I want it known from the beginning that I'm being forced to do this. I am many things - I have been many things - but an author has never been one of them. Takeru, who really should be doing this, insists that he doesn't know enough of the details to tell the story, so it's been delegated to me.

Go me.

My name is Ken Ichijouji. I'm 27, and today is my birthday. For my birthday, I'm being forced by those people I sometimes call friends to sit down and write about the day my life changed.

When I was 4, my brother Osamu died and my life changed. When I was 11, I became the Digimon Kaiser and my life changed again. Then I met the Digidestined and my life finally changed for the better.

I'm digressing.

Two years ago my life changed for what I hope is the last time. That is what this story is about.

Two years and three weeks ago, I woke up. That day, at the time, seemed nothing out of the ordinary. I went through my morning routine as per usual. At nine, Miyako packed our kids into our station wagon and drove them to day-care.

I don't know why we paid for day-care. Miyako didn't have a job and could have watched them, but she claimed day-care would give them a "jump-start on learning." Her words, not mine.

By 9:45, Miyako would arrive back home in time to kiss me goodbye and be in front of the television by 10.

Miyako's days were mostly filled with TV: Rikki Lake at 10, then Jenny Jones and Sally Jessie Raphael. At 1 she would leave to shop for an hour or clean the house or work out at the gym. By 3:30, though, she'd be back on the couch in time for Passions. She said she was writing a novel and that conserving her energy was an important part of the artistic process.

At any rate, I arrived at my office a little after 10. I worked out of a two-room spread in one of the downtown malls. It wasn't fancy: Stingmon took most of the walk-ins out in the front room, while I dealt with more serious cases and telephone calls in the back room. Like I said, not fancy, but with three children and Miyako to support, fancy wasn't really important.

I'd like to point out now that Miyako and I never got married. We had a common law sort of arrangement worked out, but we'd never signed a paper that bound us together until death do us part. She was too frightened by the (on a whole) unsuccessful marriages of the other Digidestined, and I never cared one way or the other.

At 10:30 that day, the phone rang. As usual, I answered.

"Hello. Ichijouji and Stingmon, private detectives."

"Is Mr. Ichijouji in?" a male voice on the other end asked.

"Speaking."

"Oh." There was a pause. "You don't have a secretary?"

"No." I answered sharply: I did have a business to run. "Can I help you?"

"Ken, it's Taichi."

That took me by surprise. It had been almost three years since I spoke to a Digidestined other than Miyako. She, of course, had kept in touch, but I had gone to great lengths to separate myself from the others.

Yes, I did have reasons, but I'll get to that later.

"Hello, Tai. How have you been?"

"Let's cut to the chase, Ken," Tai said, and it struck me how much he'd changed since I'd last talked with him. That had been just about the time he took a job as head of the Digimon Consulate. "You don't care how I've been, and I don't have the time to chat."

I leaned forward on my desk. "Fair enough. What can I do for you?"

"Not over the phone. Can you be in my office in, oh, twenty minutes?"

"That really depends on where your office is."

He gave me the address of the newly constructed Digimon Embassy, only a few blocks away.

"I can be there in ten minutes." I told him.

"Beautiful! Just talk to the receptionist-guy when you get here."

I told him I would and hung up. Leaving Stingmon to run the office, I walked down to the Embassy. It was warm out, and the streets weren't too busy. I've always been a firm believer in walking unless it's absolutely necessary to take a car.

The Embassy took up the corner of a street. It was a huge building, built all of steel and reflective glass. In front was a paved courtyard and a stone fountain for employees to sit and smoke on during lunch breaks. In the centre of the courtyard was a flag with the nine crests woven together in a very art nouveau design. A glaring reminder that I was tied to them no matter how hard I pulled away.

I walked into the lobby and up to the desk where a young man in a navy suit lounged.

"Can I help you sir?" he asked in a bored voice.

"I'm here to see Taichi Yagami."

"Your name?"

"Ken Ichijouji."

His eyes went wide, and he bounded out of his seat.

"Really? The Ken Ichijouji? As in Ken 'The Kaiser' Ichijouji?"

I froze. I've had fans since I was six, so I was used to them, but I hadn't come to grips with the idea that my Kaiser days were public knowledge. And I still hated having it paraded in front of my face.

