Digimon Adventure Tri: Echo

30) Held by Threads

It wasn't just buildings that had sustained damage. People had too. 

Jou was all too aware of such a truth as he walked back into the Kido apartment, his eyes weary and his body exhausted. Approximately five days had passed since the attack that left so many occupants of Odaiba hurt and evacuated, and the people of the city were starting to return home in full. In fact, the effort of returning people to Odaiba was almost completed by this point, and Jou knew that he should have found it to be a relief. 

Instead, Jou only became all too aware of the fact that there were more people that had been hurt in the attack than he thought originally. He had been spending more and more time at the hospital that his father owned, and that meant that he had to help out the patients that were found within. It seemed like more and more people were coming in every day than ever before, each with sprained ankles or wrists or cuts that were refusing to heal in the aftermath of the attacks. Nobody had died or been hurt enough to cause lifelong damage, but that did little to help with Jou's anguish. After all, he was all too acquainted with the issues that the Digimon attacks brought, and it left him feeling bittersweet and agitated. He couldn't relax no matter how hard he tried. He was just glad that he had gotten over his fear of blood so that this was at least a little bit less painful than it would have been a few years ago. 

When Jou walked back into the apartment, he was pleasantly surprised to see Gomamon curled up on the couch, his white paws flopping dramatically over the side of the cushions. Gomamon perked up when he realized that his partner had returned, a wide grin spreading across his face. "Jou!" he cried out before jumping to the ground. "You'll never guess what I did for you while you were gone!"

Jou tilted his head to the side in curiosity, and he trailed after Gomamon into the kitchen of the Kido apartment. Sitting at the center of the table was a plate that was covered in small snacks, specifically those that Jou had gotten particularly attached to over his years with Gomamon. "I noticed that you've been stressed lately, so I figured that we could share some food while you were on break from the hospital," Gomamon explained. "I was going to do something a bit more, but..."

"We all know what happened when you tried to use the stove," Jou replied, a chuckle leaving his lips as he scooped his partner up and sat down at the table. "Thank you for this, Gomamon... I really do need this."

As soon as both Jou and Gomamon were situated and ready to share their food, Jou let out a heavy sigh. He couldn't keep the mask up anymore, and he was glad that it was just him and Gomamon in the apartment in that moment. He sought privacy desperately, and Gomamon was more than willing to provide it to him. "It seems like there's no way to run away from it," Jou admitted softly. "Every single time I go back, there are more people, and they're all saying the same things about the Digimon attacks."

"I just hope that nobody's afraid of us," Gomamon remarked as he reached for a bag of chips. He opened it with incredible precision that had been honed as a result of his years alongside Jou on Earth. "I think that we're both aware of how scared humans can get around things they don't understand."

Jou nodded. "They're taking it much better than I would have expected... Not many people are saying that they're afraid of all Digimon, and I've done what I can to reassure those who do think that. For the most part, people are only associating the evil Digimon with their bad experiences of the past few days. They know that Digimon have saved them from the attacks too, it seems," he said as he took a bite of the ripest apple that could be found on the plate. "It's... It's still tiring."

"You wish that there was more you could do, huh?" Gomamon questioned, and Jou responded with a nod. "That's just like you, Jou. You always want to help people however you can even when you feel like a mess inside. It's nice to know that you care so much."