"End of an Old Life"

I thought I'd make a longer version of this from my oneshot story some of you may have read. Please enjoy and review!

Walking around in the forest Dai had come to realize that she was lost.

Another genius move on her part of getting separated from the group and being stuck in the Digital World without any help if she got attacked by a rogue digimon.

That being sarcasm of course.

Of all people it just had to be her that got lost from the others who would be very annoyed when they found her because they had to waste their time on her when they could be doing something more productive.

"Man, which way do I go?" she asked herself as she looked around.

"Do you mean in this forest or in life?" someone asked.

Gasping, she spun around to see that a large tree she had walked by had come to life as he stared at her with yellow eyes and had a shrub as a moustache.

"What are you and what do you mean 'in life'?" Dai asked him.

He chuckled deep in his throat as he walked over to her with his tree roots as legs and gave a small smile that was meant to be comforting, but it gave her chills.

"What I mean dear girl is that in life you have many paths to take that determine who you will be in the future. I wonder what path you will take." He said.

His voice was deep, but soothing like a grandfather's voice would be like.

"Uh huh. So who are you and why does my future matter to you?" Dai asked as she gave him a wary glance.

"Oh, forgive me. I am Cherrymon." He said.

"You're a digimon? Er, duh. Makes sense that a talking tree in the Digital World would be a digimon. Man, I am dumb." She sighed sadly.

Cherrymon had a certain look in his eyes as he looked the girl over sensing a small hint of depression bubbling under the surface.

It was obvious by the sadness that shone in her eyes that she had dealt with self-doubt and wondered about whether she had a meaning in this world, a purpose in life that made her special.

"Who told you that you are dumb?" Cherrymon asked.

"A lot of people." She said.

"Like whom may I ask?" he inquired.

"Um, my parents, my sister, Yolei, Cody's pretty much said something that means he thinks I'm stupid. It's also obvious that TK and Kari only tolerate me half the time." Dai said.

Saying the things she had already figured out for herself out loud made it really hit her where it hurt.

Did any of her friends truly care for her at all?

"My, that sounds unsettling. Are these people truly your friends if they do this?" Cherrymon asked.

(Nearby…)

"I can't believe she got lost! Actually, I can. I don't know what I was saying." Yolei ranted.

She, TK, Tai, Matt, Kari, Ken, Cody, Veemon and the other digimon were looking for Dai since she had walked off from the group when they were helping fix the Digital World up after their battle with MaloMyotismon.

"Yolei, please calm down. This is a new area we haven't been too. The trees are very dense and make it hard to walk around here. It's a wonder not all of us have gotten separated or lost." Ken said.

"And it just had to be Dai." Gatomon sighed.

"She really should have stayed closer." Hawkmon said.

"I'm sure we'll find her soon enough." Armadillomon assured.

"Hope she's OK." Veemon whimpered.

"Aw, she'll be fine. She's a tough kid." Tai said.

Cody, who was at the front with his D-3 held out in front of him, gasped as he got a signal to track down their missing member.

"Found her. She's right through this patch of trees." He said pointing up in front of them.

"Finally." Matt sighed.

They all ran over to the trees and looked through the small openings to see that Dai was about 10 feet away from them in a clearing speaking to a large tree digimon.

"Of course they're my friends! Why would you ask something as dumb as that?" they heard Dai ask.

"Who is that digimon?" Cody asked.

"It's Cherrymon." Gabumon said as Matt gasped.

He had a run in with a Cherrymon before and it ended in him turning against his friends and brother, attacking Tai while he forced MetalGarurumon to fight WarGreymon.

Could this be the very same one from all those years ago trying to make Dai turn against them?

"You just said that they belittle you. If they were your friends, then wouldn't they treat you as their equal or at least notice the pain they cause you?" Cherrymon asked.

Dai was at a lost from that as she bit her lip and held a fist to her chest as she thought this over.

"I-I…but they are my friends. Aren't they?" she asked as tears sprung in her eyes.

"What? Why would she even ask that?" Yolei asked insulted.

"Listen and you might learn something." Tai quietly hissed.

The group all kept as quiet as they could so that they could focus on what Cherrymon and Dai were saying to see when they should jump in to help her out.

"In your heart you know the truth. They aren't your friends. If they are, then they aren't very good. How many times have they made you cry?" Cherrymon cooed.