Luckily, Tai came to my (or possibly the man's) rescue before I did or said something I might have regretted.

"Ken! Ken, over here!"

I glared half-heartedly at the man before joining Tai.

Once upon a time, Tai was a boy. By all accounts, a loud, rude, careless, insensitive one. Regardless, he managed what I would have thought impossible: to lead eight children through an unknown, dangerous world.

Lead. Tai was the leader. He commanded (commands, he still does) their respect and loyalty because of his charisma, and because, in a crisis, Tai keeps a very important quality: common sense, untouched by panic, reinforced with a hell of a lot of courage.

I never knew that boy. When I first met Tai, the years had worn away his rougher edges. By then he was not so much careless as carefree, and his insensitivity had all but worn away. Instead of being loud and rude, he had a world-weary aura of self-confidence that seemed to say, "I've seen it all, I can beat it all. Give me your best shot."

By then, he was perfectly moulded for the job he would one day have, and looking at him it was obvious: Tai loved the job, and the job loved Tai back.

He was shorter than I remembered, but that could have been the haircut; it was like a big void that hung over his head. He grinned sheepishly at me.

"Sorry about Tsutsui. He's... young."

I shrugged. "It's okay."

"Really?" Tai raised an eyebrow. "You looked ready to murder him."

I offered Tai a thin smile. "I admit, I wished I had my whip."

"Ah..." Tai looked at me warily. "'Kay. Thanks for not, um, hurting him though. He's new, but he's very enthusiastic." He grinned and mouthed the words "hero worship."

I nodded: if anyone knew hero worship it was me. "You had a job for me?"

All of Tai's good humour disappeared. He motioned to the elevators. "Come on."

We got into an elevator and headed up to the eleventh floor. The door opened on a room almost as big as the main floor lobby. Off to the left, a young woman sat at a desk typing. She looked up as we entered.

"Back already, Mr. Yagami?"

"Hold all my calls, Chako. This way, Ken."

He led me through the door at the back of the room and into the office. It was very him, filled with soccer paraphernalia and pictures of his family and the Digidestined. One photo, a framed 4 x 6", sat by itself on a filing cabinet. From it, Yamato, Sora, and Tai smiled at me.

Tai's gaze lingered on the picture and then, with a touch of finality, he turned it face down. He walked around his desk and sat down.

"Please." He gestured to a chair, and I sat.

Everything about the office was comfortable. It was the office of a man who knew who he was and embraced it. I, a man who could never embrace who he was, felt out of place.

"Um…" Tai rubbed his forehead and took a deep breath. None of the confidence the room told of could be found. Tai looked shaken, unsure. For a moment, we were out of place together. "Sora is...um. Sora's dead."

In my line of work you get good at guessing what people will say before they say it. Sooner or later nothing surprises you anymore. Tai's body language had told me to prepare for the worst, so when I spoke my voice was calm.

"How?"

Tai bobbed his head. "Matt, uh, phoned me last night. I don't really know the details, so I'll need you to go out there as soon as possible."

I blinked. "What?"

Tai threaded his fingers together on his desk. "Matt, uh, he suspects... foul play."

Sora murdered? I was stunned, although to my credit I don't think Tai noticed.

"Tai, hold on." I held up my hand. "You can't be thinking what I think you're thinking. My experience is in robbery, missing persons, that sort of thing. I'm not, note the emphasis on not, a homicide detective."

"Oh." Tai drummed his fingers on the desk. "The thing is, it's very important we keep this 'in the family' so to speak."

I raised an eyebrow, and Tai sighed.

"Ahkay. You need to understand that what I'm about to tell you is classified. Don't repeat it to non-crest-carrying Digidestined or civilians without the proper clearance, ok?" I nodded. "Good. What do you know about the current situation in the Digiworld?"

Embarrassingly little, so I shrugged. "Not much."

"Ahkay," Tai said again. "Recently, Triple-D has been launching survey crews farther into the Digital World for longer periods of time. What they've been uncovering are some unexpected results of human contact."

"Such as?"

