Saturday / June 23 / 1:21am - Shopping District.

cyanidesweets:

[ She felt stupid, after what he said. It was a slap in the face, and she was glad that he really didn’t slap her. Her face was fine, but she couldn’t find the words. Was this real? Did Takeru, did everyone know her secret? Did everyone hate her for it? She was already on the verge of tears. His laughter didn’t make this easy, and she couldn’t even stand to look at him. 

Palmon was staring at him — angry expression. Almost ready to attack. She was about to, since Mimi said nothing. Mimi was just there, standing still. Like nothing was happening. Like she couldn’t believe this. Palmon was going to take action and she started to run at Takeru. But then something changed. She was gone, no longer besides Mimi. She didn’t know where she was. “Mimi…” 

Mimi looked up as soon as the scenery changed. She couldn’t see anything, not Palmon, not what the room looked like. Not even Takeru. But she could hear him, and that was unsettling. She had no comment to make, didn’t want to hear his words. Things were getting somewhere, and now he just crushed everyone’s ambitions. ]

A dark chuckle sounded in the darkness around Palmon. “Things could have been different Palmon,” Takeru murmured to the digimon, almost in a sad way, “You could have been a good asset, like myself, but Mimi-chan needs to be taught a lesson.”  With that it was like invisible ropes grabbed at Palmon, stringing her up in the air with no way to escape.

“Mimi,” Takeru called out so that Mimi could hear him. “Are you scared yet? You should be. You’ve gotten confident over the years. Confident that you could poison the digimon that visited your shop, that you could fight back some how. I used to be confident like that but I was wrong. And soon, you’ll learn that you’ve been wrong too,” he explained to her. When his words finished it was like a light seemed to appear, illuminating the bound Palmon. She was all that could be seen in the darkness, nothing else but the plant-like digimon fighting against her bonds.

Saturday / June 23 / 1:21am - Shopping District.

cyanidesweets:

[ Mimi was sleeping by now, that was normal. She had gotten off work… maybe a few hours ago? Yeah, something like that. Her bed was comforting, a way to relax her sore muscles. Falling asleep didn’t take very long, which was good.

The fact that she was dreaming escaped her. She was standing on the street, it was sunny out. On her head was one of her best hats that did a fair enough job at keeping her cool. Something was off though. There was no henchmen on the street. At all. This should have been a good thing, but Mimi was surprised. 

Beautiful day, and no Digimon that could ruin that? The only Digimon that was in the area was Palmon. Since things seemed to be good… maybe they could take advantage of that! Shopping sounded like a neat idea… Maybe she could even snatch a few things while no one was looking. 

But hold that thought. Looking up, Mimi realized that Takeru was standing there. She blinked, confused. He wasn’t there before… she was pretty sure of that. He wasn’t facing her, so Mimi started to walk over. 

”..Takeru?” She called out as soon as she got closer. But she was still a good distance away. Last time they talked, it ended up a disaster. It was natural for Mimi to be wary. Right? ] 

Takeru seemed to react slowly to the sound of his name, turning around slowly in an almost zombie-like manner. Mimi had been right to be wary, the dull red glow of Takeru’s eyes as he looked at her was proof of that fact. She had been wrong about the street being free from henchmen. No, there were no other digimon and there were no other human henchmen but Takeru was enough, as long as the dark spiral was around his arm, hidden safely beneath his shirt.

Takeru’s lips curved up into a smirk slowly. “Mimi-chan, I’ve been waiting for you,” he said quietly. He slowly made his way forward towards her, taking slow and graceful steps that mimicked the way a predator would stalk it’s prey. For that is what Takeru was now, nothing but a controlled monster for the enemy.

Saturday / May 5 / 5:00pm / Bakery ; Yamato’s Birthday Party

cyanidesweets:

forbidden-knowledge:

ex-keeper-of-friendship:

Yamato hesitated at the corner of the bakery, first aid kit in hand. He really didn’t want to face that atmosphere again, but he knew he had to get the kit in there so they could bandage up Patamon. And the sooner he got that over with, the sooner he could go look for Takeru. At this point, he doubted he’d be able to find his brother, but he still needed to do it.

Yamato took a deep breath, readying himself to deal with whatever sort of atmosphere was in the bakery, and walked up to the doors.