That made the tears fall freely from Dai's eyes much to the Digidestinds' and digimons' surprise.

"That many times? How cruel. Tell me what they say or do to hurt you so." Cherrymon said.

"Yolei always calls me dumb or finds a way to insult me while TK, Cody and Kari undermine everything I say while they laugh at my faults. I thought at least Ken was still there to be my friend, but even he's turning away and laughs with them. I don't think they would even be my friends if I never became a Digidestind." Dai sniffled.

Kari gasped softly as her hand covered her mouth in shock when she saw how much pain they had caused her with their joking while Ken had tears twinkling in his eyes from hearing that he had hurt the person who was supposed to be his best friend.

Out of everyone, she was the person who had faith in him to become good and tried to convince the others, but they just shot the very thought down.

"Do you feel that you should continue down the path you're on? Why stay when all you'll get is more pain from those who use you as a scapegoat?" Cherrymon cooed.

Dai was shaking as if she was freezing as she cried harder at the fact that they didn't care for her at all.

"Why did you become a Digidestind? Why did you choose to risk your life for a world filled with people who fight to break your heart and soul?" Cherrymon asked.

"I don't even remember anymore. It's like over time I start to forget. I don't know why I bothered with going through all of this to just get treated the way I do. I mean, no one yells at Yolei, TK, Cody, Kari or Ken when they make a mistake. I don't think anyone cares if they do make a mistake, but when I do it, they all pounce like a pack of starved wolves. It's worst when they do it behind my back and I know they do, I've seen it." Dai sobbed as she dropped to her knees.

"It's so hard to fake a smile and act like nothing's wrong after just hearing them insult you and laugh like you're some big joke." she cried.

TK felt his heart sink down into his stomach as he felt sick from hearing those words and seeing the tears falling down her face that was flushed from crying.

Tai had his fists clenched tightly as he came to realize that this was his fault for not seeing that there were problems circling around the girl he had claimed as the new leader.

Guilt was filling Yolei as she thought back to the times she had gotten mad at Dai for the smallest things and would yell at the girl.

True, Dai had insulted her too, but it was small and playful as if she didn't mean to cause any harm, but Yolei still took offence and viewed the younger girl as the enemy.

Veemon was whimpered as tears fell down his face as he stared at his partner as he realized that all of the emotions she kept bottled up were finally coming out.

He had heard her crying at night when she thought he was asleep, but he did hear her and wondered why she was so sad and asked her, but she would dry her tears and force a smile as she assured him nothing was wrong at all.

"Oh, don't cry. Why waste your tears over such horrific people?" Cherrymon asked as he cupped his hand under the girl's chin making her look up at him.

"What am I supposed to do then? If I confront them, they'll just say I'm being too sensitive or just making it seem like something it's for attention while the older kids just stand by watching and do nothing like they always do when the others insult me. It's like they don't notice." Dai said as she worked on drying her tears with the sleeve of her blue sweater.

Cherrymon smirked as he realized he had the broken girl just where he wanted her and would make her turn against her friends like he had done to that blonde boy four years ago.

Humans were fragile creatures and women were exceptionally more so than the males.

"Take your revenge." He said.

Matt tensed up at this as he knew that this was the part that would be more difficult.

Dai looked up at Cherrymon with stunned eyes.

"Revenge?" she asked.

"Yes, revenge for everything they had done to you. They hurt you and you should hurt them back. It's justice after all." He said.

"What do we do now?" Wormmon whispered.

"I don't know. I never thought we'd have to face Dai as our enemy before." Tai said.

"How do you know she'll go against us?" Agumon asked.

"It's what I would do. I did do that, remember? But what we did to her was worse than what was wrong with me." Matt said.

He was the child of Friendship, out of everyone, he should have been there to help out the girl who had inherited his Crest, but he hadn't even bothered to do so.

This was all his fault, he should have taught her about his mistakes so that she could learn from them and wouldn't have to face this current problem.

"You want me to hurt them?" Dai asked.

"Yes, hurt them. Kill them even. It will ease your pain and you will be reborn even stronger without those people who lived to drag you down." Cherrymon said.

Dai then slapped his hand away making him gasp and she stood up quickly with a glare.

"You really think I'd kill them?" she demanded in anger.

