Makino Ruki = Rika Nonaka
Lee Jenrya = Henry Wong, Lee Shuichon = Suzie Wong

Der Fliegende Nacht-Hase

By Outlaw Torn

Black Amber

Ruki Makino watched the sunset, the golden sun disappearing over the horizon, seemingly for the last time. Renamon was nearby; she announced her presence silently to the girl, their ballet of thoughts running through each other.

“How is it?” Renamon asked without opening her mouth.

“Fine…” Ruki exclaimed solemnly without saying a word. Their time together brief, Renamon left the area entirely as Ruki’s grandmother walked by, on the Veranda, Ruki looked down, covering the red stained bandage on her arm with her hand… Maybe… She thought, she was dreaming when she got the wound, when the dog bit her. But then, where did the bite marks come from? Renamon wasn’t an animal…

It was a dog, the fur matted and scraggily. She remembered when it came out of the bushes behind her, that she smelled something nasty, like road kill. Then she heard it growl, and latched onto her right wrist from behind. It stung, she remembered that clearly enough, and pressed down hard, like a heavy book was sitting on her arm. Ruki reacted by slapping at the pain as if it was a fly, on instinct. Her nails caught its face, somewhere, and it yelped, almost like a puppy. Ruki only saw it once as it ran back into the clump of bushes it came from; the lurching gallop of its legs seemed uneven, feral.

It looked sick, maybe it was rabid, but that certainly didn’t help her now. She didn’t feel sick, or strange. What was the matter? …Was there one…

Jenrya Lee rolled out of bed at his mother’s voice. He had a headache. The light coming from the window stung his eyes as he sat up in bed. He gathered himself, coming to the conclusion that it was still the weekend and his mother was calling him to breakfast. That spot on his neck still stung; there weren’t any spider or mosquitoes in the house, not that time of year, for the mosquitoes anyway… He got up, feeling the sore spot on his neck. His hair was damp. Why? The thought nagged at him, like he’d forgotten a pencil for school, something important, like his money or keys. Something he couldn’t remember bitching at him from the night before.

He pulled on his slippers that lay discarded on the floor beside his bed. He had taken a nap yesterday; he remembered taking his slipper off to get into bed. Maybe I slept through the night… He pulled a cotton T-shirt on and ran his fingers over his face then through his hair, preparing to face his little sister, and the rest of the family. The door opened, Shaochung greeting him.

“Hiiii big brother!” the small girl chirped at him, stretching her greeting into a high-pitched squeal that shot a crystal needle through his brain.

“Shuichon, go eat I got a headache!” he said cringing and pressing a hand to his temple.

“But your foods going to get cold, where’s Terriermon?” Terriermon was nothing but a stuffed animal to Shaochung, one she had grown to like very much.

“I dunno,” he instantly replied, not lying but not caring with his response. Where is he anyway? The dinner table was empty, except for the food. His father had already rushed out the door, his mother, off somewhere, probably searching for Shuichon to try and get her to eat her breakfast. He pulled his chair out and sat down, eating. A glass of orange juice was beside his plate, something he always had with breakfast. Somewhere in the house, Shuichon complained to her mother in an annoying tone, making him think of how she did that when he took Terriermon away from her, she really liked him. Afterwards Terriermon would thank him, calling him by that nickname, “Jen.”

The nickname didn’t bother him, he liked to be called that actually, much easier to scribble down onto a note then his traditional Chinese name. He thought again about where Terriermon as he took a bite of his breakfast, the egg sticking to his lips. He had been out of the house a lot lately, he wasn’t just a rabbit, he could glide around on those ears of his, probably hopping from light post to light post right now in plain site, as all the business men are hurrying around on the commute.

He sighed, thinking about Digimon, taking a long gulp of cool orange juice.

The afternoon dragged on, finally the sun was high in the sky, the days witching hour. Renamon watched Ruki from a spot in a tree, a familiar spot for her. The tree stood just outside the girls’ room. The inside of the room wasn’t visible to a human, but
Renamon could see inside. Down into the small room where Ruki lay, she was resting. At least, that’s what it looked like. She was in her bed. The futons blanket pulled up to her waist, her injured arm lying across her chest, favored. Must still hurt... Renamon thought, shuffling her pawed feet on the rough bark.