"Such as centralized government. Kind of like the Agumon Democratic Republic." He cracked a smile. When I didn't respond, he coughed and continued. "These groups have been popping up for months now. We've all been pretty pleased: strong government makes it easier to set up diplomatic ties and will make it easier in the future for the Digimon to resist...uh..."

"Evil dictators with god-complexes?" I suggested.

Tai blushed a little and bit his lip. "Right."

"What's the problem?"

"The problem?" He cleared his throat. "Right, the problem. God only knows how they found out about it, but a group calling themselves the Biyomon Liberation Front took Sora's murder personally. They've been demanding we turn over her murderer to their justice since early this morning."

I frowned. Tai, like all the other Digidestined, didn't know why I had pulled so sharply away from the group years ago. I'd never told anyone, and I'd never planned to tell anyone. Yet, even though he knew I wanted nothing to do with them, he was drawing me back in. As childish as it may sound, it made me angry.

"I don't see the part where this is my problem."

Tai frowned back at me. "Listen Ichijouji," he snapped, "100 Garudamon parading down Main Street is everyone's problem. That's what they're threatening, y'know? This isn't a 'hand over the murderer, please,' this is a 'fork him over or else!'"

I've never taken kindly to being yelled at, so I sneered. "I thought we didn't negotiate with terrorists."

I really wish I hadn't said that. That day was the first of two times I've ever seen Tai really angry.

"Shut up!" He barked, slamming a fist on the desk. I jumped. "I don't know what your problem with us is, but this is not a game! Maybe in your twisted version of reality this is amusing, but I sure as hell don't think it is! Sora is dead!"

See, I think one of my problems here was I'd forgotten that Tai was in love with Sora.

"You're the only one I can half-way trust with a chance of figuring this out! Are you getting what I'm saying? It's your damn duty!"

Ah, duty. One of those sanctified but essentially nebulous concepts like honour or justice. Interpreted according to custom, caprice or convenience.

Tai steadied himself and fixed me with an even gaze. "Do it because I'm forcing you to, do it for the money we're willing to pay, do it because deep down you know you're still one of us. I don't care. Just do it." He reached into a drawer and pulled out a plane ticket. "You leave at 1:00. Matt will pick you up at the airport. Any questions?"

Yes, I wanted to ask, did you really have to pick me? But, I kept my mouth shut and took the ticket. "What am I going to do about funding? I don't have the money to pay for a murder investigation."

"Triple-D's agreed to fund you. Money shouldn't be a problem. You can thank Izzy for that." He paused. "If we're done..."

"Yes." I stood up. "We're done."

"Good," Tai paused again. "No, wait. You're going to need to check in with me here from time to time."

I grimaced. Way to cramp my style, Tai. "I'll phone you when I find something."

"No, I- Phones are dangerous."

I gave him a puzzled look; he sighed in exasperation.

"You, me, Matt, Izzy, Sora's parents and Shin are the only people who should know about this. Since you're so clever maybe you can explain to me how the BLF found out, eh?"

"You think someone tipped them off?"

"Yuh-hunh. And the only people with unrestricted access to the Digiworld are Embassy employees, Triple-D employees and us twelve-" he winced, "eleven."

"But wait, couldn't Biyomon - Sora's Biyomon - have felt her die?" I frowned thoughtfully. "Wh- when Wormmon died I felt something. Couldn't she have? Although..." I was rambling. I always ramble when I'm developing an idea. "Maybe I only felt something since we were both in the Digiworld. I think the bond between Digimon and Digidestined is more... tangible there..."

Tai cut in. "Fascinating Ichijouji. Really. If I didn't need you for this, I'd give you to Izzy. I'm sure he'd love to dissect you and see how that brain of yours works. Now, I've got at least three crises to diffuse before lunch, so..."

It wasn't a subtle hint to leave. Tai's never been subtle in his life.

I used Tai's secretary's phone to call Stingmon and tell him I'd be off for the next few days on a case, as usual he didn't ask for the details. He knew I didn't like to share until I had the answer.

I left the Embassy with Tsutsui calling after me: "It was great meeting you, Ken! We should get together for lunch someday! It would be fun! Call me!"

The walk home wasn't nearly as pleasant as the walk to work had been; too many questions plagued my mind. Foremost: what was so odd about Sora's death that Yamato immediately suspected murder?