As soon as he entered, he noticed that, although Patamon was still beat up, he wasn’t acting like he was too badly injured. Aside from that, it was difficult to judge the feelings in the room, so he just held up the kit and said, “Got it.”

The problem pertaining to the orange Digimon was practically resolved for the time being, but there was still one last thing he needed to tend to before the atmosphere could “feel right”. He turned to Mimi.

“Mimi, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to talk about that privately some other time,” he insisted. He had expected to talk about it with her eventually, but he never intended on having an audience for it.

When the door opened to reveal Yamato holding up the medical kit, Koushiro let out a deep breath. This was by far one of the most frustrating days he had ever experienced, but as slow as it was going, it was still progressing. It’s not as if time had stopped all of a sudden and the world decided to curse him with bad luck. After providing a temporary fix to Patamon, they’d be able to go their separate ways… At least after helping Mimi clean up. She had worked too hard for it to fail without a hint of celebration, so helping her around the store was the least he could do. It would also provide an opportunity for them to talk about past events.

He walked over and took the kit from Yamato, muttering a “thanks” under his breath, and headed back to the injured Digimon. If there was anything he needed right now, it was Jyou. He had worked as a Digimon doctor for a while when they separated, so he’d know what to do to ensure Patamon’s full recovery. Koushiro never stumbled upon this kind of information on his daily Internet browse, so he was, for the first time in a while, clueless.

“Anyone know what to do?”

[ Annoyed, and lost in thought. When Patamon addressed her, she jumped and turned to face the Digimon. “Huh?” After she asked that, she picked up the words that were lost on her for a moment. “Oh, no don’t worry about it.” She didn’t blame the Digimon, not really. Patamon was hurt, and that was a problem. Takeru walked out, which wasn’t the best thing in her opinion, but Koushiro could have warned him or something, she supposed. It would have been better if Takeru just got over his issues, and acted happy to see his partner. Despite any situation, Mimi would have done that if it was her. 

And then there was Yamato. Mimi felt a little relief. Now they could fix at least one problem, and probably the biggest one right now. That made her smile a little bit. 

Some other time… Well, that was better than being ignored, so she took it. She could wait. If it took long, she wouldn’t but /that/ patient, but she would at least try to go without whining. But for now Koushiro had other concerns, and they were more important. Obviously Mimi wasn’t Jyou, but she knew a few things. The simple things, anyway.

Mimi walked over to Koushiro and Patamon, giving a small nod. “..Sorta.” That was better than nothing. Looking at the kit, she pointed to the cotton balls and a bottle. “Put that stuff on the cotton, and apply it on the wounds. I’ll have to hold Patamon down, because it might sting a little.” That said, she gripped the Digimon carefully and not tightly, but tight enough to keep Patamon from getting away. ]

Patamon was glad to hear Mimi’s answer. Though he still had a feeling that it was his fault that the party had been ruined. At least Mimi seemed not to be brooding anymore though. He wanted the others to be happy, if they could be at least. In times like these he knew that was hard though.

When Yamato came back, Patamon was happy. Hopefully this would mean that the attention would be off of him after they fixed him up. He was a little surprised to hear that Koushiro did not know what to do with the first aid kit. Though he guessed the redhead didn’t know everything, he sure acted like he did most of the time.

When Mimi came over and held him down he frowned a little but stayed still, knowing that they needed to do this. He would just have to hope they finished this fast.

Saturday / May 5 / 5:00pm / Bakery ; Yamato’s Birthday Party

cyanidesweets:

forbidden-knowledge:

ex-keeper-of-friendship:

During his trip back, Yamato tried to figure out what Koushiro could have been thinking. Yeah, alright, bring the group back together. Sure. But Takeru had made it clear, at least to him, that he and Patamon were having a problem that couldn’t just be solved. While he knew what it was, Yamato had to assume Koushiro didn’t. Maybe… he just didn’t know how bad the situation was? Still, that’s not excuse for blatantly going against his friend’s wishes. Koushiro was acting a lot like… Taichi. Back when they were still kids in the Digital World for the first time. He was all big picture and not at all thinking about the moral of the team. If your team is down, you can’t accomplish the big stuff.