Renamons innate built in desire to protect her Tamer was fueled by her other desires, but since the attack by the animal the pride she took in caring for the girl had been hurt. She felt guilty that she wasn’t able to prevent or even avenge the injury to Ruki. She supposed she was lucky that her partner wasn’t hurt anymore then she was. She had already scolded herself for not being there, wasn’t much more she could do then to help her heal. Still. She girl hadn’t gone to the doctor, just the school nurse, who bandaged the bite mark. She didn’t go to any hospital; maybe it was diseased like Renamon had heard about wild animals that bit people…

But then, nothing had happened, no disease, no nothing. Just a bandage…

“Terriermon?” ‘Jen’ called as he turned his room over, looking for his partner Digimon. The small white and green rabbit was simply nowhere to be found. Was he outside? If he was, then it would be impossible to find him in the streets…

He sighs. He would have to go looking for the white rabbit. He slides his vest on over his dark blue T-shirt, then slipping on his yellow tinged sneakers. His Digivice is clipped to the inside of the pocket of his jean pants, a fancy watch or game to his family. He walks to the door checking his hair to see if it’s alright, it is. In the light, the device the small LCD screen showed a compass, whirling around, and the arrow pointing forward.

He opened the door.

Nightfall. The forest called her. She is there. Her feet grew thick fur and pads to protect against the hard and rough ground. A dense auburn coat of fur covers her body, stopping the chill night breeze from touching her underlying flesh. Her feet stepped through grass, then over fallen branches, her amethyst eyes glowing. The wind whips around her, carrying leaves around in spirals. She Howls.

He’s not anywhere… He tells himself, the noise of the city outside the buildings glass front window is muffled. No one is there. No one sitting in the lobby chairs, no one behind the desk, it almost seemed… deserted. The light inside the lobby makes the dark night outside seem like a dream, an endless cacophony of people, cars, music.

His Digivice was still giving out readings, the tiny compass now pointing east, to the other end of the building. There wasn’t much there, some janitor closets, the door to the basement where the boiler room was. But he’s still here he reminded himself. Somewhere, Terriermon was waiting.

Renamon glides from tree to tree, in the branches above the park. Ruki was gone from her bed when Renamon made her nightly check-up on the girl. The park was the only other place she would be, maybe her Digivice had detected something, and Renamon hadn’t felt it. Either way, she had to look for her partner. Hope she’s alright. Then she hears a cry from the forest, an animal, like a dog, a long and lonely sound. It alerts Renamon, maybe she would find Ruki near that sound, and maybe it was another Digimon come from the digital world…

The east corridor is musty with old air. The janitor’s closet is empty, nothing but some cleaner bottles and a mop bucket, a layer of grimy water inside. Jen closed the door as quietly as he can, not wanting to alert the people at the front desk, if they were still there…

Only other door is the basement stairwell. The knob is old, and brass. Looks a bit dented, probably from some janitor cart running into it. Jen tests the knob, using two fingers at first not wanting to get his hand all dusty. The door gives, it opens, creaking slowly, revealing a pitch-black stair well behind it. The Digivice now swings around again, bearing north, forward, down the stairs.

He takes a step down, the startled dust rising up from the floor.

Renamon finds the source of the howling. It’s coming from a reddish-brown furred creature, standing on two legs, its wearing Ruki’s pajamas…

At first it is wild, growling, snarling, then begins to whine, as if hurt, distressed. Renamon watches her, standing on two legs, with a snout-like angular face much like her own. The striped pajamas are puffy with the fur beneath them, feral. The long shock of auburn fur hanging down from the back of its head confirms it for Renamon. This is her tamer…

She gets down from the tree, and stands before her. The furred Ruki thing crouches low to the ground, watching Renamon with wild scared eyes. Renamon says nothing, no use for words. She simply holds out her right hand, her palm outstretched, in an offering.

The thing that was Ruki whines, a sad lonely sound, drifting through the cold night air. It takes a step toward Renamon, her toes rounded and clawed like a paw. Renamon stays still, still holding her hand out. The Ruki-thing stays silent, when it reaches Renamon; it sniffs the foxes’ open hand, the thick milk white digits warmed by the furred creatures breath. Renamon closes her eyes sighing as the creature that is Ruki laps at her hand with its long canine tongue.

“Come Ruki, we must go home”

Ruki blinks nodding, leaves crunching beneath her pawed feet.

The dusty stairs led to a basement floor, the rusty corroded piping and machinery crowding around him. The Digivice’s compass still pointed forward, showing the way, a single light shown down from a bare yellow bulb. His feet kicking clouds up from the dust choked floor.

