Digital Monsters: Back In Action

By Charles Xavier

Eddie's New Case

"Wait." A female voice moaned, standing in the unlit bedroom with another figure. "What if anyone finds us alone in here?"

"Why do you worry so much?" The boy walked up to embrace her and release the worries she had on her mind. "Didn't I tell you that I locked the door?"

"Where is the key?"

He dug his hand into his pants pockets to slip out a shiny gold object in his fingers.

"You see what I did?" He murmured with a slight grin. "Nobody's going to bother us now. We've been through far too many adventures these past few years. Don't you think it's about time we started to settle down…together, Hikari?"

"Oh, Takeru." Hikari replied softly and stroked Takeru's soft cheeks. "I've always been hiding from you ever since that day we first left the Digital World four years back. I don't think I can continue like this anymore."

"Neither can I." Takeru wrapped his arms around Hikari's waist. "But Hikari, I love you."

"Takeru?"

"When we grow up, I want to marry you. I want to marry you, have children and raise a family. We'd be together until the day we die together." Takeru said. "There's just no other girl I've met that's as gorgeous and unique as you. Do you know that?"

Hikari was almost on the verge of crying. "Takeru, I've got a lot of secrets to tell you. Things I've kept for too long. But now I've realized it's time that I said…said…" She found difficulty to say it; she was too scared to admit it to Takeru.

"Said what?"

"I love you too."

With that said, tears began trickling down both their faces. And at last, Takeru and Hikari for the first time, kissed each other. It was a kiss that would remain unforgotten, and it was a kiss that would bind these two Chosen Children together, forever.

…

Tokyo

…

"And that's my final draft on the ending of Digimon Adventure: Zero 02! Hands down!" Takeru slapped the script down onto the table. Everyone in the conference room, including Patamon, had no idea what to say. "So, people! What do you think of that as a finale to this amazing show?"

Takeru's friends looked at him with unease. The Digimon did the same. Japanese executives and workers whispered among each other. Meanwhile Mr. Hayao Yamazaki, owner and head of Toei Animation, sunk his head with displeasure. He cupped his hands together on the table and sighed with grief.

"May we have your ratings, ladies and gentlemen?" Mr. Yamazaki asked everyone in the room. All started writing on their given sheet of paper that would decide the overall grade on Takeru's ending script.

"HUH?!" Takeru gasped suddenly and rubbed his eyes. To his shock, the majority had written down a big fat '0' on their sheet. "Patamon! How could you!" Takeru was disgusted to see that his own Digimon had also given him a 0 out of 10 rating. "Yamato, why?!" Even his older brother was turning him down. He delivered him the same mark too. "DAISUKE!" Daisuke was the only one who actually didn't give him a '0', but a '-1'. This enraged Takeru greatly; it was clear that Daisuke especially was VERY against the ending.

"Hikari, what about you?" Takeru turned to Hikari, who was blushing with embarrassment so much she had to turn away from most of the people in the room. "You liked it, didn't you?"

Hikari hesitated. "Um…er…I abstain from this discussion." She looked nervously at him before further saying: "Gomen nasai. I have to go to the bathroom." Hikari jumped out of her seat and left the room in a rush. Tailmon got out from her seat as well and followed. On the way out they almost bumped into Mr. Yamazaki's secretary, who was just coming in to serve everyone cups of hot green tea. Takeru felt that Hikari wasn't going to return.

"Mr. Yamazaki. You haven't given a rating." Takeru asked him. Mr. Yamazaki, with his miserable toady face, lifted up his sheet of paper to show his rating: '0'. "What?! What the heck is wrong with all you people? Can't any of you appreciate a romantic finish to the second series of 'Digimon'?" Takeru slammed his fist on the table, accidentally hitting the edge of his tea cup, which flung into the air and landed right on top of Mr. Yamazaki's bald head like a cherry on an ice cream sundae. Mr. Yamazaki did everything he could to keep himself calm, even though the tea was steaming hot, and was burning his scalp. This wasn't the first time Takeru had got him frustrated; because of him in the past, he was already losing some of his hair, not to mention that it had turned completely white and grey since he came into the Toei business. To make matters worse, he was also losing his eye sight. It was only recently that his eye doctor advised him to wear glasses from now on.

"Oops. Sorry, Mr. Yamazaki." Takeru took off his hat and bowed at him. The secretary came rushing with a towel and began wiping the mess off her boss' head.