"Of course. They broke you, trashed your soul. They think of you as trash." Cherrymon tried to reason.

"That doesn't mean I can kill them! What kinda person would be stupid enough to try to kill their own friends just to make the pain go away?" Dai asked.

She had no idea how that question made a certain blonde 15 year old moan in displeasure as he thought back to how he had easily turned against his friends while she was yelling at Cherrymon.

"You need to do this. You know it deep inside of you." Cherrymon stated.

"No, what I know is that you got one twisted mind. They may insult me, bring me down and hurt me, but they're still my friends and I would die before I hurt them!" Dai said fiercely.

The other Digidestinds all gasped in shock and awe at what she had just said, the girls now crying along with Ken.

"Fine then. You know, I thought those who inherit Friendship were easy to manipulate just like that boy with the Gabumon was, but you proved me wrong. You may be stronger than he was or you're just a masochist." Cherrymon chuckled darkly.

As he went to attack her, Veemon quickly dove into action and tackled Dai to the ground and out of the way of the attack.

"What?" Cherrymon asked.

"Veemon, you made it!" Dai exclaimed.

"Yep. Now let's get this guy." Veemon grinned as Dai nodded with a smirk.

"DIGI ARMOUR ENERGIZE!"

"Veemon armour digivolve to…Raidramon: the Storm of Friendship!"

Mounting her dragon, Dai hung onto the spikes as Raidramon shot off at Cherrymon and used his Electric Bite on the plant digimon's arm making him scream in pain, then Raidramon jumped away.

"What should we do about him, Dai?" Raidramon asked.

"I don't know." Dai said.

"Destroy him!" Matt called.

Gasping, the second duo of Friendship looked over to see Garurumon had jumped out of the thick trees with Matt on his back and ran up to their side.

"Cherrymon will only go after another kid who is broken and turn them. We need to take him out once and for all." Matt said determined.

Something flashed in his azure eyes that made Dai feel curious, but she brushed it off as she nodded.

"Then let's get him." She said.

"Come and try it, Keepers of Friendship. But it still won't change what you both know." Cherrymon said.

Growling at each other in agreement, Raidramon and Garurumon faced Cherrymon as he threw small cherry bombs at them, but the dragon and wolf quickly jumped out of the way and blasted at him with their Howling Blaster and Thunder Blast.

Cherrymon screamed in agony as he then shattered into data particles that floated off into the sky.

As they watched, the other Digidestinds and digimons walked out of the thick trees and went over to their friends as they both had stoic expressions as they watched the data float away into the sky.

"Dai, are you OK?" Kari asked softly.

The mahogany haired girl's head was bent down to hide her face so no one could see what she was feeling or thinking.

"No, I'm not. Cherrymon was right." Dai said.

"No he wasn't." TK said.

"You should never take revenge. It makes things worst." Patamon said.

"No, not about that. About the fact that you guys don't really care about me." she said.

"That isn't true." Ken said as he ran up to her side.

She then looked at them all with molten chocolate eyes that made them all freeze in place when they saw the conflicted emotions surging in them.

"Oh really? Then what's my favorite color?" she asked.

This stumped them at why she was even asking, but they decided to play this game.

"Blue." Yolei said.

"Wrong. It's gold." Dai said.

"Yeah, but I bet you don't know our favorite colors." Yolei challenged.

"Lavender." Dai said pointing at Yolei who was shocked since she had gotten it right.

"Green." Dai said pointing to Tai.

"Yellow." She said pointing at Cody.

"Amethyst." This was directed at Kari.

"Teal." That would be TK.

"Sapphire." Ken's favorite.

"And silver." Dai said as she looked over at Matt last.

"Tell me I'm wrong." She challenged them all.

No one said a thing since she had correctly guessed their favorite colors.

"This is my point. You don't care enough about me to know what my favorite color is. If you don't know that, then you don't know what my favorite song, movie, book, author, band or TV show is either. Do you even know if I have allergies or a phobia? No, you don't. We're supposed to be friends, but how can you be my friends if you don't know any of the facts about my life?" she asked.

Everyone kept silent as they looked down sadly since they thought hard to see that they truly didn't know the details of her life or about anything that made her who she is.

Shaking her head in disgust at them all, she pulled off the goggles that Tai had given to her, the guy who she viewed as such an amazing person once that she would work really hard to make him compliment her or respect her as much as she did him.

