Digital Monsters: Back In Action

By Charles Xavier

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Case Closed

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"Today's top story at 8 o'clock: Takeru Takaishi has been found in Odaiba! At 2 o'clock this morning, police were nearly panic-stricken when the famous Lees rushed in and informed them about the anime's whereabouts. Hours later, armed squads explored the underground where he was claimed to be last sighted. Not long during their search, they managed to unravel a hidden lair belonging to the Acme Corporation. A gun war occurred among the Acme workers there when the police forced themselves in. After the long battle, police located Takeru, alongside him were Patamon, Hikari Yagami, Tailmon, Mr. Haruhiko Takenouchi, and Hollywood's Toon Detective Eddie Valiant, all safe and unharmed. However, police were startled when they also discovered Nanahara Yamazaki, son of deceased Hayao Yamazaki, at the scene. Just minutes after this report, thousands of Toei anime and workers had raced across to Odaiba to watch his miraculous return. And recently, authorities have been saying that Nanahara Yamazaki, Hikari Yagami and Detective Valiant have fully denied Takeru in any involvement with his father's murder, and they have demanded that he be released from all his allegations immediately. Over to you, Ryo."

"Thank you, Nakama. The Yamazaki family has been highly overjoyed by the fortunate news that Nanahara is alive and well. And good news: Toei Animation is said to be up and running again fully by this afternoon! After beliefs of Toei being shut down permanently, rumor now has it that Acme had been secretly trying to buy the company for reasons that are yet to be known. More about that later in the afternoon…but now, let's go live with Izumi Orimoto in Odaiba, where I hear that Nanahara Yamazaki is about to make his appearance!"

…

"Ohayo gozaimasu!" Izumi waved at the camera Grottomon was filming. "Izumi Orimoto reporting here live in Odaiba, where the audience here is beginning to increase rapidly on the street! After being told that Nanahara Yamazaki was going to emerge from this sewer drop behind me with police, I hurried from my home as fast I could to witness this heart-breaking event!"

Izumi listened to the crowd when they suddenly grew wild and began cheering. Looking back, she saw that police men climbing out of the sewers one after another. When they were out, two of them drew their arms into the hole to help the remaining people inside the sewers come out.

First came Mr. Haruhiko Takenouchi.

"OTOO-SAN!" Sora burst out from the crowd and ran to her father in teardrops, giving him a warm welcome fatherly hug. "Otoo-san! I thought they were going to kill you!" Mrs. Toshiko Takenouchi appeared also, looking twice as concerned as her daughter, but speechless to say anything; she was heavenly ecstatic to be reunited with her husband again. She ran over to him and embraced him joyously.

Second came Patamon and Tailmon.

All the high spirited Digimon waved at them as if they had become A-Grade stars.

Third came Detective Eddie Valiant, who was cleaning up his hat as he climbed up.

"Hey, Eddie." The Lieutenant came up to him with a pat on the back, crediting him on this news covered arrest. "Where've ya been this whole time, pal? Take out some no-good-doin' anime?"

"Let's just say I solved my first anime case…and met an old enemy of mine on the way."

Fourth came Hikari Yagami, wiping the dirt off her cheeks and smiling bashfully at the cameras surrounding her.

Fifth came Nanahara Yamazaki…who made the crowd turn even more rowdy. Straightening up his glasses, he gave a good look among all the anime and workers surrounding him, and smiled with infinite pleasure bowing left and right at everyone. Izumi, the paparazzi (mainly composed of Gekomon and Otamamon with flash digital cameras) and other news reporters rushed towards him, all with a sack full of questions.

"Mr. Yamazaki!" Izumi was the first one to get to him. "Is it true what you said about Takeru Takaishi being innocent, after evidence has proved correctly that Takeru was in fact the killer of your father?" She placed her microphone over to his mouth.

"Miss…NOTHING was correct in the first place. Takeru Takaishi is not guilty of any crime at all and never has been! The evidence you currently hold is false, and I have the real proof with me to tell it to you all!"

As the reporters aroused more and more questions to Nanahara, the listeners turned their attention to the next person coming out from the sewers.

It was Takeru Takaishi…looking overwhelmed to see everybody so full of energy and spunk one second, and then the next they were dead silent when seeing him. He couldn't guess what was running behind their minds, and that included his family, who he could clearly see beside him: his mother, his father, his grand-father, Yamato and Gabumon. Were they all despising him…or were they all feeling sympathetic towards him…? Takeru pulled on his collar and gave a light wave. "Um…hi, guys."