"Um, Takeru." Yamato said to him. "No offence or anything, but has it ever come to your thought that your ideas for the ending are perhaps a little too…say, sentimental? Do they always have to end with you and Hikari?"

"Yeah, Takeru." Taichi added. "What about the rest of us? People want to know about the outcomes of all of us, not just you and Hikari."

"He's right, you know." Koushiro said while punching keys on his laptop computer. "According to our own character polls, it seems that many people are curious about how ALL of us will end up. See for yourself." He turned over his laptop screen for everyone to see. Looking at the charts displayed, it seemed that a lot of the Japanese people wanted to have the last episode of the season showing individually what happens to each character after their adventures.

Before Takeru could answer anything, he was being called by Mr. Yamazaki.

"Takeru." He said firmly but sternly. "You're fired."

Everyone in the room sat up and stared at Mr. Yamazaki with shock. His secretary stopped her wiping and looked at him too with great surprise.

"Sir." A male employee said, raising his hand. "Surely you can't be serious about that."

"No. My decision is final." He answered back and rolled his eyes at Takeru. "Takeru, ever since we began this second series, I had specifically appointed you to write the ending for it when the time would come. But so far you have given my company nothing but ridiculous overdone scenes involving Hikari and yourself…kissing. It disgusts me. And this is by far the worst one you have presented us with. This is a children's show, not a soap opera."

"But…"

"You have no excuses!" Mr. Yamazaki raised his voice. "You are just wasting all of our time here. Meanwhile 'Digimon Tamers' and 'Digimon Frontier' have to be further delayed, thanks to our inevitable problem with Zero 02's ending. And I feel that this has gone far too long; I've grown tired of it. So, you are now expelled from the Toei premises and you will no longer work here again. Do you understand?" He turned his head to him. Takeru looked most upset.

"I only wanted my character to be loved by someone." He said meekly. "Can't I have Hikari at least like me a little bit more than she does in the show? I mean, we already have thrown in romantic pairings, like Ken and Miyako." Takeru pointed to the couple sitting together next to him on the left. "And we also had Sora and Yamato." He pointed to them on his right. "Why can't we have just one more?" He pleaded.

"Romantic pairings is OUR decision. You and your friends have no right in creating your own. Your job was only to end this series sensibly. And since you refused to do so, I have no choice but to remove you from your post, permanently." All gasped at his last word. "Hence I have appointed Daisuke to replace you."

"ALL RIGHT!" Daisuke shouted and stood up, but looked at his concerned friends and sat back down on his seat sympathetically. "Sorry."

"But who'll play my part in the last few episodes?" Takeru asked. "You can't just remove Takeru with a snap."

"True. But that's already been sorted." Mr. Yamazaki said. A tall young teenager suddenly entered the room. To Takeru's eye, he looked suspiciously familiar to a certain character he knew from another show. "Trunks here is going to play your part."

"Don't worry, Takeru! You can count on me!" Trunks was in his Super Saiyan form, dressed up exactly like Takeru with a silly smile on his face. He winked and gave a thumb up to him. But Takeru still felt uncomfortable about this situation.

"But…he's from Dragon Ball GT!" Takeru exclaimed. "You can't put him in this show! Besides, his punky hairstyle will be a bad influence for all the little kids!"

"Casting him in is OUR decision."

"But…"

"Security."

…

"LET ME GO!" Takeru struggled as the security guards began to dragging him out of the building. "This shouldn't happen to a kid! Get your slimy hands off me now!"

Yamato, Gabumon and Patamon were following behind the guards, who were now taking Takeru towards the entrance gates. Their efforts to ask the guards to release him proved useless, since they only took orders from Mr. Yamazaki.

"Takeru!" Patamon shouted once the guards threw him out onto the street.

As the guards were leaving, Yamato, Gabumon and Patamon ran towards Takeru, who was sitting helplessly on his bottom on the road.

They saw that Takeru was feeling very depressed about this. Who would have expected Takeru to be thrown out of Toei forever in just one day? Everyone who was in the conference was devastated to hear about Mr. Yamazaki's decision. Takeru had been adored by so many fans, but also the whole cast and crew he worked with. All found him humorous, charming, and unique on many levels. Yet they also felt that Takeru had a special attention upon Taichi's younger sister, Hikari Yagami. It was quite obvious that Takeru was very fond of her. Though it was this fondness that made him drive Mr. Yamazaki crazy when he was asked to set up the ending of 'Digimon Adventure: Zero 02'. All that Takeru could think of was to have him and Hikari finally get together. However, Mr. Yamazaki believed that these two characters in the show were only meant to be good friends, and not eventual lovers. The cast and crew weren't completely against the idea though; the only reason why they turned down Takeru's ideas was because they thought it to be too exaggerated.