He rubbed his neck and sighed. Maybe Yamato would just have to look out for that part again. Hopefully he wouldn’t get into any fist fights with Koushiro. Yamato had matured beyond that anyway.

Maybe.

Patamon had accepted his apology. Phase 1 was almost complete. The remainder of this stage in his plans would involve gaining trust from the guy who stormed off earlier. That was going to be a bit difficult.

He smiled at the Digimon.

It wasn’t a fake smile, but he did force it a bit. He always took pride in the fact that he was never as hard-headed as Taichi was at times when attacking certain situations, yet here he was, acting in the very same manner that his old friend had done years ago. In many ways, Koushiro had matured from that young kid he was, but at the same time, certain aspects of his mind became more impulsive to the point where it was immature. He blamed his constant state of running away and having to think on his feet for that.

“Now we’ll just have to wait for Yamato to return with the medical supplies, and we can try to fix you up then. After that, well…”

Koushiro thought for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of his next few words. If he forced Patamon to stay with one of them, then the same tense atmosphere would ensue again, which would deal some major damage to his intended plans, but if he were to allow the Digimon to leave as he pleased, there was no guarantee they would find him again.

He gulped.

“You can leave as you’d like.”

[ He didn’t answer right away, and she was trying her very best to be understanding and patient. Patamon was more important, anyway. She knew that, but when she was ignored, being understanding was impossible. Mimi wanted to whine and groan and interrupt their conversation, but that would just add another problem to the list, and she didn’t want to deal with anymore drama. If the situation was different, then yes, she would have been vocal about being ignored. Or maybe he didn’t hear her, having been wrapped up in talking to Patamon. She wasn’t about to ask again, because that would still count as a interruption.

For the moment, she gave up and turned her head towards the door, ignoring them herself in some sense. Staring at the door, she waited for Yamato to walk through it. Anytime now! Sigh. Between this and being bored, she wasn’t quite sure which one of those was worse. ]

Patamon was more than a little shocked at Koushiro’s last words. He was going to let him leave? He had not really expected that, and clearly even saying it had pained the redhead a little. It made Patamon wonder what kind of things Koushiro was planning. What kind of ulterior motives did the digidestined have for keeping him around. It didn’t matter though. He was letting him leave and Patamon was going to leave. But maybe, he would keep a closer eye on what was going on from now on.

He looked around the bakery, only just now noticing the party decorations. He blinked a little, “You were all having a party?” he questioned. He looked to Mimi, noticing the girl looked bored and more than a little annoyed at everything. “I’m sorry if my showing up ruined your party Mimi,” he said quietly. He wanted to say that both because he truly was sorry and because he hoped Mimi would cheer up a little more if she received some attention. She’d been like that when they were all younger at least.

Friday / May 4 / 3:37pm / Shopping district

cyanidesweets:

ta-ke-ru:

Takeru’s eyes widened a little at the praise. It was not the sort of thing he was used to hearing. And even then, it meant a little more coming from one of his old friends. The older digidestined had always been sort of role-models to him, even Mimi and Koushiro who were only a few years older than him. Hearing that sort of praise coming from Mimi actually made him feel happy. “Thanks,” he mumbled, scratching his head sheepishly. He didn’t really feel like he deserved it a lot of the time.

“So, what about you Mimi? What have you been doing?” he asked. From what he remembered of Mimi she was not the type to stand by and let the digimon take over everything but he also knew she would not be right out there fighting them like him. Still, he knew to leave the question open enough that she could answer how she wanted, whether it be about the fighting or just life in general.

[ It was just as weird praising him. Sorta, anyway. It was a big deal, though. Nowadays, rarely anything good happened. So knowing that someone out there was doing stuff like that was always good to hear! As long as Takeru was happy, she was too. “No problem! Children are pretty important, anyway.” No one deserved this fate, really. Helping as many people as they could was a reward, even if she hadn’t done as much as him. 

“Besides baking? Not much!” She kept the smile, so her lie wasn’t clear. Of course she wasn’t just standing by, no. She wouldn’t just sit around, as much as she liked that idea. “Can’t say I’ve done as much as you.” She was just ‘living life normally’. As far as any of her friends were concerned, anyway. ] 

Takeru nodded a little at Mimi’s response, “Sounds pretty boring. Still, at least you seem safe and okay. Guess that’s all that’s important really.” He had a feeling that Mimi’s answer was going to be deflective and it had been. It didn’t matter, he was not going to pry into whatever secrets she might have. They all had those nowadays.

