Digimon Adventure: Continuing Evolution

3. Reminiscence

A/N: So I know the last chapter began with Kari finding Tai on the beach and then quickly got a little derivative into the past, and I'm afraid this chapter just goes further down the rabbit-hole instead of moving on just yet. I beg your patience,  there are reasons for this meandering story structure at this juncture of the story, I promise. Remember, Digimon Adventure Tri is not canon in this story, so there's really a full eight-year gap between 02 and LEK in addition to the 17 years between LEK and the 02 epilogue, so there is a lot of time and events from even before LEK that need to be covered! Surely important events both personal and digital must have happened to our twelve main characters in those eight years, and I shall try to cover the personal ones as they become relevant (I believe that small digimon appearances in the Real World like the Parrotmon fight at the start of LEK were likely common on something like a weekly basis post-02, and they may have tackled a couple of major world-ending threats on the scale of Myotismon or Diaboromon since then, but I don't have the heart or creativity to invent the specifics of those tales, it is sufficient to know that they happened).

3. Reminiscence

Odaiba, Japan; August 20, 2010 – 12:26 pm.

T.K. rounded the corner and approached the little cafe that he and Kari frequented. They had been going there semi-regularly for the past several years, and they always sat in the same corner booth in the back by the window when it was available. The tradition had started in the summer of 2003, a few months after the battle against Armageddemon, and shortly after the restaurant first opened. Gatomon and Patamon hadn't been with them at the time, who were spending a few days in the Digital World after living in the Real one for the previous week. It was the first time he and Kari had been alone together in a long time...

Here's my chance, thought T.K., aware of a feeling of momentousness. I've got to do this now, or I may never do it. But whatever happens, we'll never be the same after this.

As they sat there talking, the conversation flowed easily enough, but Kari could tell the boy sitting across from her was uneasy for some reason. His laughter came a little too quickly and too loud, like it was forced. His eyes darted around the room restlessly, and he fidgeted a lot.

"T.K., is everything all right?"

"No—I mean, yes! I mean, everything's fine, Kari. Why do you ask?"

"Okay, if you say so. You just seem nervous about something."

"What? No, I—" T.K. stopped and looked down. He pulled his bucket hat off of his head and crumpled it in his hands. This ruffled his hair in a way that Kari thought was kind of cute. "No, you're right. I'm sorry. I never could hide anything from you. You know me too well." He looked up at her with a crooked half-smile. "I am nervous, because I need to ask you something I've wanted to ask for a long time. But I don't really know how to do it."

Kari leaned forward. "It's okay, T.K. Take your time," she said encouragingly.

T.K. glanced down for a moment and frowned, clearly in deep thought. Then: "Do you remember the day you disappeared to...to that place?"

Kari's brow creased and she shivered, as if the air had suddenly grown colder. She knew immediately what place he was referring to, the name of which they by unspoken agreement would never again invoke openly: the Dark Ocean. "Yes, I remember," she replied in a small voice.

T.K. winced, wishing he didn't have to bring up such an uncomfortable memory. "That day...do you remember what I told you?"

Kari's eyes softened as the moment she recalled turned to a more fond one. She smiled at him affectionately; she thought she knew where he was going with this. "You said that you cared too much about me to let me go without a fight." They both had known back then that the simple statement carried under its surface a deeper meaning that—up till now—had remained unsaid. Perhaps he was about to change that. "Then I disappeared, and you came for me," she continued. "Thank you, T.K. You've always been watching out for me. Like a guardian angel."