Takeru, especially at this moment, felt the same way too. Perhaps he had taken this personal relationship too far in his scripts.

"Don't blame yourself, Takeru." Yamato knelt down beside him. "Come to think of it, I'm already changing my mind about that ending. I didn't think it was that bad. You just need to work on it more."

Yamato could see that his brother was already crying. He patted him gently on the shoulder and started rubbing it gently, before giving him a hug.

"There, now. Come on, there's no need to so unhappy." He whispered in his ear. "It's not like it's the end of the world."

"It's not fair." Takeru sniffed. "Why do we ALWAYS have to take orders from Mr. Yamazaki, that jerk?!"

"Hey, listen." Yamato said. "That guy's just got some problems, okay? Nobody's perfect, and you're not the only who has to deal with him. I have to deal with him, the Digimon have to deal him, everyone in Toei has to deal with him. He owns the damn company."

Takeru gradually stopped his crying and calmed down. Yamato handed him some tissue and Takeru blew his nose.

"There, now. Feel a little bit better?"

"Not really. I'm still mad at him." Takeru answered.

"Why don't you go home and take a rest? You've had a hard day." Yamato helped Takeru to get up onto his feet and cleaned the dirt off his clothes. "Just tell mom the truth, okay? I'm sure she'll understand."

Yamato returned to the gates with Gabumon. Patamon stayed behind to give his farewell to Takeru.

"I'm sorry, Takeru. None of us saw this coming." Patamon said. "We can still see each other, though. I'll come visit you."

"Thanks, Patamon." Takeru smiled and gave a nod.

Patamon smiled in return and waved before flying back to the gates, which were starting to close. Takeru gazed up at the large Toei sign inscribed on the front gates, and scowled. He picked up a nearby rock and chucked it at the sign fiercely, making a slight dent on it. After having done that, Takeru straightened up his hat and left.

…

'Digitamamon's Coffee' was only a block away from Toei. Though it was also an inch away from getting sued by 'Starbuck's Coffee', whose creators accused Digitamamon of stealing their logo and incorporating himself onto it. It's been a mystery of how that Digimon managed to get off the hook, but his business was doing extremely well. Basically everyone who worked in Toei came here for a drink, a snack, or simply just to chat. And today was getting crowded…

"Ah, yes! Splendid choices, my friends!" Veggiemon started punching into his cashier machine after having taken drink orders from three Toei business workers. "Two vente Gazimon shakes and a grande Demon latte, coming right up!"

Elsewhere in the café, Vamdemon and MetalEtemon sat together on a table, smoking cigarettes and just taking a break from their work.

"If I have to sing one more time on that show, I'm going to put a gun in my head, and shoot myself." MetalEtemon sighed. "That Yamazaki is so dang irritatin' when it comes to his demands!"

"You said it." Vamdemon puffed out smoke from his nostrils. "My arms are killing me. I had to open my cape on fifty takes for only one scene because my bats kept squirming inside of me."

On another table, Ogremon was having a minor argument with his friends, Leomon and Juri…

"Oh, the nerve on that Yamazaki! It's not fair!" Ogremon growled at Leomon while crushing up his coffee cup in his hand. "How come YOU get to be in the third season of Digimon, while I have to work as the lousy cameraman?"

"Hey, I didn't make the choice." Leomon shrugged innocently. "I didn't even think I'd still be in the series."

"Mr. Yamazaki personally chose Leomon to be in it." Juri said, covering her mouth full of giggles at how annoyed Ogremon looked. "He never changes his mind about something once he's taken a decision."

Just to the table right next to them, Michael was talking to the Outer Senshi from the show 'Sailor Moon'…

"I hated the idea of a love relationship between me and Mimi on the show. But Mr. Yamazaki thinks it's best for both of us." Michael said to the four girls with absolute disgust. "HA! Can you believe that?! I'd rather be walking a tightrope in a three-lined circus, because I think it's all a hundred percent crazy!"