He glanced around the room awkwardly after, not knowing what else to talk about now. It wasn’t easy to carry a conversation considering the dark times they lived it, it was hard to think about light and unimportant things to talk about and it seemed so far that Mimi did not want to talk about other sorts of things.

Friday / May 4 / 3:37pm / Shopping district

cyanidesweets:

[ That’s what she thought… deep down. He did kill them, and she wasn’t surprised. Yes, this conversation might have been weird… but it wasn’t all that odd. She felt better knowing that he wasn’t innocent, similar to her even. Maybe. Did this really matter, though? She wasn’t going to come out and say ‘I kill Digimon too!’ with a smile on her face, like it was nothing.

She nodded, knowing the feel all too well. Even if she attempted to decrease the army’s numbers, there was still more. It hurt to know that with him doing the same, nothing was really working. Before she could get a chance to slip up and look upset, his story made her smile. Which worked, it was the perfect disguise. 

“I’m proud of you!” Even if he didn’t know where they went, he helped them. They could have been safe, possibly were. She didn’t even want to think about the bad things that could have been possible too. ]

Takeru’s eyes widened a little at the praise. It was not the sort of thing he was used to hearing. And even then, it meant a little more coming from one of his old friends. The older digidestined had always been sort of role-models to him, even Mimi and Koushiro who were only a few years older than him. Hearing that sort of praise coming from Mimi actually made him feel happy. “Thanks,” he mumbled, scratching his head sheepishly. He didn’t really feel like he deserved it a lot of the time.

“So, what about you Mimi? What have you been doing?” he asked. From what he remembered of Mimi she was not the type to stand by and let the digimon take over everything but he also knew she would not be right out there fighting them like him. Still, he knew to leave the question open enough that she could answer how she wanted, whether it be about the fighting or just life in general.

Friday / May 4 / 3:37pm / Shopping district

cyanidesweets:

[ “Not maybe. I’m sure of it! Look at how many of us have meet. It can’t be just luck, right?” She truly believed that a higher power was at work here, sorta. Which was foolish, but really. What were the chances that she meet with three of her friends? Given the situation, too. Mimi had a feeling that there would be more, maybe even all of them. 

Oh, right! She had forgot about that, and it breaks her out of her chain of thought. “Oh… Well, at least you’re doing something good. What do you do exactly, though? Fight some digimon? Or…” She didn’t want to say kill, because that would make her feel odd about this conversation. ]

Takeru shrugged a little. “I fight them. Usually we have to kill them. There’s always more somehow though. I don’t think we’ll ever win. Still, we have to do something right? At least try to help all the other people out there. Like, a little while ago, I helped save a whole group of this kids that were going to be sold into slavery. Granted I don’t know what’s happened to them now but at least I was able to help a little bit,” he explained. Doing this sort of stuff is how he manages to make it through the days. It is a constant war within himself between the need to fight back and the fact that he didn’t think they could win.

Saturday / May 5 / 5:00pm / Bakery ; Yamato’s Birthday Party

cyanidesweets:

forbidden-knowledge:

ex-keeper-of-friendship:

How was he suppose to find anything in Mimi’s apartment? He’d only been there once, and all they did was sit on the couch. Ok, if he was a first aid kit, where would it be? 

Yamato searched for a long time, longer than he wanted to anyway. He didn’t want to go in Mimi’s room, but he did anyway to look. He did eventually find the white box after a while. But it was tiny. Would there be enough supplies for Patamon? Digimon healed fairly quickly, so probably. 

Yamato sorta tore through her apartment in search of the damn thing, and he felt bad for it. Especially because he didn’t exactly remember where everything went. He put the things back if he remembered where they went, or if he could figure it out, but he knew some things were definitely not left where he found them. Mimi would probably get mad at him for it later, but she send him looking for it, so she probably shouldn’t complain. 

