Old memories, old enemies (Part 2) [Kath/Akemi]

At first hesitant, Tokomon finally just let himself be picked up and wrapped around the arms of the hatted girl. His eyes were still filled with sadness, but it was clear he was much better there than down on the floor. He needed that. He had been without one of those for longer than he could even remember. At least without one that’s real.

“Memories… they are great. They can do whatever I ask them to do, and follow every order. Besides, I can shape them however I want.” Of course, that wasn’t all. “But…” He made a pause, lowering his gaze once again. “They still don’t feel… real. You, on the other side.” He snuggled against Akemi's chest. He could even feel the beat of her heart. That felt… so nice.

He just remained silent, listening to the human’s words, one by one. He still had a sorrowful expression, but what the girl was saying was not something alien to his thoughts. It was something he had considered in the past, and he knew she was probably right. It still wasn’t easy to just take the leap and do it. He was scared, and he was aware of that.

“I know you’re right.” He sighed, to then raise his gaze to Akemi once again, while they kept hugging. “I just feel I can’t do it all at once.”

“How should I start, Kemi?”

Leaving the memories behind to get to actually know other digimon or humans was something that, even though he had considered before, just seemed awfully hard to do.

Leaning his head upwards, Tokomon just let himself be stroke by Akemi’s hand. It had definitely been a while since he had any real display of affection like this one. “It’s funny… I only made my memories do stuff that would make me happy, but in the end, they just made me really sad.” Some tears had started to go through the baby digimon’s cheeks. Maybe he couldn’t actually remember how long had he been without this type of contact, but the sorrow he was feeling now definitely was telling him it was a lot.

After maybe a couple of minutes, he decided to speak again. “Do you… really think I can do this?” He asked Akemi. In his dark eyes, a ray of hope could be seen. The tears had stopped coming out, even though some could still be found in the corner of his eyes. “Going… out there… huh?” He gazed at his surroundings, for the last time.

---

This metallic-monkey-thing just didn’t know how to quit right? It was a good thing Jazz didn’t either. Or so she thought. She tried to concentrate all of her energy in her next jab, only to realize… his foe wasn’t there anymore.

Anzu would probably notice Empress had disappeared too, right in the middle of their cruel battle.

---

Katherine had given up on yelling for Akemi. It was clear she was the only one able to listen to her voice during this whole time, and her hatted friend couldn't hear hers.

A dark sphere materialized in the middle of the room. It got big enough only to cover a certain area and then shrank again, leaving Akemi kneeling over the ground, holding a pink, small baby digimon.

Katherine slowly started walking towards her, cautiously. She was still wondering if this was real. Finally, she reached her, kneeling on the floor to only to wrap her arms around her friend and probably give her the tightest hug she had ever received. “Y-You’re… back” She muttered. It was real. She was here, she was back. “I was so… scared…” The teenager managed to utter, sniffing. Her eyes were very teary.

Katherine had listened to every word Akemi had said, and she somehow now felt a lot closer to her. Thankfully, that closeness was also physical now. Her friend was back.

“Nhm-Nhm.” A shook of her head issued along with this sound, while Katherine took the tears of her eyes. “It wasn’t your fault.” Bottom line was that her friend was back, and she wasn’t going to let her go anywhere now.

From letting go of her hug with the hatted girl, she found a small baby digimon resting over her legs. “H-Hi there…” She managed, very surprised upon just noticing the creature.

The Tokomon immediately tucked his face against Akemi’s shorts, trying to hide. “Hi.” He muttered. A brief silence ensued. “I’m sorry for all of this.” He added.

“I don’t get it.” Katherine lifted her gaze to her friend again. “What’s going on?” An explanation was much needed.

“Jasso!” Jazz’s voice could be heard from down below. “Akemi!” She was yelling loudly, extending the last syllable of her calling. As energetic as always. “Are you two up there?” Apparently, from where she was standing, she couldn’t see either hers or Anzu’s tamer, but she knew they had probably gone up. “I can’t go up, Anzu’s meteorite crashed the stairs…”

If they walked to the middle of what formerly was the living room of this floor, they would see Jazz down below, in the living room of the ground floor. It was probably a good idea to go tell her they were fine. If they did, they would find her holding Anzu in her arms. She was back at her bean form.

Her eyes widened upon feeling Akemi pulling her close for a hug. A tender smile was drawn on Katherine's lips, as she wrapped both arms around her friend.

“That’s right. It’s not Akemi’s fault. It was me. See?” The Tokomon started shinning, getting the form of a slightly bigger digimon. The beast Katherine had seen inside the room before Akemi disappeared. “It was me. This is my rookie form. I’m a…” The digimon seemed to be having trouble to remember the name of his species.

“A Tapirmon.” Katherine said, looking at her D-Terminal.

“That’s right!” He giggled for a second, to then go back to an apologetic gaze. “I’m sorry for making your friend disappear.”
“That’s okay. I think… we all need a chat with Akemi, from time to time.” Katherine said, looking at the shorter girl, while she received her aid for standing up.