What could he be doing down here? Is he hurt? Jianliang thought to himself. He stopped at a section of pipes that ran from the ceiling to the floor, in a pillar. Part of the boiler… The massive bulk of the rust colored machine lay to his right, heat emanating out of it into the dusty air. His eyes wandered over the brown metal, past the pipes to the eastern wall. There was a section between the floors the pipes and wall that was clear, a space no wider then a locker compartment.

Terriermon could have just walked right through that… His Digivice still pointed towards the boiler, past it, to the other side. What else was there to do? He owed a lot to Terriermon; least he could do was find out if he was okay… Sighing, he tucked his shirt in, wedging himself between the wall and the hot pipes.

After sliding himself through the hot pipes and dusty wall, which he knew would muck his shirt up; he pulled himself out into a section of floor behind the apartment’s boiler.

There was a small light fixture on the wall, behind a cage of metal bars, so it couldn’t be smashed in or broken, at least not so easily. It was darker here, even with the other light. Even more dust here, it seemed to have a mind of its own, rising off the floor like mist.

Before him was a small cardboard box, about the size of a fan box, or a TV, some sort of short but wide appliance. He rubbed his eyes as he stopped at the foot of it, he expected a rat or something to jump out and bite his leg. He nudged the brown box with his foot, it felt heavy, and the box slid forward a little bit. The brown lid rustled.

The sectioned lid of the brown box opened, Terriermon peeking through them up at him.

“Jen… what did you wake me up for?” the white rabbit yawned. Jianliang stepped back, more dust being disturbed off the floor.

“I uhhh… wanted to know where you were, if you were okay or not…” He trailed off.

“You don’t need to worry about me Jen, no one ever comes down here,” the Digimon pulled his ears out the box and hopped out. The dust from the floor was hovering on the stone floor like mist. Terriermon held his long floppy ears off the ground as he stepped closer to Jianliang, reaching the boys gray and yellow laced shoe.

He smiled looking up, holding his paws out. He wanted to be picked up.

Jenrya blinked for a second, his mind frozen in thought. Then it rolled over him like a wave. How nasty he’d been feeling, Terriermon being out so late at night, then Gargomon, the shower, the bites on his throat. His Digimon had been eating him, and he didn’t even know it. As well as other things that didn’t make sense at the time, why would he do these things and not tell him? His own partner… Partner…

Terriermon was smiling.

Jenrya impulsively bent over, and picked the Digimon up, the rabbit grabbing onto his left shoulder and wrapping one long prehensile ear around the boys’ waist.

“Let’s go upstairs Jen,” the rabbit said happily. Then leaning closer towards his human, “Then maybe later we can have… fun,” the rabbit licked at the bite on Jenryas throat, clearing the dried black amber there away. Jenrya wasn’t sure what he meant by “fun,” but he couldn’t bring himself to give up his friendship with Terriermon, after all, Jenrya was the reason he was here. And if he needed to be the reason Terriermon stayed, then that was okay too.

Renamon lead Ruki back to her room, the brown furred girl ambling through her door on too hunched over hind legs. She stared around at her room, with a sense of remembrance in her eyes, sniffing at the air with a muzzled nose.

Renamon crouched down and sat down on her knees besides the girls’ bed. Ruki followed watching carefully. The bed was soft on her fur as she sat down in front of Renamon.

“Ruki-san… you must learn to inhabit your new skin as you did your last one… Ruki, do you understand?”

Ruki stared for a second before opening her muzzle. “Y-Yes,” the girl struggled to speak over her long pink tongue. Renamon nodded, closing her eyes in relief. Outside the moon was disappearing over the trees, the night sky becoming lighter.

Ruki brought her paw-like four fingered hands up to her face, brushing over her snout then her eyes. They itched. They watered. Sleep sounded like a good idea. Renamons calm silent expression was the last thing Ruki saw as the world faded away.

The light is dim in Jenryas room as Terriermon is settling into a bulky cardboard box used for computer equipment in the corner of his room. Jenrya sits on his bed watching Terriermon get it ready. The rabbit lines the box with a white pillow, filling up the bottom. He then tests the lid to see if it can be pulled close from the inside easily. Satisfied that it will do, Terriermon hopped out and padded towards his tamer.

“Jen…” Terriermon said, motioning towards the balcony entrance. Jenrya realizes what he wants and gets up. Pulling the giant curtain closed across the sliding glass doors. Sunrise.

Terriermon trotted back to his box and closed the lid, saying good day to Jen.

He strips out of his shorts and lies down on the bed, he would have to get up soon, and he had better get rest. He makes a mental note to eat a big breakfast as he lays his head down on the pillow.

He knows the next time the sun went down, Terriermon would be hungry.