He had cooled off during his walk to and from Mimi’s apartment, but he was still frustrated with the way his friends, “friends”, had acted. It was obvious something was wrong with Takeru and Patamon, and they hadn’t cared at all about it. Especially not Koushiro. Sure, look for Patamon. Yes, by all means, help him! But… to reunite the two the way he did? Koushiro was acting more like a computer than when he met him. Maybe he secretly was a computer. Yamato smirked at the thought. 

As he returned to the bakery, he wondered where Takeru could have gone. He needed to get the first aid kit to Patamon and help the little guy first, but Yamato was fully planning on looking for his brother the moment he could. Though, by now, finding him was slim to none. 

He continued his trek back to the bakery.

Koushiro sighed.

Of course she wanted to talk about that. But with Patamon in the room? He guessed she must have picked up on the fact that he didn’t particularly want to talk about it with an audience, and decided to ask vague questions. If they were going to play that game, he was down.

“It came out of nowhere, I don’t know what happened.”

Which was true to an extent. Koushiro was never put in that situation before, and he simply didn’t know how to act in the given circumstances. It was like a caveman being introduced to fire, or a child learning how to walk. It was a completely new experience for him, and he didn’t know what the hell he was doing. That didn’t necessarily mean he didn’t regret it - he did, and if it was going to screw with their friendship, he wouldn’t know what to do. It all came down to what Mimi wanted to do. It was out of his hands.

But aside from that, there was another issue at hand. Patamon. If he was going to make up Takeru in the near future, he might as well start by fixing his current relationship with Patamon, something he could do then and there on the spot. But apologizing? It was going to be rough.

“Patamon, I,” he stammered. “I see now that my intentions were wrong, and it was foolish of me to force upon you and Takeru the friendship you used to have. This is a decision that should be left to you two figure out, and it wasn’t in my place to try and intervene. I apologize.”

And he was sorry, to an extent. Maybe he over-exaggerated it a bit, but the point was there. It didn’t change the fact, however, that he wanted everyone to reunite again. That was his top priority, and nothing was changing that.

[ Looking behind her shoulders to see if Patamon was listening in, she found out that he wasn’t. The digimon didn’t look like he was, anyway. So she decided to drop being vague. Well, sorta. She wasn’t going to mention what he did to make her feel odd, but she did have some more questions. And Yamato was taking his sweet time, which she was thankful for. This way, she didn’t have to rush this conversation. Thinking over her words, she finally spoke up. 

Before she spoke this words, a blush made its way onto her face, but she ignored it, “Was that all you wanted?” He was being vague himself, so she wasn’t sure. Did he want to date her, or something? Was it a possible mistake, maybe a I got caught in the moment sort of thing? Mimi guessed it was one of those, because one night stands didn’t seem like something Koushiro would go for. There was the chance she was wrong, though. She had changed, she had personality flaws and secrets and he could be the same way with a few things.

Or he could be really sincere. More than she was… The way he apologized to Patamon gave her second thoughts, gave her hope that he didn’t just want to get into her pants. ]

Patamon blinked at looked to Koushiro when he heard his name. He had to admit that he was a little surprised at the apology. Maybe from the old Koushiro it would have made sense but from this new Koushiro? It didn’t really. Not from the way he had acted so far. Patamon was betting that it was more him trying to do damage control than anything else.

Still, it would only be right for him to accept the apology. Koushiro seemed to be trying and that was worth something at least. He gave a little nod, “Apology accepted. I understand you want things to be like they were but you don’t know what happened between us and it’s not as easy to fix things as you seem to think.” That was really the only thing he could think of to say. He just hoped that they did not ask what had happened. He did not want to explain all of it.

Saturday / May 5 / 5:00pm / Bakery ; Yamato’s Birthday Party

cyanidesweets:

forbidden-knowledge:

ex-keeper-of-friendship:

Yamato stared in shock at Koushiro and Mimi. Really? Neither of them cared about what could have happened between Takeru and Patamon? It was getting down right sickening to him. Sure, times were tough, but that didn’t mean they had to be heartless. Yamato was beginning to think Koushiro had ice running through his veins. And he wasn’t sure what was going on with Mimi. 

And apparently they didn’t need him around either. He partly wanted to tell her to get the kit herself, but Patamon… He took the keys, but his expression made it obvious he wasn’t happy about it. Wordlessly, he turned and walked out of the bakery.

