Digimon Adventure Tri: Echo

10) Unsung Ties

Yamato sat down carefully at the lunch table he was sharing with Taichi, Sora, Mimi, and Meiko for the day. All four of them were already there, but since Yamato had been caught up in talking to the other members of his band, Knife of Day, he hadn't been able to get to the lunch table in as timely a manner as his peers. At the very least, he had arrived, even if it was late. That was something that he was willing to count as a positive. 

"Well, I suppose that we should go on and cover the elephant in the room," Taichi started as Yamato began to eat his food. "Something happened last night. Ken and Takeru explained it when they woke up this morning."

That had been something unpleasant to wake up to, though that felt like an understatement in Yamato's eyes. He hadn't known about the fight until hours after the fact, and then he learned with a groggy, sleep-filled mind that Takeru had been involved with it as well. Yamato had grown out of his overprotective phase a great many years ago, but that didn't mean that he was completely free of concern for his younger brother, and a Digimon attack was the easiest way to bring this side to light. 

"Yeah," Yamato murmured. At the very least, it was nice to know that Ken had managed to determine how to activate his Crest of Kindness, allowing for JewelBeemon to appear at long last. Yamato was looking forward to being able to see JewelBeemon in action, he had to confess. He was glad that the evolution had taken place when it did since that saved the group from being left at the mercy of Jazarichmon.

"The enemy is sending Perfect Digimon after us now, it seems," Sora said. "What happened with Brachiomon wasn't exactly a matter of our unknown foe sending Digimon in our direction. Instead, we just so happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still, I assume that this is becoming a more widespread issue if Brachiomon was infected with the data despite not being sent to Earth as an attacker."

"They could be trying to exert their influence over more Digimon to prepare for something bigger and greater," Yamato concluded, taking the words right from Sora's mouth as he took a long drink of water. Sora nodded her agreement, and Yamato resisted the urge to sigh. He didn't like this idea in the slightest, to say the least. 

"I don't know what we should be doing from here," Meiko confessed quietly. She looked down to her food, and Yamato could see her anxiously fidgeting with her uniform's skirt nearby. He could tell that it was going to be a while before Meiko was entirely comfortable as a member of their team. Yamato couldn't blame her for being hesitant, but he still wished that there was more he could do to reach out from her than simply watch from the sidelines and wait for her to adapt. He had offered to aid her if she needed it after getting her phone number, but Meiko had simply shrugged him off and insisted that she was fine. 

"We're going to figure it out soon enough," Taichi declared as he continued to eat his lunch from his place across the table. The area fell silent afterwards, and Yamato resisted the urge to clap his hands over his ears. He already knew exactly what everyone else in the area was talking about, and he absolutely hated it. 

Information about the Digimon attack had already hit the media, and as much as Yamato hated to admit it, he could tell that this was going to be a problem. Digimon attacks had taken place before, but nothing had been quite as frequent or prominent as the recent string of invasions. It was natural that people were starting to get anxious about it. Nobody was screaming from the rooftops that it was a dangerous situation yet, but Yamato couldn't blame them for their insecurity. That didn't mean that he wanted to listen to them say so openly that they were nervous about what could happen if they let their guard down. In fact, Yamato would have preferred to not listen to anything anybody had to say at that moment. The day had been overwhelming enough as it was, and it hadn't even reached the halfway point. He wanted to pick up his guitar and just start playing un til the rest of the world fell away and became nothing more than a distant memory.