I would have to wait to find out.

As I walked I felt a flutter in my stomach. Something about this case was unsettling me, something besides my utter lack of training. It was too close to home, too much a reminder of my own mortality.

We, the twelve of us, had never been ordinary. We weren't mere civilians, or non-coms, or regular (by then as common as dust) Digidestined. We were crest-bearers, embodiments of humanity's best virtues.

Although, let me hasten to point out that anyone going on about kindness to me at length will be treated to an exhibition of how well this trait does not suit me.

This sense of superiority had left us all with a certain arrogance and a feeling of invincibility. Sora's sudden death was a blow to every one of our bloated egos.

And Sora's murder, if that was what it was, would be an even harsher reality call. Sora was caring, understanding, forgiving. Love. For her to have been killed because she inspired - hate? jealousy? fear? - was unthinkable.

I arrived home, surprising Miyako who was curled up on the couch watching the end of Jenny Jones ("Tame my Wild Teen!")

"Ken?" She looked up as I entered the living room. "Why are you home?"

I thought about lying to her, telling her there was no reason. I couldn't though. It's hard to lie to Miyako since she's so honest with everyone else.

"Sora's dead."

Her eyes got wide, and she covered her mouth with her hands. She sat watching me while tears warred with morbid curiosity. In the end, curiosity won.

"How?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Yamato called Taichi last night, and Taichi told me this morning. I'm heading out to visit Yamato."

Miyako nodded numbly. "Is it-" She shook her head. "I'm going to call Mimi."

I guess that's a good indicator to judge our relationship by. When Miyako needed comfort she called a friend. Because she never wanted me to think she was weak, and because I'm an emotional Popsicle when it comes to things like grief and mourning.

While Mimi and Miyako sobbed together, I escaped to the bedroom to pack. I tossed the bare minimum together in a suitcase. I didn't need much, I figured. I wouldn't be staying long.

I lugged my suitcase into the living room and came face-to-face with a very angry Miyako, hands on hips.

She's figured it out, I thought.

"What aren't you telling me, Ken?"

"Umm..." I said. "I don't know what you mean."

I've learned, through experience, that the best thing to do when Miyako is angry is to run. This time, though, I was cornered.

"Quit playing games!" She snapped, and Tai's words ran through my head: This isn't a game! "You're hiding things from me! Why did Tai call you not me, and why are you going out to see Matt? Don't tell me it's to comfort him!"

"I didn't want to worry-"

"Hah! One of my best friends drops dead and you worry about worrying me? Why do you always treat me like I'm made of glass?"

Because everything I touch breaks.

"Ken," her tone was suddenly gentle, "what's going on?"

I took a deep breath and told her everything Tai had told me, excluding the stuff about the Biyomon Liberation Front.

"I'm going with you," she said when I was done, and after the horror at the word 'murder' had subsided.

"Miyako," I sighed impatiently, "you can't. You need to take care of the kids."

She sat down on the couch and hugged her knees. "I know. I just feel so useless."

"So get on the phone." I suggested. "The others should be told. But, keep the details you give to a minimum."

Miyako looked up, aghast at the suspicious note in my voice. "You don't think one of the others is the m- murderer do you?"

A headline flashed through my head: "Jealous Yagami Kills Crush." I shook my head. "Right now I don't even know if there is a murder."

"They would never!"

"Miyako! I need to be leaving now!"

"Alright... but I'm driving you."

She really is much stronger than I like to pretend she is.

Miyako drove me to the airport and, after begging me once more to let her come, she kissed me goodbye and told me to catch "the jackass who would dare do this!" I told her I'd do what I could, and she drove away.

Despite her complaints, we both knew she'd be more useful spreading the word than tagging along with me.

The airport was crowded but not unpleasant, and the trip was completely uneventful. When I arrived at Tanegashima, Yamato was waiting for me as promised.

"Ichijouji."

"Ishida."

And that was all the greeting we gave each other. Yamato and I have been suspicious of each other since time began, and we will continue to be long after the end.

He led me around back to the parking lot and his black convertible.

"When Tai told me he was going to get you on the case, I didn't believe him," Yamato said as we got in the car. "Or, at least, I didn't believe he'd succeed. You made it pretty clear you didn't want anything to do with us."