"Here, I never wanted them in the first place. I only took them to make you happy, but I could care less about that now." Dai said as she threw the goggles down to the ground right at Tai's feet.

Feeling like he lost a part of himself, Tai bent down and picked up the goggles and looked them over as he felt he had failed greatly.

He took a child's trust and shattered it.

"I hope you all have a nice life." She said as it looked like she was going to cry again, but was holding the tears back.

Raidramon took the hint and then took off into the forest, heading towards the digi port to take them back home.

When she was gone, Kari broke down crying as Gatomon rushed to her side to comfort her.

"We…we really hurt her. Didn't we?" Yolei asked sadly.

"I don't think she'll ever trust us again." Cody said.

Ken was sobbing at the fact that he had just lost his best friend for being so stupid, falling to his hands and knees as he let out a wail of misery.

"She'll come around and forgive us…right?" Armadillomon asked.

"It's hard to tell. From what we saw, I wouldn't be surprised if she never did forgive us and ignored us all for the rest of her life." Hawkmon said regrettably.

The digimons were at fault here as well since they could have said something to stop their partners from being so disrespectful to Dai, but instead they just laughed along.

"Why are you all just standing around?" Matt demanded making them all look at him.

"Our friend is hurt. We need to try to help her instead of just feeling bad for what we've done in the past." He said.

"But she doesn't seem to want anything to do with us." Wormmon said timidly.

"That doesn't matter. We can still try." Garurumon said.

With that, the original Keepers of Friendship took off in the direction that their successors had gone off in, determined to catch up to them and help the hurt girl out.

Raidramon was running quickly across the planes of the Digital World when he heard the pounding of footsteps.

"We're being followed." He said.

Looking back, Dai frowned when she saw it was Matt and Garurumon who were chasing after them.

"What are they doing chasing us? Pick up the pace. We need to lose them." She said.

"Got it." Raidramon said.

The dirt kicked up as he increased his speed making Matt frown as he realized that they knew he and Garurumon were on their tail.

"Hurry, Garurumon. We're losing them." Matt urged.

"Right." The wolf snarled as he went faster.

Soon enough, the two digimon were running alongside each other, Matt looking over to Dai who was focusing on what was ahead of her so she could ignore him.

"Dai, we need to talk. Pull over." He called to her.

"What?! Sorry, can't hear you!" she yelled back without looking at him.

Frowning in displeasure at this, Matt decided that he would have to take drastic measures to get her attention.

He leaned down and whispered his plan into Garurumon's ear, the wolf looking worried about this, but nodded in confirmation as he kept the pace with the dragon.

"What are they planning?" Dai muttered.

Garurumon swerved right in front of Raidramon, making him take a turn to where a field of long grass was located and they both ran in that direction.

"What are you doing?" Raidramon asked.

"You'll see." Garurumon said.

As they raced each other, Matt carefully stood up on his wolf's back and then lunged at Dai, arms locking around her waist as he twisted his body and forced them both off of the dragon as they both went falling into the soft long grass that broke their fall.

The two digimon stopped running and turned to their partners in worry in case they were hurt.

Matt was lying on his back with his arms wrapped around Dai, keeping her in place as he had her chest against his, blushing a bit at the feel of her breasts, but shrugged it off when he felt her trying to move.

"Let me go!" she yelled.

"So you can run off again? Not gonna happen, Dai. We're talking and we're going to stay here as long as we need to, even if it takes all night." Matt said sternly.

"What about your dad? Won't he get suspicious if you don't go home?" she asked.

"What about your family?" he asked.

"They won't care, they never do. Now let me go!" she yelled as she thrashed around in his arms but he tightened his hold on her bringing her closer to himself.

"After you told me that stuff? No way, now start talking. Why do you think your parents won't care?" he asked.

"Because they told me they didn't care! They call me stupid just as much as the others do and Jun just teases me all the time. I just want to go somewhere where I can be alone and not have to worry about any of this stuff for a long while." She cried.

"You'd have to deal with it some time. And with the Digidestinds. I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I should have been looking out for you. I out of all people knew how fragile the power of Friendship is. Cherrymon tried to get to me too." He said.

Dai stopped moving when those words came out of his mouth and she looked into his azure eyes to see age old pain hidden there.

