Yamato Ishida (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
angry_friendship_wolf) wrote2020-07-18 12:43 am
angry_friendship_wolf) wrote2020-07-18 12:43 am
[tri OOM] Return to Odaiba
They’ve spent seven days on File Island before Koushiro detects a distortion close enough for them to get to. They pack up in record time, making the hike from their campsite by Dragon Eye Lake to the jungle in the Ancient Dino Region, and hop in one by one, hoping it leads to Odaiba.
It doesn’t, as it turns out, but it gets them close enough, as they emerge from the distortion right in the middle of Shibuya Crossing, surrounded on all sides by police. Yamato imagines that they were expecting a Digimon to come through, not nine teenagers and nine very small Digimon.
“Koushiro,” Taichi murmurs. “Hide the Digimon.”
Koushiro hesitates for a moment, then opens his laptop as the others form a ring around him, opening up the digital playpen program and holding it steady as the Digimon slide through the screen and inside, one by one.
As the police advance on them, slowly boxing them in, Yamato hears Jyou give a quiet groan of dissatisfaction.
“This is definitely going to affect my school record.”
---
They’re only in police custody for a few hours before the officer processing them is called away by someone claiming custody of the nine of them. Yamato has to cock his head and strain his ears to listen, but he can just about hear Agent Nishijima talking to the officer outside.
“I represent the National Data Processing Bureau,” Nishijima is saying quietly. “Information Strategy Section, Information Management Office.”
“Are you trying to intimidate me?”
“Call it whatever you like,” Nishijima replies mildly. “But they will be coming with me.”
Half an hour later, they’re bundled into an armoured car, while Nishijima awkwardly explains that someone (Gennai, it’s definitely Gennai) leaked information about their arrests online, and that it isn’t safe right now for them to go home. While he works on getting them set up with a safehouse, he has a … stop-gap solution, of sorts.
That stop-gap solution turns out to be the school. Nishijima sets them up in his office, provides them with food and plenty of water, and sets about explaining to them what’s been happening.
“How long have you been gone, from your perspective?” He asks first, sitting at his desk.
“Three or four months,” Taichi says.
“One-hundred-and-twenty days exactly,” Koushiro adds.
Nishijima nods, pulling the keyboard of his computer towards himself and starting to work on something. “It’s been ninety-eight days here,” he says distractedly. “That widening time differential can’t be a good sign.”
It helps confirm what Gennai said, Yamato notes to himself, that Meicoomon is Apocalymon reborn. Of all the Digimon they’d faced, Apocalymon was the only one whose existence caused the worlds’ time to desync.
“More immediately, though, this has happened in the past few days,” Nishijima continues, turning his computer’s screen around towards them.
A news report is playing, of an orange streak shrouded in purple, unmistakably Meicoomon, attacking a power plant. “The fire is still burning even after five hours, despite firefighters’ best efforts.”
“Mei-chan did this?” Meiko asks softly.
“It’s not just that,” Nishijima says. “Clusters of Digimon have appeared at eight locations worldwide. New York, Sydney, Siberia, the border between India and China, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Kyoto, and Izumo.”
Gennai’s occupying Gates, Yamato realises with a jolt. Nearly every Gate worldwide, with only the Izu Gate and the two Tokyo Gates left alone.
“So far, none of them have moved,” Nishijima continues. “They only attack if they’re attacked first, and they don’t pursue when their attackers flee.”
“But if they were to all turn hostile …” Takeru says quietly. He doesn’t need to finish his thought: Most of those places are populated areas. It would be an unprecedented crisis.
“So basically,” Yamato says. “Gennai has a knife to our throats.”
“We’ve gotta stop it!” Mimi exclaims. “Let’s chase them awa -- …”
“No.”
As so often happens when Taichi speaks, everyone falls silent. Taichi breathes out slowly, folding his hands across his lap.
“I want to jump in as well. But Yamato said it himself,” he says. “Gennai’s got a knife to our throats. And remember what he and Koushiro said before: Gennai wants to force us into a fight, he wants us to force Meicoomon to evolve further, or to blacken our Crests so he can force a fusion.”
Yamato gives a frustrated growl, rubbing a hand through our hair. “He’s baiting us. He wants to force us into making a move that’ll benefit him.”
“It’s, er,” Taichi flashes a quick grin. “Actually a move straight out of your playbook, Yama. Gennai’s been learning from you, I guess.”
Yamato snorts, shaking his head.
“We need to link up with Miyako and Ken and keep working on a cure for the Infection,” Taichi says. “If we can make a cure, then we can win without ever needing to fight.”
---
One set of calls to their parents (well, for most of them -- Yamato doesn’t call his old man) and a scary story session later, Nishijima sets them up in a Bureau safehouse, an apartment on the southern end of Odaiba.
Four bedrooms means most of them are doubling up -- Sora with Mimi, Hikari with Meiko, Yamato and Takeru together, and then Jyou, Koushiro, and Taichi all crammed in one room -- but the living room is spacious, and the kitchen has enough room for Yamato to work.
That first night is -- hectic. There’s only one bathroom, and after months in the Digital World, they’re all craving a hot bath, or at least a warm shower. As the others argue over who gets to go first (Mimi wins), Yamato retreats to the kitchen to start work on a meal.
“Nishijima says we’re probably going to still be here by the time Christmas comes around,” Taichi remarks casually as Yamato works. “Think you’re up to making Christmas dinner?”
“Are you ordering me to?”
Taichi chuckles, pushing off the counter. “Speaking of orders,” he says. “Have you thought about my, er, request?”