Yamato was being bitter on someone else's behalf, maybe Takeru, maybe Miyako's, but certainly not his own. Yamato wouldn't care if I packed up and went to live in a secluded cave in Antarctica.

I buckled my seat belt, and Yamato backed out.

"Yes, well," I replied. "Apparently I wasn't clear enough."

"Hn. What did Tai have to do to get you out here?"

"He said something about duty. For the most part I came because I'm curious."

"Curious. Hah. I should have guessed it was something like that."

The rest of the trip was silent. Yamato lived an hour outside the city, as close to the Space Research Centre as houses were built. The house itself was small: three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, Sora's office and a basement.

Yamato ushered me into the living room and told me to drop my coat anywhere.

"Where are the kids?" I asked, tossing my coat over the back of a beige couch.

"I sent them to visit Dad last night."

"Do they know?"

Yamato favoured me with a sour look. "They come home and find their Mom all but fucking sprawled on the kitchen floor. Gee, let me fucking think about that one."

I winced a bit at the swearing and quickly changed the subject.

"Which way is the kitchen?"

"Uh..." Yamato hesitated momentarily as his brain switched from defensive to co-operative mode. "Just down that hall."

The kitchen, like the living room, was painted off-white and decorated, almost uniformly, with shades of orange and brown. The only deviations were the crayon pictures on the fridge and the white table in the centre of the room. A medium sized pot with a wooden spoon sticking out was on the stove. The stove was off.

I opened my suitcase and began searching for a pair of gloves.

"Were you cooking dinner?" I looked over my shoulder at Yamato who was leaning against the doorframe.

"No. We got in, saw her and left. I called Tai from Dad's house, and I slept at a hotel. We didn't touch a thing in the kitchen."

I pulled on my gloves and pointed to the stove. "She was cooking with the element off?"

"Uh..." Yamato looked startled. "No, no. I turned that off."

Right, I thought. If he touched the stove without noticing how many other things did he touch without noticing? Or, could he be lying?

I began to pace around the kitchen, looking but not touching. Inside, part of my mind was carefully ordering the questions I need ask, while another part was trying not to cry in frustration. There was no body.

"Don't you cook? Why was Sora cooking?"

"Gabumon and I have been preparing for a launch at the end of next week. We've both been pulling long hours."

"Where is Gabumon?"

"At the launch site, probably."

I nodded and walked over to the stove to peer into the pot: ramen.

"I didn't know Sora could cook."

"She couldn't, not really." Yamato laughed humourlessly. "She made stuff out of packages."

"Mmm..." I looked at the spoon; I'd want to dust that later. "If you were so busy why didn't she pick up the kids from…"

"Soccer," Yamato snapped. " Because she was working day and night getting ready for her show next month."

"Did anyone come to the house to help her work?"

"No! Look, Ichijouji, what's the point of this?"

"I'm just trying to get a feel for the circumstances. What time would you say you got home at?"

"6, 6:15."

I nodded, at least he was certain of something. "Ok," I said, smiling wryly, "now the important question: where is the body?"

"Sora." Yamato corrected me. "Tai had some people take her somewhere."

"Some people, somewhere. Wonderful," I muttered, stooping to look under the kitchen table.

"You'd have to ask Tai." Yamato finished with a glower.

I rolled my eyes. "Of course I would. Can you at least tell me where the body was when you came in?"

"Fuck! Call her by her name! Stop this 'body' crap! She was my wife. and now she's dead!"

Dead, dead, dead. I looked at him with cold eyes. "I watched my brother bleed to death on a sidewalk when I was four. Don't play the pity game with me, Ishida." My ghosts will win every time.

He looked away instantly and muttered, "She was on the floor."

"Mmm... Where on the floor?"

"In front of the stove."

"On her front or her back?"

"Back."

"No blood?" I asked.

"No blood," he confirmed.

I sighed and peeled my gloves off. Without the body there wasn't much else I could do. When I got back, Tai and I were going to have words. I walked to my bag and took out a bottle. It wouldn't hurt, I decided, to run a tox-screen of the ramen. When I'd taken my sample, I turned back to Yamato.

"May I see her office?"

Yamato nodded and led me up to their bedroom on the second floor.