"What?" she asked.

Seeing she relaxed, Matt loosened his hold, but kept it firm so she couldn't escape easily as he launched into his story.

"TK was kidnaped by Puppetmon and he saved himself. It was then that I realized that he didn't need me anymore and it really hit home. I thought watching over TK was my one purpose in life, but now that he could save himself, it left me with nothing to live for." He explained.

Raidramon and Garurumon laid down side by side as they listened to the tale that the blonde was telling.

"After the divorce, I was used to being alone, so when I got thrown into watching TK at camp and then the Digital World, it freaked me out. I didn't know how to be a big brother. Tai did a better job of it and it annoyed me. After I got used to the idea of looking out for TK, he just grew up so fast that I lost my chance to really be there for him. Cherrymon found me when I started to doubt my worth to the group. He convinced me to get rid of Tai and I attacked him and then ordered MetalGarurumon to take out WarGreymon. I really messed up there. When I saw you with Cherrymon, I froze in fear because I thought he would fill your heads with lies, but he didn't. Unlike me, you called him on what he was and fought him. I wish I had your strength back then." Matt said.

Feeling her arms move, he looked down to see that Dai had wrapped her arms around his waist as best she could while she rested her head on his chest.

"What're you doing?" he asked with a blush.

"You looked like you needed a hug." Was her response.

Smiling at that, he returned the hug and buried his face in her hair that was down from its ponytail and had a few blades of grass in it much like he was sure was the state his hair was in.

Garurumon and Raidramon both smiled at this as they reverted back to their Rookie forms while they watched their partners hug.

They looked so sweet, like a brother and sister comforting each other.

"Do you think you can forgive the others for what they did?" Matt asked.

"Maybe later. I have a right to still be mad at them since I've been keeping my feelings in for almost a year." Dai said.

Chuckling at that, Matt picked the girl up in his arms and then set her on her feet.

"Can we go eat now?" Veemon asked.

"I am a bit hungry myself." Gabumon admitted.

The two Keepers of Friendship laughed at that as the foursome headed off for the digi port to go back home to get some food to eat, Matt using Dai's D-Terminal to send a quick message to the others that he found Dai and they were going home.

When Dai got home, she saw that her dad and mom were both carrying some boxes around the apartment while Jun sat down in the kitchen pouting.

"What's going on?" Dai asked.

Her mother looked over to her.

"Your father just got a job transfer. We're moving on Saturday, so start packing your stuff or we'll leave it here." The woman said.

Feeling shocked at this, Dai just nodded and walked off into her room and set Demiveemon down as she started to pack up her stuff.

"Dai, aren't you going to talk to your parents about this?" the dragon asked.

"No. They won't care what I have to say, so I'll just be wasting my breath. Besides, I need to move on." Dai said.

Demiveemon frowned sadly at this as he watched his partner pack up her stuff to get ready to move away from the place she grew up in.

(The next day…)

"You're moving? Seriously?" Matt asked.

The two duos of Friendship were at the Ishida's apartment speaking since Dai wanted to be away from where the others could find her.

"Yeah. When Dad makes up his mind, there's no talking him out of it. If Jun's whining didn't work, then you know nothing I say will work." She said.

"You mean anything." Matt corrected her which made her glare and he smiled innocently.

"Well, just call me and e-mail me as much as you can when you get there. Where are you moving to anyway?" Matt asked.

"Someplace called Shibuya I think." She answered.

Tsunomon and Demiveemon were watching a TV show while eating popcorn, laughing at the show and trying to forget about the fact that they wouldn't see each other for a while.

Matt smiled as he saw the hidden stress on the girl's face and brushed her bangs out of her face making her chocolate eyes look up into his azure ones.

"Do me a favor and try to make at least one new friend, OK?" he asked.

She nodded at this, but wasn't sure if she could trust so easily anymore after what she went through.

(A week later…)

The Motomiya family had made it to their new house in the town of Shibuya and went inside the light blue house that had four bedrooms along with an attic and a basement to store their things, a living room, a kitchen and dining room in one, two bathrooms and it had a front door and back door in the kitchen.

Dai had been just coming down from her room and paused when she saw the family of four in the Motomiyas' new house.

