Digimon Adventure Chronicles II: Secrets Revealed

...chapter THREE ~ Confrontation and Abduction

His blue eyes locked with Hikari's as he struggled to regain his breath. Koushiro took a few steps forward, curiosity dancing in his eyes. He hesitated with the prospect of moving in front of his pursuers. After a number of seconds he extended his arm and tried to push himself upwards only to have it buckle underneath his weight. He let out a yelp of pain as he crashed back to the ground. He clenched his teeth together to keep himself quiet. His canines were unusually sharp compared to Hikari's.

His blond hair was now matted to his head, a fact which contributed to the shivering his body was emitted. Hikari stepped forward, instinct to help the injured taking over her, and extender her hand towards his arm.

"WHAT are you doing?" He yelled as best he could but the sound emitted was but a whisper due to lack of air.

"I’m trying to help you up." She said, thrusting her hand forward and clasping it tightly around his wrist.. He gritted his teeth even harder then let out a second yelp of pain as she pulled. Frenzied, he jerked back his arm, causing a fresh burst of pain to shoot through his arm and body.

"Don’t touch." He growled at her, fixating hateful eyes upon hers.

She instantly retracted her hand, shocked at the outburst and the obvious hurt she had caused him. Then, finding her courage, she stared back at him. “Why not? I was just trying to-"

“It HURTS!" He spat, disgusted at her stupidity. 'If only I had taken care of her five years ago. I wouldn't have to deal with this trouble right now.'

Hikari thought about his reply for a while, saying nothing. Without warning she grabbed at his opposite arm, catching him off guard and successfully pulling him to his feet. He pulled himself away from her as is she were poison and leaned against the wall that he crashed into. Slowly he dusted off the snow that had caked to his sweater with his good arm, glaring at the girl all the while.

“What do you want from me?” He asked quietly, head hung in defeat. “Why are you following me?”

“You ran away from me.” She said, now unsure of her own motives. She had wanted to find out who he was, but what was she going to do after that?

His eyes narrowed at her answer. She was speaking as if he had started this whole ordeal. “How was I supposed to know what you wanted from me? You could have been a robber...a killer!”

She shook her said. There was no way that he could have thought a child might be a murderer. Choosing to ignore his replay, she spoke. "You’re cold."

As she expected the change of subject had caught him off guard. He answered deliberately. "I’m not."

Smiling, she corrected herself. "Maybe you’re not, but your body is...”

A frown quickly planting itself on his face at her comment. Satisfied, she continued. “ You’re shivering."

"Why do you CARE?" He snapped. "Why should you give a shit if I’m cold or not! I’m a stranger to you, so why can’t you just leave me alone?” He couldn’t breathe again. Hikari watched him momentarily choke on air with an incredulous look.

His eyes flashed dangerously with an anger she had seen in years past. With a huge breath of air he bellowed at her “Have you not bothered me enough? Three times isn’t enough for you! You didn’t even have the decency to destroy the bastard that sent me here in the first place yet you destroy my body each time we fight!”

“What are you talking about?” She asked angrily, confused with his last sentence.

"You know damned well what I speak of, Brat!” He growled through chattering teeth, and instantly she knew who he was.

"No, I DON'T know, or else I wouldn't be asking. Someone who sent you here?" She near growled herself at his resistance.

He chuckled darkly in attempt to frighten her. He tried desperately to still his erratic heartbeat. Locking his eyes with Hikari's, he spoke slowly. “I’m not stupid Child, and apparently neither are you.” He paused, watching her reaction. “ You know who I am, don't you.”

“Yes, I do!” She said, though he hadn't meant to let him know that. She tried to correct her blunder. “I meant who was the one that we didn’t destroy?”

“I don't believe that.” He said darkly, anger, hate and mistrust dancing in his eyes. “I can not accept that the man you served spoke nothing of my affiliation with the Dark Masters.”

Hikari sighed and stared at him with confusion. She thought ‘It's him. I was right. He admitted it himself. What is he talking about though? What reason do I have to believe him? One should never trust the enemy...but is that what he even is? Is he still our enemy?'' Her gaze shifted to bloodied ground he had fallen upon. A small, purplish red object was almost embedded in the snow just below his foot.

"What’s that?" She asked, pointing to it. He slowly followed the line her finger created. When he saw he reached to the ground as fast as his injured body could and stuffed it in his pocket, once again glaring at her.

"Nothing... It's none of your business." He growled.

"No one is ever that quick to put nothing away.” She replied.

"It’s because he doesn’t want you to take it away." Koushiro said, speaking for the first time since he joined Hikari in his chase. He took a few steps forward, stopping at Kari's left. She looked at him with confusion.

“Think, Kari.” Koushiro said calmly. “What did he have last time that belonged to us? That he was hiding so that he could use it for his personal gain?”

“...my crest?” She wondered.

"Yes!” He exclaimed excitedly, now turning to her completely. “It‘s a tag and crest! I haven‘t seen one of them in a long time now. It's interesting though, that he should have yet another one that we didn't know about.” Koushiro smiled and turned to the figure clutching his arm. “I see then, that you’re still up to your old tricks, Vamdemon? How’d you get it?"

"I've already told you that it is not your concern." He growled.

"Ah, but it is, since it is something that obviously doesn't belong to you.” Koushiro said smugly, receiving a glare from the hurt creature. “Why are you here?” Koushiro said deliberately. “What is it going to take to kill you? No one on this planet wants you around to ruin their lives!”

He said nothing, unable to reply as the pain in his head returned once again with double strength than he had experienced previously. As he doubled over in pain Koushiro continued.