Yamato pointedly doesn’t look at them, focusing on chopping vegetables. “I’ve thought about it.”
“Got an answer for me yet?”
“No,” Yamato says immediately. “No answer yet. Not like you’re leaving for a while, right?”
“Right.”
It doesn’t, as it turns out, but it gets them close enough, as they emerge from the distortion right in the middle of Shibuya Crossing, surrounded on all sides by police. Yamato imagines that they were expecting a Digimon to come through, not nine teenagers and nine very small Digimon.
“Koushiro,” Taichi murmurs. “Hide the Digimon.”
Koushiro hesitates for a moment, then opens his laptop as the others form a ring around him, opening up the digital playpen program and holding it steady as the Digimon slide through the screen and inside, one by one.
As the police advance on them, slowly boxing them in, Yamato hears Jyou give a quiet groan of dissatisfaction.
“This is definitely going to affect my school record.”
---
They’re only in police custody for a few hours before the officer processing them is called away by someone claiming custody of the nine of them. Yamato has to cock his head and strain his ears to listen, but he can just about hear Agent Nishijima talking to the officer outside.
“I represent the National Data Processing Bureau,” Nishijima is saying quietly. “Information Strategy Section, Information Management Office.”
“Are you trying to intimidate me?”
“Call it whatever you like,” Nishijima replies mildly. “But they will be coming with me.”
Half an hour later, they’re bundled into an armoured car, while Nishijima awkwardly explains that someone (Gennai, it’s definitely Gennai) leaked information about their arrests online, and that it isn’t safe right now for them to go home. While he works on getting them set up with a safehouse, he has a … stop-gap solution, of sorts.
That stop-gap solution turns out to be the school. Nishijima sets them up in his office, provides them with food and plenty of water, and sets about explaining to them what’s been happening.
“How long have you been gone, from your perspective?” He asks first, sitting at his desk.
“Three or four months,” Taichi says.
“One-hundred-and-twenty days exactly,” Koushiro adds.
Nishijima nods, pulling the keyboard of his computer towards himself and starting to work on something. “It’s been ninety-eight days here,” he says distractedly. “That widening time differential can’t be a good sign.”
It helps confirm what Gennai said, Yamato notes to himself, that Meicoomon is Apocalymon reborn. Of all the Digimon they’d faced, Apocalymon was the only one whose existence caused the worlds’ time to desync.
“More immediately, though, this has happened in the past few days,” Nishijima continues, turning his computer’s screen around towards them.
A news report is playing, of an orange streak shrouded in purple, unmistakably Meicoomon, attacking a power plant. “The fire is still burning even after five hours, despite firefighters’ best efforts.”
“Mei-chan did this?” Meiko asks softly.
“It’s not just that,” Nishijima says. “Clusters of Digimon have appeared at eight locations worldwide. New York, Sydney, Siberia, the border between India and China, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Kyoto, and Izumo.”
Gennai’s occupying Gates, Yamato realises with a jolt. Nearly every Gate worldwide, with only the Izu Gate and the two Tokyo Gates left alone.
“So far, none of them have moved,” Nishijima continues. “They only attack if they’re attacked first, and they don’t pursue when their attackers flee.”
“But if they were to all turn hostile …” Takeru says quietly. He doesn’t need to finish his thought: Most of those places are populated areas. It would be an unprecedented crisis.
“So basically,” Yamato says. “Gennai has a knife to our throats.”
“We’ve gotta stop it!” Mimi exclaims. “Let’s chase them awa -- …”
“No.”
As so often happens when Taichi speaks, everyone falls silent. Taichi breathes out slowly, folding his hands across his lap.
“I want to jump in as well. But Yamato said it himself,” he says. “Gennai’s got a knife to our throats. And remember what he and Koushiro said before: Gennai wants to force us into a fight, he wants us to force Meicoomon to evolve further, or to blacken our Crests so he can force a fusion.”
Yamato gives a frustrated growl, rubbing a hand through our hair. “He’s baiting us. He wants to force us into making a move that’ll benefit him.”
“It’s, er,” Taichi flashes a quick grin. “Actually a move straight out of your playbook, Yama. Gennai’s been learning from you, I guess.”
Yamato snorts, shaking his head.
“We need to link up with Miyako and Ken and keep working on a cure for the Infection,” Taichi says. “If we can make a cure, then we can win without ever needing to fight.”
---
One set of calls to their parents (well, for most of them -- Yamato doesn’t call his old man) and a scary story session later, Nishijima sets them up in a Bureau safehouse, an apartment on the southern end of Odaiba.
Four bedrooms means most of them are doubling up -- Sora with Mimi, Hikari with Meiko, Yamato and Takeru together, and then Jyou, Koushiro, and Taichi all crammed in one room -- but the living room is spacious, and the kitchen has enough room for Yamato to work.
That first night is -- hectic. There’s only one bathroom, and after months in the Digital World, they’re all craving a hot bath, or at least a warm shower. As the others argue over who gets to go first (Mimi wins), Yamato retreats to the kitchen to start work on a meal.
“Nishijima says we’re probably going to still be here by the time Christmas comes around,” Taichi remarks casually as Yamato works. “Think you’re up to making Christmas dinner?”
“Are you ordering me to?”
Taichi chuckles, pushing off the counter. “Speaking of orders,” he says. “Have you thought about my, er, request?”
Yamato pointedly doesn’t look at them, focusing on chopping vegetables. “I’ve thought about it.”
“Got an answer for me yet?”
“No,” Yamato says immediately. “No answer yet. Not like you’re leaving for a while, right?”
“Right.”