I did a quick inventory of the furniture: one bed, two dressers, two bedside tables, two lamps, and in the corner, Yamato's guitar.

Yamato loves to tell stories about his music days. Most of them involve some mix of sex, drugs and, of course, rock n' roll. All of them end with the messy, violent break up of the Teenage Wolves. It's all made up, though. Realistically, one day he woke up and asked himself: "Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life?" And the answer came back "No."

Although, he's still the only one who knows why he decided to become an astronaut.

Sora's office was a small room attached to the bedroom. From floor to desk to pea-green filing cabinet, it was a mess. Every inch of space was covered with sketches, calculations and fabric samples. In the midst of all the paper on the desk was a computer.

"She did all her work from home and emailed it into the office. She wanted to be around... for the kids..." Yamato trailed off.

Sora, the definitive soccer mom.

"Can you think of any...mmm...enemies she might have had?"

"No... Oh, maybe Hikari."

That was a surprise. "Hikari? Hikari Yagami?"

Yamato raised an eyebrow. "You didn't know? I suppose you wouldn't... They had a big argument a year ago, no one knows what about, and they haven't spoken to each other since."

"Hikari, huh?" I added her to my mental suspect list, under Yamato (for opportunity) and Taichi (for motive). "I'm done here for now. Could you drive me to the hotel you're staying at?"

Yamato shrugged. "Sure, whatever. I'm going that way anyway."

Early the next morning, I went back to Tokyo. I stopped in the office to brief Stingmon and ask him to dig up all the recent information on Hikari that he could find. Then I headed to the Embassy.

I never even thought to check in with Miyako.

When I got to the Embassy, I found a young woman sitting behind the main desk instead of that kid, Tsutsui. She told me all of Tai's appointments were sorted out with his personal assistant and I was free to go up and talk to her.

I got out of the elevator on the eleventh floor, and the woman from the day before greeted me.

"Good morning, Mr. Ichijouji. I think he may be on the phone, but you are free to go ahead in."

"He's expecting me?"

She shook her short, dark hair and smiled. "No. But he's got you labelled 'Priority One' so you're free to march in unannounced."

"Thanks," I grumbled and stomped into Tai's office.

Pause. I'd like to take a moment to explain just how pissed I was. Really pissed. And, I had a couple of good reasons. First, as I've already mentioned, Tai had picked me out of a comfortable life of self-pity and pulled me back into the group of people I'd vowed never to see again. Secondly, he'd done the thing you never ever do: move the body. Besides being illegal, it made my job much harder.

When I walked into the office, Tai was facing the window and yelling into the phone. I pushed down hard on the disconnect button and waited.

"Hello? Hello?" Tai pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it. I cleared my throat, and he turned. "Oh! Hey Ken. Back already?"

"You moved the body." I said stiffly, trying to hold back my anger and just barely succeeding.

"What? Oh, uh..."

"You moved the body!" I shouted this time. "Never move the body!"

"I couldn't just leave her here!" Tai's voice matched mine in volume, but his tone gave him away: he knew he'd done something stupid.

I rubbed my temple and sighed. "Where is... she?"

"Triple-D Specimen Storage." Tai flushed defensively. "It was the only place I could think of!"

"Wonderful. Could I see it, please?" My voice was filled with faux politeness. It didn't take a genius to see it wasn't a question.

Tai nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Of course. I'll take you there now."

"I'll need a coroner."

"No." The slightly embarrassed, apologetic Tai was replaced by the collected, uncompromising Tai. There was little hope of arguing with this one.

"I may be able to fake this homicide job, but I can't perform an autopsy! I need a coroner!"

"I thought I explained this already. We can't. We can't afford the chance this gets leaked to the press. People would begin to question our ability to deal with the Digimon. They'd begin to wonder if the Digimon are too much of a threat! Do you remember last summer?"

I remembered. Some idiots, protesting that Digimon were taking jobs from the masses of human unemployed, had managed to sneak into the Digiworld with some home-made explosives. Luckily, Tai had got wind of it and sent a squad of Greymon and humans to deal with it. No one was hurt, but it had been close. Too close.

I met Tai's eyes.

"Multiply that by about a billion. That's how bad it'll be," he said.

