"It's Just a Little Crush" Story Written by Freedom Fighter Chapter Five Recap: Henry joined Takato and Rika in their first battle against a deva. This one, of course, being Mihiramon. But he couldn't stop thinking about Rika during the battle. It didn't help his chances when Takato single handedly won the battle. But another battle two days later ends in a favorable result, as Henry spots Jeri hugging Takato! ****** All of the scenes spliced into this chapter are from "Snakes, Trains, and Digimon." Finally, it's the sixth and final chapter! By now, you probably should know what the exact pairings will end up being. But how did they get that way? You'll find out here and now. And don't forget! "The Making of..." special takes place right after this! Disclaimer: None of the characters or songs belongs to me, but to their respective creators. Now, move along! We've got a fanfic to finish! ****** Chapter 6 - "The Right Girl for Me" The week passed by without too much action. But little did anyone know that two familiar busybodies were hard at work trying to figure out how to get Takato and Jeri together. Of course, these two were Kazu and Kenta. And they were currently chatting in the park as they played the Digimon card game. "So, you're absolutely serious about this?" Kenta asked. "Of course! If they are meant to be, then why fight it? Those two should be embracing! And I mean for more than just destiny." "You're just using this to get another chance at seeing Takato's Digimon." "What if I am? Besides, WarGrowlmon's the coolest Digimon in history! It makes me wish that I had one." "Me too." "I wonder how Takato got so lucky as to get one himself." "Beats me." "Speaking of lucky... how does Takato score a girl like Jeri?" "What do you mean by that?" "Come on! She's cute, friendly, and a real knockout!" "If you think she's that good, then why don't you try getting with her?" "She's crazy too, man! I swear, that puppet of hers has a mind of its own. She's in fifth grade and she still plays with puppets! And an ugly one at that!" "You're just jealous 'cause the puppet gets more attention from Jeri than you do." "Shut up!" "Seriously, man! Maybe we shouldn't go through with this if you're THAT crazy about her." "It's just a little crush! I'm not serious about her!" "And Takato is? He hasn't been flirting with her at all!" "Look, let's just drop the subject! It's Takato and Jeri all the way, no objections whatsoever!" "Okay. So how do we go about it?" "Well, I'm sure everyone else would like to see a real life Digimon. Especially the girls. So we get a few of them to come with us. We drag Jeri along too. Then, we all go to Takato's house and ask him to show us Guilmon so that we can go and play with him. And while we're playing with Guilmon, we'll casually get Takato and Jeri together. Maybe we can think of something that they can do with each other." "Sounds good to me." "Then we'll ask a few people at school tomorrow if they want to come with us. Of course, we'll have to get Jeri too. But remember, under all circumstances, make sure that Takato doesn't find out! We want this to be a total surprise!" "Got it." "Oh. One more thing." "What?" Kazu puts down a Zudomon card and rejoices with glee. "Zudomon's Vulcan Hammer wipes out the last of your hit points! You lose!" "Oh man," Kenta moans, falling backwards onto the ground. ====== That Saturday, Jeri had just woken up from a good night's sleep. "Another beautiful Saturday morning!" she exclaimed happily, but ever so softly, as she didn't want to wake up her little brother or her dad. She glanced at the alarm clock over on the dresser. It read 5:57 a.m. Jeri got her things and headed straight for the shower. ====== About fifteen minutes later, Jeri walks downstairs to fix herself something to eat before Kazu, Kenta, and the others arrived. Unfortunately for her, her dad was awake, already fixing breakfast. "Awake rather early, aren't we? I thought your cartoons didn't start 'til eight." "I'm going out with some friends, dad." "This early?" "What can I say? We wanted to get a jump on the day!" ====== Meanwhile, over at the Matsuki residence, Takato decided that they needed to go on patrol, in case something bad might happen. He started by calling Henry... ====== Henry awakes from his slumber, only to find his younger sister Suzie standing over him. And she had Terriermon clutched between her arms. But that wasn't why Suzie had come to him so early on a Saturday morning. "Henwy! That angry kid's on the pwone again!" Henry gets out of bed and starts heading towards the phone to answer it. "This had better be important, Takato. It's 6:30 in the morning!" "You know, I was thinking. As Tamers now, we should always do their best to get a jump on any potential threats. We could all go and patrol the city." Henry glances at the calendar