There was a man with tanned skin and long black hair tied back, a woman with auburn hair, a small boy with brown hair, brown eyes and pale skin like his mother while the boy who was Dai's age had tanned skin like his dad and also had dark brown hair that was styled like his mother's.

Something that put Dai off were the square goggles he had around his neck because they reminded her too much of Tai and she was trying to get over her old friends who had hurt her.

"We hoped that we could be the first to welcome you to the neighborhood." The man said.

"Thank you." Mr. Motomiya said.

Jun looked off to the side and spotted Dai hiding around the corner with Demiveemon clutched to her chest and a distressed expression on her face.

Mrs. Motomiya saw what Jun was looking at.

"Well, I'm Mai, this is my daughter Jun, husband Jiro and my youngest daughter is called Daisuke." She said.

Sighing, Dai walked out from where she was hiding, the family noticing her, the oldest son staring at her with a small pink tint to his cheeks.

"Well, it was wonderful to meet you. Perhaps you can come over for dinner so we can get more acquainted." The woman said.

She had seen how her son reacted to seeing the mahogany haired girl and was cooking up more than just dinner for tonight.

"That's sounds wonderful." Mai said.

"We'll be there. What time should we arrive?" Jiro asked.

"I think 7:00 should work out for us all." The man smiled.

"All right then, we'll see you at 7:00." Jiro said.

"Goodbye then!" the woman said with a wave.

The family then left, Jiro closing the door behind them and turned a stern gaze onto his youngest.

"You behave tonight, understood?" he demanded.

Teeth grinding behind closed lips, Dai just nodded her head and then left to go into her room, locking the door behind her.

She sighed sadly as she set Demiveemon down on her bed, the dragon giving her a worried look.

"Dai, are you OK?" he asked.

"Yeah, buddy. I just don't think I'm up for making new friends so soon." she said with a small smile for him.

She then went over to one of her boxes that was near the window and opened it up, taking out some of her old soccer gear.

"Hey!" someone called.

Jumping in shock, she turned to look out her window and spotted that boy looking over at her from the window in his own room.

They were about ten feet away from each other, the goggle boy smiling at her.

"You're Daisuke, right? My name's Takuya Kanbara." He said.

Dai kept quiet as she just nodded.

"Not much of a talker are ya?" he asked.

"People like it better when I don't talk." Dai said as she closed her window and then pulled the curtains down.

Demiveemon looked at her curiously as she went back to unpacking and then the time for meeting the Kanbaras came, so Dai left her dragon alone with some food and then left with her family.

They went inside the house and were greeted by the father who smiled at them.

"Welcome, please come in. The food is ready to be served now." He said as he led the group in.

The mother was placing the pot of curry on the table, Takuya looking over and smiled as he saw Dai, not looking at all offended by how she had just blew him off.

"Welcome, please, sit." The mother insisted.

As soon as Dai sat down, Takuya hopped down to her right while his brother sat on her left.

"This smells wonderful, um…" Mai trailed off.

"Ah, right, we never introduced ourselves did we? I'm Yuriko; this is my husband Hiroaki and my sons Shinya and Takuya." The woman said pointing out her family members.

"Hey, Daisuke, do you play any sports?" Shinya asked making the girl look at him.

"Um, yeah. I play soccer." She said.

"No way, that's awesome!" Takuya said getting in her face which made her blush as he smiled at her.

"Jun, do you play any sports or have any activities?" Hiroaki asked.

"No, I don't like sports." Jun said as she started eating.

The Kanbaras frowned at that since they were active people who enjoyed sports and other types of physical movement like running and dance.

"Jun is actually an honor student and keeps up with her studies very well." Jiro said proudly which made Dai look down as she just started eating.

The adults then went on speaking, Shinya asking Dai questions too which she answered the best she could and Takuya was getting bored to death at the fact that Jun was talking to him about fashion and cute boys.

He wanted to talk to Dai; she seemed more interesting and seemed to be the fun one.

After they finished eating, Shinya pulled Dai off to play a game of soccer with him in the backward and she went along with it since she couldn't refuse the sweet face he gave her and Takuya was once again stuck with Jun in the living room while the parents talking in the kitchen.

(A few days later…)

It was the start of the new school, Dai and Jun walking out of the house together with their new school bags and supplies while Demiveemon was hidden inside Dai's bag.

"Dai!" Shinya called as he and Takuya stepped out of their house, the little boy running over to the girl waving.