Followed by the ghostly tapir, the duo went to what used to be the living room and looked below to Jazz and Anzu. It was great to see the duo in one piece, even if they were both rather exhausted.

“It was AMAZINGLY destructive. I LOVED it! It was just what I wanted to see.” Jazz declared, lifting the bean into the sky, to then take her down again for her to rest, still holding her within her arms.

“Why couldn’t YOU go back to your rookie form too?” Katherine asked, from up above.
“I never run out of energy, Jasso!!” The Chohakkaimon yelled effusively. In all honesty, the reason was probably she had used fewer techniques than Anzu. Her approach had been aggressive, but less energy-consuming

The human duo managed to get down thanks to Tapirmon’s levitation powers, they explained everything that had happened to both Jazz and Anzu and the former Tokomon apologized for his actions and explained everything a little better.

“Are you kidding!? I’m not mad at all! That fight was extremely fun! You should revive some more memories for me later!” Jazz dismissed the digimon’s apologies easily.
“I’m still sorry we destroyed your house.” Katherine bowed at the Tapirmon.

“It’s all right. I was tired of this place anyways.” The creature just shook his head. “Akemi has thought me to actually live my life and stop living from memories.” He showed a faint smile to the duo. “I’m just… not sure how. to start doing that.”

“Well, right now we have to leave for a mission soon, but…” Katherine crossed her arms, tilting her head. “You definitely have to hang out with us once we come back!” She gave a warm smile to him. “We should give you a name, though. You said you didn’t remember your last one, so getting you a new one should be a priority.” She turned to the hatted teenager. “Any ideas, Akemi?” Her green eyes still affixed on her friend, she made another question. “What should we do with him once we come back? We should look for a place for him to live”

Maybe they could think of a place he could be a part of?

His paw resting on his mouth, the little Tapirmon just stared while their new friends decided on a name for him. Apparently, they had come up to an agreement.

"Oneiros... Huh?" Katherine raised her gaze, to then turn at Anzu. "You're pretty smart, Anzu!"

"Of course she is. She might not look like it, but Anzu knows a lot about a lot of stuff!" Jazz wiggled Anzu's body while speaking.

"How could you know that? Besides... What’s that 'she might not look like it' stuff? That only made it worse for her..." Her right palm over her face, the Spaniard sweatdropped. “You were an awesome partner, Anzu. You were doing your best to protect Akemi.”

In all honesty, taking the Tapirmon to the Council seemed like the best course of action. It was a good way of making sure he was never alone and actually getting more help to build that city. “It is decided, then. Oneiros is coming with us.” Katherine’s gaze shifted towards the small beast. “Unless you have any objection or something.” She added.

“N-No!” Oneiros shook his head. “Of course not, but… Are you sure they’ll like me there?” He didn’t understand very well about this Deeplane stuff, but if they were Akemi’s friends, they couldn’t be that bad, right?

“Of course! I’m sure they’ll love you there.” Right after finishing this sentence, Katherine crossed her arms and raised her gaze. “Now… where can we leave you in the meantime, until we come back from our mission?”

“What about Reviewmon?” Jazz blinked twice, throwing what seemed to be as good suggestion as any.
“That could work. I still need to go there to see if he can fix the portal functionality in my digivice, anyways.” That was right. Actually, that was what they were supposed to do now that they were in Whitewater in the first place. Plans had definitely changed during the day, but it was nice to go back to the original objective.

“Why don’t you two head back to the meeting side, while Jazz and I take Oneiros to Reviewmon meanwhile?” The green-eyed suggested. “We probably won’t take long.”

If Akemi and her partner agreed to this, the girl and the former bunny would head to Reviewmon’s stand, in the classic alley of Whitewater where they were already used to finding him. Even if not entirely convinced by the premise at first, the yellow-coated digimon would accept the Tapirmon’s company, even though he would be unable to fix Katherine’s digivice, due to not having enough time. On the bright side, he would give her a new functionality: a communication line between Jazz and her through an earpiece inserted in Jazz’s ear. The tamer would only need to talk into her digivice for her partner to hear her.

“So you’re looking for this Ballistamon to find the map, then go steal the gems at Terminus and go to the Drum Sanctuary… do you realize how crazy you are? You’re facing dangerous criminals who almost killed you twice.”

While she and Jazz walked back to the square where they were supposed to meet the rest of the squad, Reviewmon’s words echoed in Katherine’s head. The task ahead of her and Jazz was more than challenging. Being delusional was almost a requirement to apply for this endeavor.

“Do you think we’ll find Bastian?” Sitting on the edge of her seat, next to the huge fountain in the middle of the square, Katherine stared at the cloudless sky, while they waited, right next to Akemi. Anzu and Jazz weren't around, they had gone to buy something to drink in a nearby store. Preoccupation could be seen in Katherine's emerald eyes.