"Well, welcome to real world, Michael." Sailor Pluto replied, sipping her ice vanilla latte.

Just five tables away from them in the corner sat a miserable Hikari Yagami, stirring her coffee with her stirrer…

"Cheer up, Hikari." Tailmon said, sitting next to her. "It'll turn out okay in the end. It always does."

Hikari felt doubtful about that. In the past, Takeru had always been embarrassing her with his love endings. And today he had done it again. She couldn't predict how much longer she could stand this. Yet she could understand that Takeru was only trying to give the show a happier, more moving ending than its first season. And in reality, she actually did like him. But his attempts to show his love for her were not turning out too well. And now, luck wasn't coming her way, though, because she could see Junpei and Tomoki coming to sit on her table. Hikari didn't like company whenever she felt she wanted to be alone; she still wasn't feeling so good about what happened during the meeting.

"Hey, Hikari!" Junpei pulled up a chair and sat down with his sandwich and strawberry frappucino. "How are things going with you?"

Hikari gave no answer and didn't even take a glance at neither of her friends. She was simply too deep in thought. Tomoki could see how deep her eyes were glued to the table.

"Why are you not smiling, Hikari?" Tomoki asked curiously. "Did something bad happen to you? Did that Mr. Yamazaki get cross with you?"

Hikari looked at Tomoki and gave a small chuckle. "No, Tomoki. He didn't get mad with me. I've just been a little stressed from work recently."

"What? Has Takeru been…well, you know?" Junpei gestured.

"Yeah." Hikari sighed with grief. "But hey, I'll get over it."

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but he's just been fired."

Hikari stopped her stirring and looked at Junpei with anxiety.

"What?"

"It just happened five minutes ago. Everyone at Toei's talking about it."

Hikari was speechless. But before she could take time to slowly digest this information into her head, Tomoki interrupted them with bigger news.

"Hey, look! It's Takeru!" He pointed his finger outside through the glass next to them. Takeru was walking by, his face down and hands in his pockets. Hikari watched him closely as he passed by, but got up and ran out of the café when she lost sight of him. Tailmon indeed followed.

"TAKERU!" Hikari shouted.

Takeru knew that voice and therefore knew who was calling him. He stopped for a while and turned around to her. He saw Hikari's concerned face and gave no reaction to it. So much bad had happened to him today that he couldn't give quite a toss about how the girl he loved was feeling about him right now. It was all too overwhelming for him.

"Takeru. I heard about what happened in Toei." Hikari approached him. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry about what happened to you." She raised her hand and touched Takeru's dried up cheek.

Takeru angrily pulled her hand away.

"To hell with your apologies." Takeru said rudely. "Why do you always have to run away from me at times when I need you? Why can't you ever say something about my ideas for once? You never say anything about them, and now look at me."

"Takeru…"

Hikari tried reaching her hand out again to Takeru, but Takeru simply backed away from her.

"Don't touch me." He answered back. "Just…leave me alone."

Takeru had nothing more to say. So, without a wave or a goodbye, he turned his back on Hikari and Tailmon and left them.

"Hikari, do you think he'll ever get over it?"

"I don't know, Tailmon. I don't know." Hikari said as a tear ran down her face. "Come on. Let's go back."

Hikari led Tailmon back to the 'Digitamamon's Coffee'.

…

One month later

…

Hollywood

…

A loud knock banged on the door.

"It's open." A voice spoke out to the shadowy stranger outside, standing behind the door's foggy window, waiting to be allowed to enter the man's office.

The stranger grabbed the door knob and turned it. The door creaked open to reveal…

"Lieutenant Santino." Detective Eddie Valiant rose from his chair to greet his old friend with a firm handshake. "What brings you here?" The Lieutenant removed his cigarette from his mouth and flicked it aside. He took out a large newspaper and handed it over to Eddie.

"Read the front page." He replied calmly.

Slightly puzzled, Eddie opened up the paper to read the following headline:

…

Toei Animation In Jeopardy In Japan: Hayao Yamazaki Killed.

…

"Well, excuse me, Valiant! But haven't you forgotten about poor little us?" A voice interrupted. "We were talking about something right before this buster rudely busted in!"

The Lieutenant looked behind Eddie at his desk, where two cartoon characters were sitting on their chairs impatiently. On the left sat Walt Disney's Donald Duck, and on the right sat Warner Bros.' Daffy Duck…it looked like the Lieutenant had interrupted Eddie Valiant at a most inappropriate time.