He had really enjoyed his time with the girl who had been nice to him despite the fact that he was younger than her.

"Hey, wait up!" Takuya called as he ran after his brother who was hugging the arm of the surprised Dai while Jun rolled her eyes at this.

"Hey you two. Ready for your first day?" Takuya asked.

"Yeah, sure. I can't wait to see if there are any cute guys here!" Jun gushed making the other three sigh.

They then started walking, Shinya talking nonstop to Dai who listened to him and nodded with a small grin to show she was listening.

When they got to the school, they separated to head off to their own classes, Dai having all of the same classes as Takuya who happily showed her around the classes while asking her plenty of questions.

She had her guard up around him and didn't really speak to him which frustrated him, but he didn't give up as he continued talking to her since there was something about her that interested him.

After a while, she finally had enough and just started talking to him and told him small things about her life like how she was the captain of the male soccer team and he smiled at this.

Whenever the subject of friends came up, she would freeze as a look of pain flashed in her eyes which surprised him, but he would then change the subject much to her relief.

(A month later…)

Takuya and Dai had grown closer as friends, the girl coming to trust him, but only him as she was still wary of other people and would often grow shy around others except for Shinya.

At the moment, Shinya was playing with the new race car that Dai had gotten him for his birthday that day while Takuya sat at the table looking bored out of his mind as he stared at the cake.

No one could eat until their father got home from work, but Shinya didn't mind since Dai was playing with him and Demiveemon was hiding inside of the hood of her black sweater that had orange and red flames at the bottom.

"Hey, Dai, do you think you can help me with a prank?" Shinya asked quietly so his mom and brother didn't hear.

"A prank? Like what?" Dai whispered.

"Like changing Takuya's hair color. Not permanent, but something really wild that would make him freak out." He giggled.

"Yeah, sure. As long as it's not pink or lavender." She said.

Pink hair would remind her too much of Kari and Mimi while lavender would make her think of Yolei, which would make her feel upset over her old friends yet again.

"OK, how about a bright neon green color or would that be cool? Maybe we can just put a lot of different colors in his hair!" Shinya exclaimed quietly.

She just gave a smile at the boy when Takuya ran over and grabbed her hand, hauling her up to her feet and ran for the door.

"We're leaving!" he called to his mom.

"Don't play in the street!" the woman called after them.

When they were running down the street, Takuya held his cell phone up to check the time.

"Where are we going?" she asked him.

"My destiny. I need to get to the train station for my destiny." He said.

This really confused her by the answer, but then a little boy and his dad accidentally kicked a soccer ball into the street making Takuya let go of Dai's hand as he ran after the ball.

"I'll get it!" he called to the father and son.

He got to the ball and turned to kick it back, but didn't see the truck getting closer to him.

"Takuya!" Dai yelled.

Her voice made him look up to see the truck and his eyes widened in fear.

"This is my destiny?" he asked.

Demiveemon jumped out of Dai's sweater and quickly digivolved into his Champion form and grabbed at the boy, flying him away from the truck and over to Dai and then returned to his Rookie form before anyone saw him.

"What the heck?" Takuya asked.

All he saw was a flash of light and then something blue before he was standing in front of Dai safely.

Speaking of the girl, she had her hand over her heart as it pounded hard against her breast.

She had been terrified that she would lose her friend.

"Don't ever do that again." She scolded.

"Sorry, I guess I should've watched where I was going." He said sheepishly, then checked his phone.

"Ah, we're late!" he yelled and grabbed her hand, almost running into Veemon if he hadn't moved out of the way in time and latched onto Dai's hand as they ran off.

Takuya pulled her along to the train station where they went to where the ticket machine was and he dug in his pockets while Dai picked up Veemon and held him, hoping he wouldn't notice the dragon.

"Aw, man. I knew I should've asked for more allowance." Takuya groaned as he rammed his head onto the machine.

It beeped and then stuck out two tickets that were red, but glowed which what looked like blue data before it returned to normal.

"Huh, that works." He said and then looked over to Dai.

"Have you always had that thing?" he asked staring at Veemon.

"Yes, you were just in too much of a hurry to notice." She said.

Shrugging at this, Takuya grabbed her hand and pulled her along with him again and got to the train, yelling for it to wait and then the two ran inside.