I didn't look away. "If you honestly want me to have a chance I need a coroner."

He shut his eyes. "KEN! We-" Then he paused thoughtfully. "Use Jyou."

"What?"

"Jyou is working at the general hospital until Triple-D needs him again. Go down and commandeer him."

I've been meaning to buy Tai a dictionary. Maybe then he'll learn the difference between things like robbery and homicide, or general practitioner and forensic pathologist.

"Tai," I said. "Jyou doesn't have the training."

"You can fake it, he can fake it." Tai nodded, satisfied with his logic. "Use Jyou or do it yourself. These are your choices."

I glared, long and hard, but in the end, I couldn't argue against an ultimatum like that. I tossed my hands in the air. "Fine! Fine!" I started toward the door, then paused and glanced over my shoulder. "You know, I'm beginning to wonder if you love your public image more than you loved Sora."

"Yeah," Tai breathed quietly. "If you knew what I know, you wouldn't say that."

He sounded tired. "Yeah," I said aimlessly and left.

Once outside, I flagged down a taxi and told the driver to head for the hospital. He, for reasons I suppose I'll never know, spent the entire trip trying to guess what was wrong with me. After a few minutes, which seemed like hours, we pulled up in front of the hospital.

"Hope you get better, mister," the driver said as I paid him.

"Yeah, thanks," I replied.

I walked into the building and up to the front desk. The young man working there looked up at me with a patient, welcoming smile.

"May I help you?"

"I need to speak with Dr. Jyou Kido," I said.

"May I ask what about?"

"No, you may not," I snapped. Anger, it seemed, was still lingering from my confrontation with Tai.

A frown of impatience ruffled the man's pleasantness. "Well then, I'm sorry, sir, but that is quite impossible."

"Look," I leaned forward on the counter. "I'm a friend of Dr. Kido's, so will you just page him? Please."

The man frowned again, but he picked up the phone and pressed a button. The PA system crackled on, and his voice floated across the usual hospital noises. "Paging Dr. Kido. Paging Dr. Kido. Please report to the front desk." The man replaced the receiver with a definitive click and give me a "now we'll see if you were lying" look.

Jyou appeared before too long, and he nearly stopped dead when he saw me.

"Ken? What are you doing here?" He walked the rest of the way to me and blinked in amazement. "Not, that is, that I'm not glad to see you, I am, but I wasn't expecting it. Not that I think you wouldn't come see me, it's just-"

The man frowned again, but he picked up the phone and pressed a button. The PA system crackled on, and his voice floated across the usual hospital noises. "Paging Dr. Kido. Paging Dr. Kido. Please report to the front desk." The man replaced the receiver with a definitive click and give me a "now we'll see if you were lying" look.

Jyou appeared before too long, and he nearly stopped dead when he saw me.

"Ken? What are you doing here?" He walked the rest of the way to me and blinked in amazement. "Not, that is, that I'm not glad to see you, I am, but I wasn't expecting it. Not that I think you wouldn't come see me, it's just-"

"Have you heard from Miyako recently?" I asked, avoiding the question and pretending to study a filing cabinet.

"No," he said slowly, "I've been locked in surgery for the last couple days. So I repeat, what's happening?"

"Mmmm..." I'd really been hoping I wouldn't have to deliver the bad news again. "There's been, I don't know, maybe an accident. Sora's dead."

"Christ!" Jyou swore. "Really?"

I rolled my eyes half-heartedly. "No, Jyou. I'm kidding."

"I, uh- Sorry, instant reaction. Didn't mean to imply that you were, um..." He trailed off and looked at the floor. "How did it happen?"

"I'm not sure yet. That's actually why I'm here. See, the mess is a little bigger than just that. We think Sora was murdered."

"Christ," Jyou said again. "Maybe you better start at the beginning."

So I did, and I told him everything, including the threats of the BLF and Tai's guess about the consequences of the media catching wind.

"Christ," Jyou repeated for a third time, raking a hand through his hair. He was quiet for a few moments, then he removed his glasses and discretely wiped his eyes. "We Digidestined never do anything in half-measures, do we?"

I chuckled humourlessly. "Seems not."

Jyou pushed away from the desk. "Thanks for telling me. It's... a big loss, but I'm glad I know. I wish there was something I could do to, uh, help."