"That fearless boy and his friends saved us all!" Nanahara pointed to Takeru, Hikari, Patamon and Tailmon. "And I truly owe it to them with my deepest gratitude and thanks…if they hadn't come to my rescue, then Toei Animation would have fallen into a perilous state of disfiguration! It was them who saved my father's company and it was them who stopped Acme from their diabolical schemes. Why, if it weren't for them, anime would have been changed forever from what it now is!"

Just when anybody was thinking of giving some enthusiasm for Takeru and his friends, Mr. Chairman was caught crawling out from the sewers last. Hand-cuffed and appearing very scruffy, the police brought him up to his feet and clasped his arms.

"Damn you! Damn you all for this!" He scowled horridly upon everyone who set eyes on him. "Toei should have belonged to me…ME!!!!! The Chairman of Acme! Not to that silly feathered heron over there!" Anime and people gasped and placed hands over mouths. "All right, I admit it. I killed his father…and I'll kill him too if ever got the opportunity! I hate him, I hate that Detective, I hate that Lieutenant for bringing him here, I hate that those Takneouchis, I hate you Digimon, I hate you, I hate you anime, I hate you Japanese…"

He lastly turned to the two Chosen Children that had helped Eddie Valiant this entire journey. Oh, how much he was loathing them…two flames were burning in his enraged eyes. If he had a metal bat, he'd be whacking Takeru and Hikari until all their limbs were broken. But it seemed that option was not attainable.

"…and I especially hate you two." He said grinding his teeth firmly together and growling like an untamed animal. "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids!" (1)

"Take him away, boys!"

Yamaki blocked his view and ordered the police to drag him away into a black police van. Mr. Chairman was obedient enough to follow the police and left. He turned his head back to find Takeru and Hikari grinning at him with mischief as they bid him a happy farewell, waving cheerfully. People and anime watching went booing and hissing at Mr. Chairman at sheer disgrace, chucking garbage and vegetables at him. The Numemon in particular fired heavy showers of their own filth too. Walking down his path of public humiliation, Mr. Chairman was thrown inside the back of the police van. The van rumbled its engines and drove away with its bleeping siren…until it turned round the corner of the block and disappeared.

"Takeru Takaishi…" Nanahara approached him, holding a written sheet of paper scrolled up in his hand. "…this may be a difficult time to ask you this at awkward occasions like these, but…would it be of any bother to you if I could have your signature?" He unrolled the paper and brought out a golden colored contract. Takeru and Hikari removed the contract from Nanahara's hands and read it carefully:

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I, Takeru Takaishi, hereby state my return to Toei Animation and discard all criminal accusations enforced against me. With authorization and agreement of Mr. Nanahara Yamazaki, new head of Toei Animation, I will never again be forced by any man or anime to leave his company's grounds for now and the future.

…

"We will be most honored to have you back with us, Takeru." Nanahara said. "We are so sorry for what happened in the past…would you like to come back and work with us again?"

Takeru wasn't a hundred percent sure…eyeing down on Patamon and Tailmon, he saw their rapturous nodding at him. But without further hesitation, Takeru made up his mind indubitably when Hikari placed a warm hand over his shoulder and whispered in his ear:

"Go for it, Takeru-kun…I'm right here with you."

Takeru snatched the pen out from Nanahara's offering hand and signed the paper, shouting: "Ah, what the hey? I'm in!"

The crowd burst out cheering again, with high pitched whistles and ear-splitting applauses. Everyone from Toei rejoiced for Takeru Takaishi, and his family bustled through the sea of anime and people to congratulate their youngest member. His father, mother and grand-father squeezed him so dearly that Takeru swore he felt his eyes almost bulging. His brother Yamato wrapped an arm round his neck and rubbed his fist roughly on his hair for fun. Gabumon at the same time jumped up and down with elation.

Eddie and the Lieutenant clapped their hands and watched Takeru shake hands with Nanahara Yamazaki, handing back the signed contract to him. It was then when both the detectives heard girls screaming behind them. Looking round, they saw about ten Japanese school girls whacking their handbags violently on the female-crazed Digimon: Impmon. "BAKA! BAKA! BAKA!" The girls were shouting angrily. It was obvious that Impmon still hadn't been learning his lessons on how to treat women with proper manners and respect. He defended himself from the punishments he took for his sexual harassments.