Takuya slumped to the floor panting while Dai just watched him.

"I can't believe we made it. Huh? How come you're not tired?" he asked the girl.

"I'm used to running around all the time." She said making him grunt.

Across from them, they noticed a boy their age with long raven hair tied back while his bangs were being held up by a blue bandana with brown tiger stripes and he had sapphire eyes that were on his cell phone.

"I wonder if he got the same message." Takuya said to Dai who bit her bottom lip.

"I have a bad feeling." Veemon whispered into his partner's ear.

She nodded at this, especially when everyone's cell phone went off, but the only two people on board who got the message were Takuya and bandana boy.

Looking around, Dai spotted a boy who was wearing a green cap staring at bandana boy and she almost swore that it was Ken, but as she looked closer, she saw that it was someone else who resembled bandana boy far too much.

"AHHH COME ON!" Takuya stood up, screaming.

Dai jumped in shock at this as she, bandana boy and the other passengers around looked at the crazed goggle head who had his heads on his head looking distressed over the message he had gotten.

"GIVE ME A BREAK! I'M DOIN' THE BEST I CAN!" Takuya complained loudly.

The duo of Miracles sighed at this.

After a while, they finally made it to their stop and Takuya had his arm linked with Dai's as Veemon was being given a ride on her back as he clung to her, the three looking around.

"Where do we go now?" Dai asked.

"I don't know." Takuya said.

Just then, bandana boy walked by them, stepping out in front of them and some wave of energy passed through the trio which stunned them, but ignored it as the raven kept going.

"Maybe…he knows." Takuya said determined.

He took off, dragging Dai with him, but she then let go and ran off, surprising him at the speed she was at as she jumped over the check through and then made it to the elevator in only a minute.

"How does she do that?" Takuya muttered as he ran faster.

He jumped into the elevator before it closed shut, his head hitting wall making bandana boy, Dai and Veemon stare at him.

"You know I could've held the doors right?" she asked softly.

"Now ya tell me." Takuya groaned as he got up in a sitting position and rubbed at his sore head.

Seeing the other boy, Takuya gave him a curious look as Dai turned to him.

"Hey, did you get the message, too?" Takuya asked the boy.

The boy didn't answer; he just turned away from him.

"You could answer me, at least." the goggle head said.

Just then, the elevator started making weird noises and the three saw that they were skipping some floors, and were way pass floor B1, so they weren't even on any floors anymore.

A sudden flicker of negative energy then went through Dai and the raven which made them both gasp as they had sensed something was off, but not sure what it was.

Veemon whimpered as his ears flattened meaning he had sensed it as well.

"My destiny's really starting to bite." Takuya said.

The elevator crash landed, making Takuya fall back while the other two held onto the walls to keep themselves steady.

"Man, I really gotta stop landing on my head!" Takuya said.

The three looked out of the elevator to see the doors were opened and saw an underground train station with different colored trains and kids of all ages boarding them.

"So weird." Takuya said.

"It's up to you now. Which one will you choose?" Takuya's and the boy's phones asked.

"Hey, which one are you choosing?" Takuya asked as the boy ran out.

"Gee, my phone talks more than that guy." He muttered.

"So, which one do we choose?" he asked as he stood up and looked around.

"I don't know, but I have a feeling something big is gonna happen." Dai said with narrowed eyes.

Takuya looked at her in confusion, but she ignored it as she and Veemon spotted a wine colored train that was closest to them and had some kids getting on to check it out while one little boy was shoved on by some other kids.

Sadly they didn't have time to look around when the trains' doors slammed shut and started to leave, so the two started running to the wine train, Dai jumping on fast and then held her hand out for Takuya to take and he grabbed hold of it.

Veemon hopped down and grabbed Dai's waist, pulling her and Takuya onto the car and the boy panted to try and catch his breath.

"Thanks." He panted.

Lifting his eyes, he spotted bandana boy on the train across from him and the duo of Miracles turned to spot him.

They kept eye contact until they went into two separate tunnels and then looked to the door in front of them.

"So, now what do we do?" Takuya asked.

"Just walk in and see what our destiny is now." Dai said as she picked up Veemon and walked inside.

Takuya nodded and followed her, but the mahogany haired girl couldn't help but wonder what she had gotten herself into now.

To be continued…