these things?"

It was probably a bad idea to answer. Talking about Digivices would lead to talking about the digital world, and Saeko had established in the past few days that she really wanted him to talk to her about the digital world. Daisuke thought it likely that, once he was comfortable talking about the digital world with her, she would then swing their conversations around to the Digimon Kaizer. This was to be avoided, and so he was making every effort to resist her attempts to draw him out about the digital world itself. Daisuke thought himself very cunning for having drawn these conclusions.

After waiting for a long thirty seconds for Daisuke to reply, Saeko said, "Well, if you won't tell me what they are, I'm going to have to take them away from you indefinitely. Is that what you want?"

"No," said Daisuke.

She leaned forward a little in her chair, an overstuffed creation of crushed velvet and rosewood, and said gently, "I'm on your side, Daisuke. I'm not your enemy here. I'm trying to help you."

"You're trying to make me normal," said Daisuke softly.

"Don't you want to be? Don't you want to go home and see your friends again and do all of the things you like?" When Daisuke didn't reply, she said, "Your parents said that you're very good at soccer and you love playing it. Don't you want to play soccer again?" When Daisuke still held his silence, she sighed and leaned back. "At least tell me what these are. If we don't know what they are, we can't let you keep them and we'll have to hold them in the office until your parents can come by to get them."

Don't answer, don't answer ... "It's my D-3 and D-terminal," he whispered.

"What do they do?" She turned the Digivice over a few times, but predictably it remained silent and inert in her hands. Then she opened the D-terminal, which wasn't quite so fussy about who handled it and powered on readily once she found the appropriate switch. "Daisuke, why don't you sit down?"

He knelt obediently on the floor. Saeko had tried to get him to sit in one of the chairs or something the first afternoon he'd been here, but he didn't like that. She didn't mention it this time. "What do they do?" she asked again.

He grudgingly offered, "A lot of things."

"Like what?"

He shrugged a little, and remained silent, but she attempted to wait him out. This resulted in a very long period of neither of them saying anything, especially after she closed the D-terminal and put it and the Digivice down on the table beside her. Daisuke kept his eyes on the floor, and found his mind wandering back to the Kaizer. If the Kaizer had come to deliver his Digivice, why hadn't he woken him? If the Kaizer could somehow sneak into the building and out again, couldn't he have taken Daisuke with him? Why hadn't he? Why hadn't he at least wakened Daisuke? He could have convinced his master to fuck him, he was sure of it, and then he wouldn't be wanting it quite so badly now; his lips parted a little with the thought of what it would have been like to feel his master's penis inside him again. Could it be possible that the Kaizer didn't want him anymore, and that giving him his Digivice back was a hint in this direction? His throat constricted at the idea, and a heavy weight seemed to press against him inside his chest.

Something of his growing distress must have shown on his face, because Saeko murmured softly, "Daisuke ... what's wrong?" Her tone was so concerned and kindly that his heart wrenched and tears began to track down his cheeks. The chair creaked as Saeko stood up and then knelt beside him on the floor, putting her arms around him and letting him cry into her shoulder. He leaned into her gratefully, and although she stroked his hair in a manner very much like the Kaizer's, her scent was all wrong, and so he kept his hands in his lap and simply sobbed.

Why wouldn't the Kaizer want him anymore? Had he done something wrong? Was he being blamed for what Takeru and the other Digidestined had done, by taking him away? Did his master think that he preferred it out here, in the chill December real world? It was only a few more days until Christmas, and a week after that it would be New Year's ... he wanted to spend New Year's with the Kaizer, his master, the person who took everything away and offered complete freedom in return. Instead, he'd gotten an early gift, and his last tie with the Kaizer was gone.

Daisuke almost began to sob out his reasons for crying, then. He almost began to tell Saeko about the source of his despair, his fear that he was going to have to start taking responsibility for his own emotions again, how much it frightened him to think that he was alone and abandoned in the world. He almost described to her about his master, how the Kaizer controlled him utterly and how much he liked it. He almost explained how very, very much he wanted to be fucked right now, and how violently he was accustomed to this happening, how much he wanted to be told what he should be thinking, feeling.

Unfortunately for all involved, just as all of these desires and fears and despairs began to bubble up from the tightness in his chest, Saeko said softly, "It's okay, Daisuke. Nobody will ever do things like that to you again. I promise."

She didn't understand. She would never understand. The urge to tell her what his problems really were vanished, and Daisuke simply wailed into her shoulder until the weight on his soul loosened a bit and the tears stopped.

It was eventually determined that Daisuke's Digivice didn't do anything at all, and because it didn't have any sharp edges and couldn't be pried apart to produce one, it was given back to him the next day; however, he wasn't allowed to keep it on his person unless someone was with him. It took a little longer for the D-terminal to find its way back into Daisuke's hands, because it seemingly did do things (although what these things could be were more of a mystery), and because the cover could conceivably be snapped off to produce a fairly sharp wedge of plastic. It wasn't until a miserable New Year's had come and gone before Daisuke was judged not to be a danger to himself anymore and was allowed to keep possessions. At this point, the D-terminal was given back to him as well, and Muraki, although frequently nearby, didn't hover over him quite so much.

