"Hello, Mrs. Nonaka," Harmony politely greeted Rika's mother. Rumiko noticed that today, she chose to go in her human form.
"Rika!" she shouted. "Harmony's here!"
"I'm in the kitchen!" came the answer of her daughter.
When Harmony entered the kitchen, she witnessed an unusual sight: Rika wearing a pink apron and pouring some fruits she had just cut into a bowl.
"Hi there, Harmony," she said. "You're early!"
Harmony noticed Rika's unusual amount of cheerfulness, but she also couldn't help but feel that this was just to cover the shaky undertone of uneasiness in her voice. Something was not right with her friend.
She decided not to press that subject for now. "Hi, Rika!" she said. "What are you doing?"
"Well, grandma is teaching me how to cook, so I thought I could make us all a nice fruit salad. I think Takato and Guilmon won't be here for about half an hour, same with Jeri. You wanna help me?"
Harmony thought about it, then shrugged. "Sure, why not?" And she stepped next to the red-haired girl.
"Where's Terriermon?" Rika asked.
"Oh, he'll come," Harmony said. "It's just that he offered to go to Ryo, Kenta and Kazu and ask them if they were interested in coming as well."
Rika grimaced. "He wants to invite the dull duo? You know I'm not too fond of them..."
"I know that, and I told Terriermon as well. You can imagine his reply, can you?"
Rika smirked. "Mou-man-tai?"
Harmony nodded with a sigh. "You bet. So, what is so urgent that we all had to come over? And is Renamon around?"
Rika put down her kitchen tools and sighed. "Harmony... do me a favor and please don't act too shocked when you see her, okay? Also, she prefers to be called just 'Rena' by now."
"Why's that?" Harmony wondered. "Something happened? Wait... is this about this 'RPG Maker' program?"
Rika raised an eyebrow, then nodded. "Yeah, it is. You know... something very strange happened. I will tell you all the details once the others have arrived, but to make it short: BioCalumon isn't as harmless as we believed. And because of him, the game somehow screwed up and, well... Takato's PC exploded."
"Oh my god!" Harmony gasped. "Did something happen to Takato or Guilmon?"
"No, they weren't there at the moment. But... Renamon was. And shortly before the computer blew up, the program somehow... malfunctioned. And now she's not only turned into a human, she is also stuck in that form and remembers only being my older, human sister named 'Rena'. Oh, and she also believes I have been a Digimon my whole life and keeps calling me 'Kit'."
"Kit?"
"Short for 'Kitmon'!"
"Ah, I see!" Harmony shook her head. "You know, I miss the days when such an explanation would freak me out. But after what SHE told me..."
Rika tilted her head. "Um... 'she'?"
The dark-haired girl nodded. "Well, you know, there's something I'll have to tell you and the others as well... I now know everything that happened with the RPG Maker and the Demon Lords, and how everything got messed up like this..."
Rika frowned. Somehow, Harmony was acting strangely.
"And in the end, she and I decided to take turns taking this body for a drive. It still is unfamiliar to me, but she insisted that I should be allowed to use it as well. She said it was the body I was born in." She looked down at herself. "Well, not so much anymore... but anyways... I want you to know that I'm back and you can count on me as much as you can count on her."
"Harmony... what the heck are you babbling about?" Rika murmured.
The girl in front of her grinned. "Nope, Harmony's just going along for the ride this time. But can't you guess who I am? After all, she told me you were not affected by the reality changes at all. But I'm gonna give you a hint: I used to be a boy, and my name also starts with 'H'."
For a while, Rika was just confused. But then it hit her. "H-henry?" she muttered.
Henry spread her arms and grinned. "In the flesh! Well, sort of..." she muttered and looked down at her breasts.
She was very surprised when she suddenly got tackled by an enthusiastic Rika. "HENRY!" she cried and squeezed the trans-gendered boy with all her might. "It's you! You're back! Oh, I missed you!"
Henry looked at her in bewilderment, then she smiled and hugged her back. "I really must have been out of action for some time. You have changed, Rika... for the better!"
"Oh, you!" Rika cried and smiled and laughed and sobbed. "I already thought I had lost you forever..." She then calmed down and frowned. "But wait a minute... what about Harmony?"
Henry tapped her finger at her head. "She's still in here, waiting for her turn. As I said, we decided to take turns taking this body for a ride. We might share different memories, but as far as we're concerned, we grew up in the same body. And every time one of us is inactive, we can always watch what is going on from inside. She's listening to every word we are saying." Henry tilted his head for a while, as if he was listening to someone. "She asked me to say hi for her!"
"You can talk to her just like that?" Rika asked in awe. "But Henry... while I'm overjoyed to see you again... whatever made you come back just like that?"
"I'm curious about that myself," Henry admitted. "But, you know... now that you told me about what happened to Renamon, I have a hunch. Maybe... maybe she isn't really gone at all. Maybe this glitch, or whatever it was, did something similar to her than what it did to me, when it created Harmony."
Rika stared at her. "You mean... Renamon's still in her, while that girl I never knew before is controlling her body?"
"Remember, as far as she is concerned, that has always been her body... if our theory is true! But it would explain quite a few things."
"Except that we don't know how this happened in the first place. Well, maybe we can find out more when the others arrive..."
"Yeah, and I'm also curious about that BioCalumon guy. I really wanna know if..."
"Kit?" The kitchen door opened up behind them and a blonde teenager wearing purple shorts entered. "Oh, hi there! Are you a friend of Rika? Say..." Rena tilted her head. "You kinda look like Dachs. Are you her human cousin or something?"
Henry gave Rena a weird look and glanced over at Rika in confusion. "Dachs?" she whispered.
"I... I didn't mean to do anything..." Monodramon winced. "I was just curious."
"Who knows what your curiosity might have caused," Ryo grumbled as he stared at the computer screen. "Damn, just static... I can't see that 'game' at all." He turned around to look at his partner. "Which just proves that it has to be the RPG Maker... or a copy of it. We can't touch it until we know more about it. We have to contact the others and tell him about this..."
"Hi, guys!" a familiar voice shouted as a child-sized, humanoid dog came soaring through the open window with wide ears. "Miss me?"
"Terriermon?" Ryo wondered. "Is something wrong? You rarely pay us a visit..."
"Well, I'm just on my way to a Tamer meeting, and I wondered if you two wanted to come along. Rika said she has important stuff to tell us... and by the way, Harmony has something to say, too."
"What a coincidence," Ryo said in surprise. "I was just going to give Rika a call. I'm coming with you, but..." He looked at his PC. "I don't want to leave the game behind unprotected." He clearly remembered the day when DemiDevimon assaulted Takato's cousin, and he didn't want that powerful program to fall into the wrong hands.
"I can stay here and watch it," Monodramon volunteered. "You can always tell me what happened at the meeting."
Ryo looked at his draconian Digimon partner sternly. "Can I trust you not to do anything stupid?"
"I promise!" Monodramon said and raised his claw. "Scout's honor!"
"Well, okay! Don't touch the computer until I have come back, okay? I don't think it will take long." He put on his jacket and left the room. "Meet you outside, Terriermon!" he shouted.
Before leaving, Terriermon gave Monodramon a frown. "Have you ever been a scout?"
Monodramon just smirked.
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(Posted Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:32)
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