This time, my laugh was genuine. "I'm glad you offered."

"Hunh?" Jyou looked at me, startled.

"Tai requests your help," I told him. "Or maybe that should be, Tai requires your help. He doesn't seem to be taking no for an answer these days."

"I don't see how I can help."

"I told Tai I needed a coroner."

Jyou saw were I was leading and looked horrified. "Me? I don't have the training!"

I shrugged. "Tai says it's you or no one."

"No!" Jyou shook his head fiercely. "Absolutely not! I am not cutting holes in one of my best friends."

"You'd do it if you had to perform surgery on her," I pointed out.

"That's totally different!" Jyou squeaked. "I can't-"

"I know," I interrupted with a sad shake of my head. He's hooked! He's hooked! my mind cheered. "I guess the investigation ends here. Doesn't really matter, I suppose. She's dead. Doesn't matter why, does it?"

Jyou's face froze. He turned to look at me and then smiled in momentary amusement. Jyou is much more perceptive than he's ever given credit for. "Lord strike me deaf and dumb as well as blind, I just got caught in an Ichijouji trap, didn't I?"

"So you're in?"

"Do I really have a choice? Yeah, yeah. I'm in." He walked toward the door. "Just let me grab some things and make some excuses. Then I'm yours."

I nodded.

Two excuses, one apology, and a taxi ride later, we were back at the embassy. Tai was pacing in the foyer when we arrived, but he looked up when we entered and a look of relief flashed across his face.

"Jyou!" He ran toward us and shook Jyou's hand. "It's good to see you again."

"Mmmm... Uh... Right... Yes... Hi," Jyou scratched his head. "You look...uh... well."

"Liar," Tai smiled thinly. "I look like shit, but thanks for sparing my feelings." He glanced at me, and his mouth tightened a little. "C'mon. I'll take you to her."

We, Jyou and I, followed Tai to a separate elevator on the opposite side of the foyer. Hastily, Tai pulled a key card out of his pocket and ran it through the lock; the elevator doors slid open. Inside, there was only one button on the panel, neatly labelled "DDD Lab." Tai pressed it, and the elevator began to move.

"Tai, um," Jyou said after a little while, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Ken filled me in on most of the story. But, um, it's not that bad, is it?"

Tai stared darkly at the doors. "It is."

"Christ." Jyou sank back against the elevator walls and looked toward me. "Do you have, uh, any suspects yet?"

"Assuming she was murdered?" I half-smiled. "Tai, Yamato, and Hikari so far." My eyes flickered toward Tai, searching for a reaction. He returned my gaze and chuckled.

"Killing her out of jealousy?" Tai quirked an eyebrow at me. "I'd sooner kill Matt."

I thought about the clean kitchen and the pot on the stove and the sample of ramen in my bag. Yeah, maybe you missed.

The elevator whined to a halt, and the doors slid open, revealing a techie's dream. The room was filled with computer workstations, but other than that, the room seemed deserted. No bustling men and women in white coats, only three giant monitors glaring down from above, flinging an endless stream of data at the empty lab.

This was it. Digimon Development and Discovery Central. Triple-D, an organization filled with the foremost researchers and experts on the Digital World. And only one employee seemed to be on duty. A red-haired man sat, sprawled, in a chair with his back to us, tapping on his desk with a pencil.

"Izzy!" Tai called.

Koushiro Izumi cringed and turned in his chair. He's never liked that bastardization of his last name, which was probably why Tai insisted on using it.

"Tai, come for coffee?" Koushiro asked, looking meaningfully at a half-empty pot halfway down the long, metal table.

"Yeah, man," Tai grinned, all traces of prior seriousness evaporating for a moment. "Where are your fellow geeks?"

"Home with their families," Koushiro said, giving Tai a sharp look. "Like you should be, I'd like to point out."

"Bah! What kind of friend would I be if I left you down here to rot?"

"The same kind as all the rest: a good one."

Tai sighed. "What happened to the days when we used to be a team?"

"We are a team, Tai. We're just a little spread out right now."

They grinned at each other like this was some great inside joke. Jyou and I looked at each other too, and Jyou shrugged. I cleared my throat.