"So why haven‘t you tried to kill us yet? You've been here for at least three days. Oh yes, I know,” He said in response to a surprised look he received from the crouched man. “ I've seen you around. Don‘t you want to continue the charade of being the king of Earth and the digital world? Don't you want to finish what you tried to do? Wouldn't you want to kill us before we knew of your presence?”

Koushiro watched him intently as he stood upright once more. Keeping his eyes shut from pain, he finally spoke.

"If I could do the deed I would have killed you the moment I set foot in this wretched place" He said, voice finally dropping.

"Then you can’t?” Koushiro asked smugly. He laughed. “ You’re too weak aren’t you? What’s wrong, have we drained you of your powers that much?”

"It’s not a matter of being weak! I...merely don’t have the means to do it.” He said angrily, choosing his words carefully and hoping the boy wouldn't understand.

“Forget it. It’s not worth arguing with you.” Koushiro stated and reached into his jeans. He withdrew out a pocketknife and switched out the blade. “I might as well get this over with...” He said slowly and deliberately, watching a fearful look appear on Vamdemon's face. “Maybe if a human kills you, you won’t be able to come back again.”

Kari shuffled nervously at Koushiro strange behavior.

Vamdemon continued watching him, eyes flashing from the boy to Hikari, hoping she would restrain him. He spoke with a noticeable hint of fear in his voice. “You wouldn’t...You would commit murder.”

A smile formed on Koushiro's lips and he let out another laugh. The strange look he held previously vanished, replaced with one of amusement. “Then things are just as I expected.”

Vamdemon's fearful look melted away into one of anger. With a growl he asked “Just what would that be.?”

Koushiro's smile grew wider. “That you are human.” He watched the angry look change once more to one of complete bewilderment. “Don't even try to deny it. I knew it. This is interesting indeed. Now the question is just what to do with you. Hmm....“ Koushiro thought for a while and glanced to Hikari as if to ask for her opinion. Just as quickly his gaze fell back upon Vamdemon. He spoke “Well, it seems like there isn't much of a choice... You’re coming with us.”

Vamdemon laughed incredulously. Hikari was surprised he was able to do so after the trouble he had breathing just a minute earlier. “Not much of a choice.” He repeated with amusement. “You have no control over me! Why would I listen to you!”

Without warning Koushiro lunched forward with a clenched fist and punched the unsuspecting man hard in the stomach. Unbalanced and in pain, he reeled backwards and once again his head slammed into the wall. With a grunt he fell over, unconscious. Hikari let out a gasp as his body hit the ground. “Koushiro! What have you done!” She whispered fearfully. “What if you killed him!”

“What if I did?” He asked nonchalantly. Her eyes widened and she began pacing back and forth from wall to wall of the alley. Koushiro frowned. “Relax,” He said, “He's alive. He may be physically human, but there’s a lot left over of what he used to be...”

“Human...” She whispered, coming to a halt. “Koushiro how could you have known?”

“I don’t think you were there, Kari, but when we first went to the digital world and met Gennai, I spoke with him about what makes a digimon.” Koushiro explained and leaned against the wall of one of the buildings. “There are certain sequences, similar to those of life on Earth that control such things as shape, species, and gender. Then, there are things called digital attributes, which include values for a digimon’s attacks, evolutions, species and other such things that digimon have and humans don't. Gennai said that he wasn’t a digimon, but he wasn’t human either, which led me to believe that maybe he was once a humanoid digimon that lost it’s digital attributes, leaving the human shape and species, and so effectively becoming a human with benefits. I think a similar process has somehow happened to him.” He finished, motioning the unconscious body on the ground.

“That's interesting and all,” She said, watching the figure once more, “But it's still just theory....and that doesn't answer how you knew...”

“I'm getting there.” He said with a half hearted smile. “I’ve been tracking him for a while now and ’ve been taking notes. As a digimon, he was unable to travel in direct sunlight. He also had extreme strength and powerful attacks that manifested both physically and magically. During the time I’ve seen him he has traveled during the day and as you saw earlier, no longer used any of his powers, resorting instead to his fists, and as you also witnessed earlier, scrap metal to win his fights. There are a few other things as well but I won’t get into the details right now.”

“I knew something was different about him..” She said softly, still staring at his fallen form.

Koushiro pushed himself off the well and headed to the body on the ground. “Come here; help me pick him up.”

“No!” She shrieked. He looked up at her in surprise. “I don't want to touch him.” She finished lamely.

“Come on, Kari,” He said, a pleading tone in his voice. “You did it before.”

“I wasn’t thinking right!” She defended, “And it was just to get him on his feet.

“We have to get him out of the cold and dress these wounds, Kari. He's been through a lot since we started chasing him, and I'm sure that arm is broken. I wouldn't be surprised if he has a concussion as well after hitting his head so many times.” She still looked unconvinced. “And he’s surely to have valuable information that could help us discover what made him human in the first place. Whatever did it to him could be after us as well. If we find out who it was me might be able to eliminate a possible threat.”

With a great sigh she stepped forwards and crouched next to him. “Now,” He said, “Take his feet and help me lift him; we‘re going to bring him to Jyou‘s” She was about to grab Vamdemon's shoes but stopped as Koushiro finished his sentence.

“At least let him know ahead of time.” She said. “I can see it now, Koushiro, he‘ll flip his lid. Let me call, I’ll just be a minute.” She said, pulling out her cell phone.

“All right.” Koushiro sighed, knowing it was probably the best thing to do. People would become curious if they were seen carrying a bloody body out of an alleyway., whether it was living or dead. He leaned back against the wall and waited.