"Girls! Girls! Please!" Impmon pleaded to them. "I was only kidding with ya! Can't you girls take a dirty joke for once in your lifetimes, huh…? ACK! OW! OUCH! Stop it! You're hurting my head!" Unable to cope, Impmon fled and rushed over to Eddie Valiant for help. "Sir, you gotta save me! These girls are giving me bumps on the head and I can't take the pain no more!"

Eddie bent down and raised a brow at him. "What is it with you and women?"

"I'm just so lonely…" Impmon replied.

As the audience assembled round Nanahara Yamazaki, either asking for autographs or interviews, Takeru's alertness was drawn by Hikari. He found her beckoning a finger to him to follow her behind an empty police truck on the side of the street. It was apparent that she wanted to talk to him privately about something. So taking no suspicions, Takeru went along with her. The two fought their way through the crowd, eventually making it behind the truck. They hid to the other side, where they could be unseen and under the shadow of the vehicle.

"Welcome back, Takeru." Hikari locked her hands round her back and lifted her heels up, glaring up into Takeru's azure eyes romantically. "I'm so happy that you decided to be back with us." She turned a cheek and set her sight away from him for the moment her face started to turn rosy red. "Can I ask you something, Takeru…? Did you really mean all those things you said back there?"

"What do you mean?" But Hikari let him figure that one out himself. And indeed, he did. Once Takeru understood what event she was referring to, he bit his lip and hesitated slightly. He placed his shaky hands together and fiddled with his fingers. "Oh…er…um…I…about what I said in Acme when I thought we were done for…I…we…you…" His face blushed with as much redness all over as Hikari's. "…I…I…"

Hikari didn't let him finish the sentence. She spread out her arms lovingly and snuggled against Takeru, taking him by the neck and meeting her warm delicate lips with his. For a flash, Takeru was stunned to see that he was having his first kiss with a girl in his life. (He'd been waiting eleven years for this!). But he accepted it tenderly and brought Hikari's head closer to his, shutting his eyes deeper into blackness sensing his cold lips invaded by Hikari's touch. This was like being in their own movie…where hero and heroine side by side finished their adventure with a passionate kiss at the end.

Oh…if only it were real.

Although this relationship between them was meant to be kept a secret from other eyes, they didn't notice that the truck behind them was moving. And when it departed away from its location, Takeru and Hikari were widely exposed to the crowd. A shocking revelation hit everyone on the head when they faced the couple's activity. They went soundless and jaws were dropped down to the ground. Eddie and the Lieutenant were dumbstruck and paparazzi and news reporters froze like icicles on a winter's day.

Takeru and Hikari opened their eyes to see why all had gone so quiet…and in panic they separated themselves and looked away, still looking red in the face as ever though. And from their uninvited spectators, various reactions arose:

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"Aye Chihuahua!" Chichos blurted out.

"Oh, my! Oh, my! Oh, my!" Impmon tittered. "It looks like we've got two love birds on board here! HEH! HEH! HEH!"

Taichi and Yamato fainted.

"Hikari…" Tailmon gasped.

"Takeru…" Patamon gasped also.

"Um, are you getting this all on tape, Grottomon?" Izumi asked.

"Look! They're making babies!" Ai and Makoto pointed their fingers out.

"What's goin' on here, you two?" Eddie stepped forward with a stern expression.

…

"Uh…" Takeru dug into his mind to find the right words to explain what precisely Hikari and he were up to. "…er…heh, heh, heh…well, as you can see…Hikari and I…um, like each other…um…very much…eh, heh, heh, heh."

Takeru met Hikari and to his surprise, saw her facing cheerfully back at him.

"Um, Hikari? Why are you looking at me like that in front of all these people?"

"Because I'm in love with you, silly!" Hikari announced in a high voice. "Come over here and give me another kiss!" She grabbed Takeru light-heartedly by the neck and presented him with another kiss on the lips.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Rather than gawking at this unusual moment, everybody jumped up in celebration and applauded once more with high shouts and cries. The paparazzi came over and shot varieties of photos and cameramen came and filmed this unforgettable scene. The whole street became flooded with more and more coming by to join in this triumphant victory for Toei Animation. Their company had been saved, Mr. Yamazaki's son was now the new head, and Takeru was back in business at last where he should have always belonged.

Yep, it was another toon (or anime) case closed for Detective Eddie Valiant…his work here was done.

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(1) I'm sure you can guess where this famous catchphrase is from!

Author's Note: That's not the end, folks! (Sorry if I tricked you there, but you know how I am in deceiving people). The last chapter of this fic is coming up next!