sweetdeath | [16

Oh, you've got to be Takato, then! It's nice to meet you! Guilmon's talked about you a lot. All good, I swear ♥

Just downstairs from me. I'll be down in a flash!

Oh, are you one of the new friends he was telling me about?

*He laughs softly.*

That doesn't surprise me at all. It was awful being separated from each other.

Okay!

Maybe so! He's gotten to know a lot of people around here.

***

Tsuzuki stowed the communicator in his coat pocket, flaking a bit of the paint the ghosts had doused him with off of the hem. He'd have to buy a new coat when he got home. Too bad; this one had seen him through almost a decade... give or take the occasional bloodstain. They didn't show on black, anyway.

105, 105. He took the stairs down two at a time, skidding a little as he hit the ground floor, and began to walk. It wasn't long before he spotted the right door, complete with hand-drawn picture. He grinned, and knocked.

"'Scuse me! It's Tsuzuki."

Inside the room Takato manages to trip over his backpack on the way to the door. He quickly picks himself up and grabs his communicator and digivice, before finally getting the door open.

"Hello, Mr. Tsuzuki. Wow, that was really fast!"

"I'm just upstairs," Tsuzuki explained, tucking his hands into his pockets. "So, where do you want to go?" He blinked at the small child - Takato was young, he'd guessed that from the voice over the communicator, but the boy looked even younger than he'd assumed.

"...How old are you?"

Takato smiles up cheerfully at the older man and slips his communicator and digivice into his pockets. "I don't know. Like I said, I really haven't been anywhere outside the school yet, except for the part when the monsters were chasing me. And I wasn't exactly paying much attention to things like street names and scenery then. Where's the safest place to get supplies?"

The boy blinks at the question. "I just turned twelve recently. Why?"

Twelve? Tsuzuki wasn't an expert at dealing with kids, but he knew better than to admit he'd guessed Takato's age younger than that.

"Just curious!" he laughed. "And supplies, hmm... well, what exactly do you need? There's a shopping district, but it's a ways away. And the monsters are pretty fierce in that direction."

The boy laughs. "That makes sense. I guess there aren't too many kids my age around here."

"Anything! Right now all I have are a couple of blankets and my school backpack. Some more canned food would be really useful, since Guilmon can go through those pretty quick." He hesitates. "I'd kind of like to avoid the monsters as much as possible. I don't know how to fight without Guilmon, and this chip thing seems to be blocking everything we've learned how to do together."

"A couple," Tsuzuki said, "and a few even younger than that.... But you're right, most of the people here seem to be older teens or grownups."

He frowned, tucking his hands into his pockets. "Well... if we just follow Landers Boulevard down, there's a department store and some abandoned restaurants there. The stuff left over's pretty messed up, but you should be able to pick up some canned food in the restaurants, and maybe a pillow or some towels at the department store...."

Takato smiles and readjusts his goggles. "Great! That sounds easy enough to handle."

"With any luck, yeah, we'll be fine." Tsuzuki took a step back, leaving the door clear for Takato to follow him. "You're ready to go?"

The boy steps out, closing the door behind him. "I think so."

"This way, then!" His shoes tapped against the linoleum as he headed for the front door of the high school. It was safe inside; outside, there were the monsters, and whoever or whatever had been killing.

He stopped at the door, looking cautiously outside. A cloudy day - as usual - but the courtyard seemed clear to the street.

Turning, he tossed the boy a smile. "It probably won't be too dangerous, but if we run into something, run for a safe spot right away, okay? Unless-" Making assumptions never worked out here. "You don't know how to fight, do you?"

Takato quickly follows, his sneakers squeaking a few times as he half-trots to keep up. He pauses behind Tsuzuki at the door and peers curiously at the landscape outside. Again the boy is oddly reminded of what was left of his home after the D-Reaper.

"Okay, I understand. And don't worry! I've gotten pretty good at running away from monsters."

The boy shakes his head, unconsciously reaching for his digivice at the reminder. "Not without Guilmon. I think I might be able to remember a little bit from when we were Dukemon, but I've never tried fighting by myself. Or without being able to carry Gram or the Aegis."

"He helps you fight?" The more Tsuzuki heard about Digimon, the more he was convinced that they had to be some kind of alternate dimension's shikigami. He'd have to introduce Riko to these two someday.

The rest of the boy's explanation went right over his head. Aegis? Dukemon? It was a story he'd have to ask for some other time.

For now, he began walking towards the street, hands still in his pockets and every sense alert for the movements of anything around him. He might still be bereft of his powers, but he had his mortal senses. Right now, they told him that the street was safe.

Takato runs to catch up, looking around the area cautiously.

"I think it would be closer to say I help him fight. I can share my energy with him so he can get stronger. And I can give things like wings and weapons and special attacks when he needs them."

"So how did someone your age end up in as many fights as it sounds like the two of you've been through?" Tsuzuki asked, curious. No monsters visible on the street; he set a pace just brisk enough not to force the boy to jog, and lifted his face to the weak sunlight through the clouds.

They didn't get out enough in this place. Sure, there were monsters, but... he'd have to drag Hisoka up to the roof for a picnic some afternoon.

"We never meant to get into fights. Guilmon was like a baby when we first met and I hated fighting. It just sort of happened that we had to learn what to do when we were attacked. And then the Wild Ones kept getting stronger and stronger, so we had to get stronger too." Takato walks down the street cheerily, a step behind Tsuzuki. Just being outside like this was enough to raise his mood.

"Wild Ones?" Tsuzuki stopped, question fading from his mind as a faint scrabble from one of the side alleys caught his attention. He raised a hand for quiet, craning his neck to see what had made the sound.

After a moment, he made out the shapes of a couple of barrels in the alley's shadow, and let his breath out in a sigh. "Never mind, it's just those spiders." Pointing at the innocuous-looking barrels - no reason to pass up an opportunity to warn the kid - he explained, "Those things sprout legs and attack if you get too close, and they'll explode if you hit them too hard. It's better just to give them plenty of room."

Suiting action to words, he edged over to the middle of the street. No worries about traffic here; there weren't even any other people around.

Takato tenses worriedly at the raised hand, quietly glancing around the street for cover. He sighs when it turns out to be a false alarm and follows his new acquaintance's lead toward the center of the road.

"Thanks for the warning! I wonder if those were the mean exploding monsters Guilmon was talking about."

"Could be! There are a few others that spit energy beams." He hoped they wouldn't encounter any of those. Barrel spiders were as bad as he wanted to face... especially with that faceless murderer out there.

He picked up his pace a little. The faster they finished the errands, the fewer things they'd meet on the way.

"Really? I wonder how many different kinds of monsters there are?"

Takato trails off, trying to remember his fights against any digimon who could throw energy blasts. Surely there must be some way to fight them without digivolving or using cards. After a couple of moments he blinks and runs to catch up at the faster speed.

Tsuzuki shook his head. "Good question. I just know I haven't seen them all." There was the intersection, and there was the department store, on the opposite corner. He pointed it out.

"That's the department store - these are the restaurants over here. You'll want to be extra careful inside."

Takato looks over at the indicated stores ands nods, memorizing the information.

"Why? Is it dangerous?

[16 | text]

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[commentlog] ...lol digimon's art style got me

[commentlog] Takato was 10/11 during the series. This is 3-6 months afterwards for him.

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