and sees that today's date is circled on it. "I'm sorry Takato, but I've already got other plans." After Henry hangs up the phone, Takato proceeds to call Rika. "I hope Rika agrees with me." ====== "Are you up for a patrol around the city?" Takato asked as he spoke to Rika on the phone. "I can't. I'm supposed to go to the theater with my grandma. Sorry." ====== Takato hangs the phone up and begins to wonder what was up with Henry and Rika. "I must be the only one who takes taming seriously," Takato noted to himself. "Takato!" his mom called from downstairs. "Your friends are here to see you." Takato quickly rushed downstairs. There waiting for him are Kenta, Kazu, and Jeri, along with several of their classmates. They have come to his house with the hope of seeing Guilmon. "Come on!" Jeri exclaimed. "We all want to see Guilmon again!" "Okay," Takato replied, finally giving in. "I guess it couldn't hurt." "See?" Kazu smiled, elbowing Kenta gently. "I knew that Jeri wanted to see more than just Guilmon. Just look at her!" "So what now, smarty pants?" Kenta responded. "Wait until we get to the park. Then you'll see." Later that day, after having escaped the clutches of 'Nurse' Suzie, Terriermon, and Henry, of course, get off the subway train at their scheduled stop. "I wonder what Rika's doing right now," Henry thought. "I wish she would just plop right into my arms so I could tell her how I feel." "I'm bored!" Terriermon shouted to no one in particular. "I wish something exciting would happen!" All of a sudden, a strange hissing sound can be heard from the tunnel. Sandiramon, a snake deva, emerges from it as everyone in the area flees to safety. "It looks like I got my wish," Terriermon commented regretfully. Sandiramon slithers down the tracks and deletes the train Henry was just in. The snake then continues on without any incident. But just as Henry is about to order Terriermon to chase after him, Rika appears out of the tunnel, riding Kyubimon. She throws her cell phone at him as she passes by, continuing to chase after Sandiramon. "Hurry up and call Takato!" she yells as the two head down the tracks. Henry catches the cell phone and immediately dials the number for Takato's house. "Great," Henry remarks sarcastically as he listens for an answer, "I'm the one who's here to help and she wants Takato!" "Oh, give it a rest!" Terriermon shouts. "This is more important that some crazy quest to get Rika!" "Weren't you the one encouraging me to do so the other day?" "Well, we kind of have a more important situation at hand here!" ====== In the park, Takato and the others are having their own fun playing with Guilmon. But all of a sudden, Guilmon stops. He begins to sniff around, as if something was wrong. "Something's wrong with Guilmon!" Jeri shouted to Takato. "What's wrong, boy?" Takato asked his Digimon. "There's a Digimon nearby," Guilmon said. "I was wondering when you goofs would figure out that there was something going on." The group turns their heads towards a nearby tree, where Impmon has appeared. "Your friends are right below us. They're fighting for their lives, while they're playing with a baby and a stroller!" "They're right beneath us," Guilmon stated, sniffing the ground and picking up their scent. "They must be in the subway!" Takato shouted, pulling out his D-Arc. "Yeah," Impmon interrupted. "Your friends are about to become snake food." "You mean there's a real Digimon fight going on in the subway?" Kazu asks. "This I've gotta see!" "Can we come with you?" Jeri asked pleasantly. "Please?" "This is for real, Jeri," Takato told her. "I don't want any of you getting hurt. Especially you. Besides, you could all get killed." - Begin card slash sequence - Takato draws a card from his deck and motions to swipe it through his D-Arc's reader. "Digi-modify! Digmon's Drill activate!" - End card slash sequence - Guilmon's arms are temporarily replaced by Digmon's drill bits. He then begins to dig into the ground and down towards the subway. As Takato is about to jump into the hole, Kazu stops him and draws one of his favorite cards. "Here, take this. You might need it." Kazu hands Takato a "power" card. Takato takes the card graciously and nods in agreement. "I owe you one," he tells Kazu, as he jumps into the hole after Guilmon. Jeri runs over to the hole and yells after Takato. "Be careful!" Jeri shouts, with a hint of concern in her voice. The others join her next to the hole, as they look down it and watch Takato and Guilmon disappear. "Why do I never get any credit around here?" Impmon asks himself as he runs off, leaving the group alone. ====== Takato and Guilmon soon pierce the subway's roof and join the battle already in progress. Kyubimon and Gargomon seem to be holding off Sandiramon pretty well. But defeating the deva, on the other hand, was proving