"Hey!" Squirmed Donald Duck. "Can't you see we're in a middle of an argument here?"

"Yeah, bozo!" Daffy Duck jumped out of his chair and started poking the Lieutenant in the stomach. "If you wanna talk to Valiant, go find yourself another time to speak to him!"

"Wait." Eddie said, trying to stop Daffy from causing another one of his pointless conflicts with strangers he didn't know. "Boys, I'm afraid I'll have to settle your problems another time. I've got important business to attend to here with my pal."

"Well…thanks for your help, Valiant." Daffy said sarcastically as he marched out of the office quite angrily. Donald followed him from behind…but was unexpectedly rewarded with a door slamming into his face, when Daffy purposely shut the door behind him.

"Dog gone, WA WA WAAAAKKK!!!!!" Donald flung the door open and chased after the loony duck, who was laughing his way out of the building.

The Lieutenant shook his head in grief and quietly shut the door.

"Toons…adults can't live with them, kids can't live without them." Eddie said, smirking as he looked outside his window, watching the ducks disappear. He then turned back to the Lieutenant. "Oh, please, take a seat."

The Lieutenant settled himself down onto Donald Duck's empty chair.

"So what's all this about?" Eddie sat back down onto his chair and looked at the newspaper's front cover.

"I was hoping you'd be able to tell me that." The Lieutenant nudged his head at the newspaper, encouraging Eddie to read the article.

Eddie did so, and became more intrigued by the more he read about it. He learned that there was something disturbingly familiar about this man's murder. According to what it said, Hayao Yamazaki was killed just last night, and there had been no distinct clues or traces left behind the scene so far, and the Tokyo police are still searching for evidence.

"Interesting, Eddie?"

"Kind of." Eddie said, putting the paper down after having read it.

"Just an hour ago, I got a phone call from the Tokyo Police Department, telling me about how this news has flooded all over Japan. It's scaring the bee Jesus out of everyone, especially the kids. 'Cause rumor has it, Eddie, that if Toei doesn't find the man behind this murder soon, the whole company will be shut down."

"What for?"

The Lieutenant shrugged. "No idea. That's all I heard…anyway, I've already booked two tickets for a flight to Japan this afternoon. You, and me. No one else. You got me?"

"Um, sure."

"This case ain't gonna be easy, y'know. They run things differently over there. So I suggest you take this case as if it's dependant on your life; if anything's messed up, who knows what might happen to Toei Animation. All I know is that tons of kids in that country would be disappointed. Not to mention that there'd be a big rise of unemployment for the people working there."

Eddie realized how much this case meant, though…"So how I fit into this picture, exactly? I don't even how to speak a word of Japanese. How will I be able to help out?"

"Simple." The Lieutenant smiled as he slipped a small book from the breast pocket of his jacket. "Learn as fast as you can."

He threw over to him a small Japanese phrasebook.

"Oh, boy." Eddie sighed, taking the book quite unwillingly. "This is gonna take a while."

"So will this case." The Lieutenant left his seat and walked to the door. He opened it and persuaded Eddie to leave first. "You ready, Eddie? Are you ready to take on perhaps the biggest case yet? The whole of Japan will be counting on you."

Eddie looked at the Lieutenant, smiling at him. The door had been left wide open for Eddie to step out first. He saw that this was another step into another case that could only be solved by him; he'd been working with cartoons for most of his life and he turning this one down would be a disgrace. And besides, he had no real reason why he should reject it. This was the next challenge for him. So Eddie smiled back at his friend, put on his hat and took up an empty suitcase under his desk, opening it.

"Let's go." Eddie quickly began packing clothes and equipment for his journey.

The Lieutenant watched without giving him any hand. He took out another cigarette and lit it.

"Oh, Lieutenant." Eddie said while moving about around the room, getting his things organized. "I noticed the papers didn't mention any details about Yamazaki's death…how was that guy killed?"

"You wanna know?" The Lieutenant asked. "When the Japanese told me over the phone, they sounded pretty freaked by it."

"I gotta know. Can't solve the case without knowing how the poor man died."

"He had a piano dropped on his head."

Eddie paused and looked at him with great uneasiness.

"What?"

…

Author's Note: Please review…or else I'll have pianos dropped on all of your heads! And I know none of you would like that, would you? (evil grin).