Digimon Story: Rainbow Traverse -- Chp 18

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"Nah," said Malie, pointing to Al's knee. "You should really get that taken care of. If it gets infected, we'll have to chop it off with the fire axe."

("Sounds serious,") thought Renamon. ("Anything I can do?")

“Can’t have that, can we?” He asked. But before they went their separate ways he would pause, and then lean forward and give Malie a kiss. “Don’t take too long, okay?” He asked before pulling back, turning to walk back to the house.

(“No, I think we should let Malie handle it. We will be inside waiting for you.”)

Malie smiled, brushing her braid behind her ear as Al kissed her cheek. Her eyes turned away, though. Bashfulness? Uncertainty? Waving at Al, she pressed deeper into the garden, leaving the taller teen to own devices.

...

Inside Malie's living room, Renamon leaned against the wall, her arms folded as scanned the room.

"I think it'll be better if I get the bad stuff out of the way first," she said. "Right now, Vivian's at the hospital with Eyes, though thankfully nothing serious has come up. Of the students that fell unconscious, three of them are showing similar conditions to Palani and the others. I managed to eavesdrop on some of the police, and from the sound of it, they're not ruling out terrorism as a possible source."

"Is it, though?" asked Ike. "I think we've got solid proof it's a side effect of INAS blowing up."

"Not exactly. Out of the teens we rescued from the computer lab, all of them are awake, if a little shaken. It's still unclear if - gods forbid - we'd failed to rescue them in time, they would have ended up like the others. We still have no idea what triggered the event in the first place, and why distortions in one area have less impact than those in another."

"What about the good news?" asked Pagumon, the blue ball bouncing atop an ottoman.

"Besides only three victims falling into a coma, Eyes and I were able to clean up most traces of our involvement. Minus the axe damage to a certain doorframe, though I did explain that it was 'me' who did it when I found Vivi and the others trapped inside the lab."

And he noticed the hesitation and his expression became a bit more strained as well, and with a wave of his own he went inside, a niggling worry now in the back of his his mind that he couldn’t quite place.

_________

… and that worry would only aggravate further as he listened to Renamon’s testimony of events. He would then sigh as he looked at everyone. “I’ve said this before, so I’ll say it again.. this is too specific for it to be a coincidence. I know how the saying goes..  but this feels like it’s a deliberate enemy action. This as happened at both of our schools, while we were AT our respective schools. It could just be poor luck.. but I’m really starting to doubt it at this point.”


He then said more quietly now “What if this is being done to get our attention..?”

The question was left hanging in the air; the sound of a timepiece ticking away elsewhere in the house.

Renamon sighed. "Supposing that's the case," she said. "The main question then is: who's responsible? The government? It's possible, though why attract so much attention just to flush us out? And at the risk of causing a panic?"

"It's the government," said Ike. "Of course they wouldn't give a damn if they think they can get away with it."

"Maybe. But if they're after tamers, I feel they'd put more effort into keeping things quiet, especially in a tourist hotspot like Hilo."

“Whoever it is, we gotta figure out what the hell it is they are after. Because right now? We’re basically back at square fucking one.” Al said as he sighed. “Five years.. three days.. it feels like no matter what we try to do.. we don’t get any closer to figuring things out..”

"One last thing," said Renamon. "You remember what Kale told us back at the hibachi grill? About Coach Hill?"

"You guys were talking about Coach Hill?" asked Ike.

The vulpine nodded. "I did some digging at the police department just before heading back here. According to records, Coach Hill's been detained for questioning, but it's not listed anywhere in the report about which precinct."

“They arrested Coach Hill?”

Al would look at Renamon, and the others. “If he is being questioned.. maybe he actually has an idea on what’s going on. Hopefully.” He then sighed “But that means we have to try to get to him if we wanna learn anything.. but I don’t know how the hell we are gonna be able to do that without..” he paused, an admittedly bad idea coming to him.

“Without someone on the inside.”

"On the inside?" echoed Pagumon. "Wait, you ain't thinkin' of getting us arrested, right?!"

"HELL no!" said Ike. "I almost keeled over trying to run from the cops before we ended up on Waihona! If we get pinched, we're just begging for someone in the know to tag us as tamers!"

"It'd depend on the level of the crime," said Renamon, stroking her chin. "I doubt minor vandalism or theft would expose us as digimon and their tamers. Also I doubt that's what Al was getting at."

Al would hold his hands up in defense “Wait, wait. I wasn’t suggesting that we get ourselves arrested! I meant we should try to get help from the inside. Like a cop we could trust!”

Ike and Pagumon exchanged looks. "Well alright," said Pagumon. "Who ya got in mind?"

“Well.. I think we should get Malie in here before we get into it.”

Renamon's ears perked. "That's right," she said. "Malie's mom...!"

"You want to get Malie's mom to help us?" asked Ike. "Dude, Mrs. Kamala's an interrogation specialist. If we get her involved, she's gonna hot-seat us for every last detail."

"Perhaps," said Renamon. "But it's better than the alternative. Even with Eyesmon's help, I doubt I could infiltrate the HPD for long without someone taking notice. Hmhm, not that it wouldn't be fun."

“Renamon’s right. Even if she grills us.. better her than someone who most definitely has bad intentions for a group of tamers. That reminds me.. she should’ve been in here by now, shouldn’t she?”

The others glanced about the room. Renamon took the moment to stand up from the wall.

"Want me to check on her?" she asked.

"Don't sweat it," said Ike, pulling out his digivice. "I'll send her a text, and-" He paused, looking at the screen. "Huh, that's weird. Kukui's not showing on the map."

"What?"

"The marker! His marker's not showing anywhere on the map! It's just showing Mal's!"