to be rather difficult. "I'm sorry for being late!" Takato shouted apologetically. "We don't have much time!" Kyubimon yells as she glances at Guilmon. "We need you to digivolve!" - Begin card slash sequence - Takato motions to card slash the "digivolution" card, as he is more than eager to join the battle. "Digi-modify! Digivolution activate!" - End card slash sequence - - Begin digivolution sequence - "Guilmon digivolve to... Growlmon!" - End digivolution sequence - As Growlmon stands ready to battle, Takato takes out the card that Kazu had lent him. "This had better work," he said as he prepared to slash the card. - Begin card slash sequence - Takato takes the card and slashes it through, enhancing Growlmon's attack abilities. "Digi-modify! Power activate!" - End card slash sequence - "At least Kazu didn't give me a useless card this time." Growlmon, Kyubimon, and Gargomon combine their attacks and destroy Sandiramon. Relieved that the battle is over, Takato leads the other Tamers and their champion level Digimon to the surface for a pleasant surprise. ====== Up at the surface, all of Takato's friends gasp in amazement as he introduced them to Kyubimon and Gargomon... as well as Rika and Henry. "It's so cool that you guys are Digimon Tamers!" Kazu shouted. All of a sudden, Rika's cell phone begins to ring. Henry answers it, since he still had it in his possession, and is treated to the voice of Rika's worried grandmother, who fears that he is a kidnapper of some sort. Luckily, Rika quickly grabs the phone and explains the situation to her grandmother. "I have to remember to thank Rika for that save," Henry thought. While this was happening, Jeri had run over to Takato and gave him a hug. "I'm glad you're safe, Takato!" "Me too," he blushed, which he tried to hide but failed, as all of his classmates starting laughing at him. "If that's Rika," Jeri thought, "then this ought to get her a bit jealous." Sure enough, the noise had turned Rika's attention away from her cell phone conversation with her grandmother and towards Jeri's smug expression as she let go of Takato. Takato was standing there dumbfounded, yet happy. "I'm glad I'm safe too," Takato responded, eliciting another round of laughs. "Why?" Rika thought. "Why didn't Takato tell me he already had a girlfriend?" "Uh oh. It doesn't look like Rika's too happy about seeing Jeri and Takato together. But at least it gets me a better shot of winning Rika's heart." Jeri then walks over to Rika and pulls her aside. "We need to talk," Jeri told Rika forcefully. "Who are you? And what are you talking about?" Henry watched with genuine interest as Jeri and Rika head away from the rest of the group. Takato notices this, so he walks over to join Henry. "What's going on?" Takato asks. "I wish I knew," Henry thought, although he very well knew what they were talking about. "First of all, I'm Jeri." "And I'm Rika." "I know. That's why I wanted to talk to you." "What for?" "Takato told me that you had a crush on him. But so do I." "You? You have a crush on goggle boy?" "Yes, I do. And I'm here to tell you that I'm not going to give him up without a fight." "Do you really love him?" "Yes. With all my heart." Rika paused for a second. She then responded, "Then, you can have him." "What?" "If you love him, then it's only right that you should be with him." "But what about you?" "You've been with him longer than I have. So you probably know more about him than I do. Besides, if I were him, I would rather be with someone I've known for a long time rather than someone he just met a few weeks ago." "Really? You mean it?" "Yes, I mean it! Now, go hug him or something before I change my mind." On impulse, Jeri lunges over and gives Rika a hug. "I said go hug Takato! Not me!" Jeri lets go and smiles before running over towards Takato. "What's Jeri so happy about?" Takato asks as she runs quickly towards them. "I'm not so sure. But it looks like I'd better get out of the way." Henry steps aside just in time, as Jeri leaps at Takato and knocks him down. "Takato! Rika gave up! It's you and me!" "Jeri, what are you talking about? And get off of me!" "Oh, I love you, Takato!" Takato struggles to get up as Jeri embraces him in a hug. The others laugh hysterically, all except for Rika, who is content with just smiling. ******* That's all, folks! Thanks for tuning in! I have to admit, this could've gone over much better. Maybe the next time I do a Tamers romance fanfic, I'll do it more along the lines of "Courting Miss Mimi." And yes, I do already have another Tamers fic in mind. It's more action-oriented and alter universe, which seems to be a theme in most of my fics. I'm not sure when it's going to be posted. I haven't started writing it yet. In the meantime, stay tuned for the "Making of..." special, coming up next! Copyright Date: 2/14/02