What happened to the friends who cared about each other? Obviously they were gone. Alright, maybe he was overreacting about the situation, but that was pretty damn heartless, and Yamato didn’t like it one bit. You can’t force two people to get along. They have to want to do it. And trying to make them will only piss them off. 

And piss Yamato off too.

It was a long, angry walk to Mimi’s apartment. He wasn’t nearly as careful as he should have been, but he didn’t think anything was following him. 

Two for two at pissing people off. Well so at least he assumed. The way Yamato took Mimi’s keys wasn’t in a manner that reflected a willingness to do it, but more so out of reluctance. This internal conflict wasn’t going to aid in any way in the fight against MaloMyotismon. Koushiro felt he didn’t do anything wrong, so he didn’t particularly want to apologize, but he might have to, given the current circumstances. Perfect.

He let go of the small Digimon, and made his way over to a nearby chair. No doubt Mimi wanted to talk to him about something, or wanted him to bring something up, from the way she urged Yamato to leave them alone. And if this thing happened to be the incident from a few days earlier, he didn’t intend on talking about that with an audience.

Koushiro looked at Mimi before sternly asking, “Well?”

[ As much as Mimi loved dramas, she didn’t have any positive feelings for this one. Patamon was safe with them, yes, that was all well and good. But Yamato was mad, and she could guess why he was mad. He DID make it obvious, and that was bothering her. There was a lingering feeling — a feeling that told her this wasn’t going to go away easily. Yamato could be just as stubborn as Takeru, a common trait shared between two brothers. Mimi wasn’t sure she was ready for it, honestly. 

But for now, there was a different sort of drama going on. Between her and Koushiro. She couldn’t be more nervous, not sure what to say to bring this on. And in the moment, she just decided to be blunt about it, possibly the wrong words leaving her mouth, “What was that about anyway?” She wasn’t talking about Yamato, or Takeru. Or anything they did. She was referring to him trying to get some. Yeah, let’s call it that. Even though it sounded lame, she was glad that she left it at that, because Patamon was still in the room. ]

Patamon huffed a little at the other two after Yamato had left. They had made such a fuss over keeping him here and now they were ignoring him. He frowned and flopped himself down on the table to wait because there was no real choice. He did his best to ignore the conversation between the others, it seemed private and he didn’t need to butt his nose into their business.

His mind went to Takeru instead. Not a day went by when he didn’t think of his partner but this was the first time he had ever really been faced by seeing him in years. He was not sure he wanted that. Maybe Yamato was right and they could get over this but it would take time. Patamon was not sure Koushiro would be patient enough to wait, it did not seem like it. Patamon was scared of digivolving now. He’d hurt people when he’d been Devimon for that small amount of time. Killed people and he’d hated it. And it was Takeru’s fault. Did he blame him? Yeah a little bit but he blamed himself too, for letting it get that far. For the look of fear on Takeru’s face when he’d dark-digivolved. Patamon sighed a little. This was more complicated than they knew, well maybe Yamato knew but he was gone for the moment.

Friday / May 4 / 3:37pm / Shopping district

cyanidesweets:

[ Mimi was grateful for her apartment. Most of it, anyway. It was even better than Takeru’s, even though he lucked out. Anyone one else was less lucky. So she sent a smile his way, happy that he had some shelter. Imperfect, but it was something. “Yeah, exactly! I still feel bad for the people on the streets or the people who’ve been captured. I wish I could help them right now.” Sigh, this was depressing now and that was no surprise. 

“One day I will. We all will — when we all get together. There’s not many of us together now, but I have faith that we’ll get to see everyone.” ]

Takeru nodded a little at Mimi’s words. “Maybe we will,” he murmured. He meant it for both things, seeing everyone again and helping other people. Maybe they would never be able to win but they could still help people. That was the reason he was in the resistance group, the reason he did the things he did. He remembered that Mimi had asked him about it earlier. He couldn’t think of anything else to talk about so he might as well mention that.

He cleared his throat a bit. “You asked earlier if I fight. Well I do. I’m part of a resistance group,” he said quietly. He could go into more detail but he decided to let Mimi ask any questions she had first.