The children were allowed outside into yards that, to Daisuke's eye, resembled animal pens, with high stone fences surrounding them that would be impossible to climb unaided. There, in the wet and cold January sunlight and under the watchful eyes of several adults, the boys who were kept here were broken up into groups by age and encouraged to play a variety of team games.

The children in Daisuke's age group numbered about nine, and he knew several of them from the group therapy that he was dragged to three times a week. He was tired of listening to them whine and cry about how their fathers and uncles and, in one boy's case an older sister, had fucked them. Only it was never called that, the counselor who ran the group sessions always danced around the terms. Daisuke had started to feel quite frustrated in the past handful of sessions, and had considered telling them all to shut the hell up. From what he'd heard from them up until now, none of them had really suffered all that much and all the crying was starting to get on his nerves. He had yet to do this, of course, as his heart started to pound with nervousness whenever he seriously considered it. His master would have been extremely unamused by any such outburst from him, and although he told himself again and again that his master wasn't here and would never know, the impulse to remain quiet and not draw attention to himself was still too strong.

Some of the older children had been given a soccer ball and had set up an impromptu game, and Daisuke wandered over in that direction across the cold and muddy yard. He wouldn't be allowed to participate, but it was fascinating to watch nevertheless. He could imagine the Kaizer here, dapper and perfectly-groomed as always, showing these boys how the game was really played, and he crouched down beside the building wall to watch them and daydream.

The Kaizer had not come back for him since the Digivice had appeared. Daisuke wasn't even a hundred-percent sure that his master had been here in the first place to deliver it, and sometimes he toyed with other theories on how the thing had appeared beside him that morning. None of them really seemed plausible, though. Even the idea that the Digivice had some kind of magic in it that made it want to return to him didn't really fly, as there was no explanation as to why it hadn't done so sooner if that were the case. There was really no explanation as to why the Kaizer left him here, either. The only notion Daisuke had was that he'd somehow not lived up to his master's expectations and that he wasn't wanted back. His throat closed up once again as this thought passed through his mind.

"Heya, Daisuke," said a familiar voice, and he looked up to find Muraki standing nearby. "Don't you want to play with the others?"

Daisuke shook his head. "I'm tired of them," he said.

"Want to go back inside?"

Daisuke shrugged. He was quite indifferent, really, but Muraki took that for an affirmative and let him back into the building. There was no group therapy that afternoon, and technically Daisuke had "free time" right now. In reality, he was expected to choose some sort of activity and do it; playing outside was one such, and there were also art classes and writing workshops and a games room for boys who didn't have the energy or inclination to want to be outside in January. One or more children would doubtless be spending this time begging to have the television turned on, although it was one of the facility rules that there was no television during the day, only in the evening, and everybody learned that right away.

Instead of making his way toward any of these things which were meant to distract troubled boys and teenagers from whatever problems had driven them here in the first place, Daisuke went to his room, wanting to see Chibimon. This was the first time that he had ditched all activity during "free time," and his pulse raced at the possibility that he might get caught at it. Being caught wandering around aimlessly during "free time" was considered a major offence, so he shushed Chibimon when the Digimon woke up and squealed with delight at seeing him.

"Quiet," he said, laying down on his bed. He was no longer tied down to it at night, which meant that after lights-out he could slip out of his pajamas and sleep comfortably naked. He wasn't tired at the moment, though, so he pulled out his Digivice and examined it a moment. Nothing displayed on the tracking screen, which didn't surprise him. Then he glanced at Chibimon, who was working out an excess of energy by attempting to do a back-flip.

Maybe, thought Daisuke, maybe if I saw him, I could convince him to take me back.

"Chibimon," he said, extending the Digivice toward his partner, "Digivolve."

Chibimon squeaked in surprise as the glowing light from the now-shining Digivice caught him. "Chibimon, Digivolve to ... Veemon!"

Daisuke was busily poking at his D-terminal when Veemon recovered from the shock of this unexpected Digivolution, and said, "Daisuke, what are we doing?"

"Leaving," he said, accessing the Digimental of Courage and holding out his Digivice once more; Flamedramon could go through the wall like it wasn't there, and he figured the fence wouldn't be too much more difficult. "Digimental up!"

"But ..." said Veemon, just before the Digivice's light caught him again. "Veemon, Armor Digivolve to ..."

In an instant, Daisuke knew something was wrong. It was taking too long, and somehow the Digivice felt ... strange, in his hand. Almost ... reluctant. He checked the D-terminal, and his heart sank when he saw that the Digimental of Courage wasn't activating after all; a moment later, the light faded, leaving Veemon reeling with confusion in the middle of the floor.

Okay, we won't think about what this means, he told himself, and plowed on forward. Courage didn't activate, but maybe Friendship would. Raidramon would work just as well. He accessed the other Digimental and held out the Digivice again.

"Daisuke, I don't understand," said Veemon, picking himself up off the floor from where'd he fallen after the failure to Digivolve.

"It doesn't matter," said Daisuke. "Digimental up!"

"Veemon, Armor Digivolve to ..."

Again there came that feeling of hesitation, reluctance ... disappointment. The light surrounded Veemon, but when it faded, the Digimon was still Veemon, and the Digimental hadn't activated. Daisuke, going a little numb inside, let both Digivice and D-terminal slide from his hands onto the floor.