Hidden Love

Yolei Inoue ran as fast as she could down the Tamachi Center Street. It had been just three days ago that she and the other digidestined had defeated the great Digimon Emperor. He had left the digital world just like that after losing Wormmon, sad with grief. Her mom ,sister, and herself decided to go shopping for the day in a place her mother’s friend told them of, and while Yolei stood looking into a glass window on the street of a store, they had disappeared. The dress in the window had been so pretty.....

Now she couldn’t find them anywhere and she was going to get into so much trouble. Not paying attention to where exactly she was going, Yolei suddenly ran right into someone as she was turning a corner.

"Owww...." she whined, rubbing her head, her glasses sliding down her face. Who had she run into? She was about to stick her glasses back on when she froze to the voice of who she had run into.
"I’m so sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going. Please forgive me. It won’t happen again. Here, let me help you up" said the voice. Yolei had heard the voice so many times in the past, only this time, it was more pleasant, kind, and soothing, instead of the cruel, commanding voice she was used to. It was the voice of Ken Ichijouji.

Yolei looked up, her face as red as a cherry. Ken seemed to freeze as well when he saw that it was Yolei. Yolei noticed that his cheeks turned a hint pinker than they usually were. "Ken..."
"Hello Yolei. What a surprise" said Ken, helping Yolei up. Ken lowered his head, staring at his shoes, his cheeks turning a darker pink. He hid his face behind a curtain of blue hair. Yolei suppressed a giggle. Ken was blushing and acting shy! Was this the same guy who had wanted to take over the Digital World?

"Wow.......So....How are you Ken?" asked Yolei, completely forgetting about her mom and sister. Ken looked up, and that was the first time Yolei noticed that he was carrying a large brown bag that was slumped over his shoulder. Something inside of it was wriggling around, trying to escape for air. Ken looked down at his bag as though it was the first time he had noticed that it was there.
"K-Ken......Leph......me.....phout....." came a small struggling voice, muffled by the bag. Ken opened the bag and out came a small little light green digimon with a leaf covering its head, like a tail. For a mouth, it looked like it had a tiny little pink pacifier for a baby.

"Sorry Leafmon..." mumbled Ken, looking at his shoes again.
"Leafmon?" asked Yolei. "Is that Wormmon?" Ken nodded.

"Air!" cried Leafmon with joy, not seeing Yolei. "I thought we were getting ice cream Ken."
"We are...It’s just that..." Ken trailed off, looking up at Yolei. Yolei blushed.
"Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to bother you, it was just that, I was in a hurry looking for my mom and sister and I didn’t see you when I was turning the corner, but that’s me. Never watching where I am going. Ha! Look at that! I’m just rambling away while you stand there embarrassed. Sorry! Didn’t mean it like that-" Yolei would have continued but Ken put up a hand to stop her.
"It’s alright. You don’t need to explain yourself. It was no problem at all. I wasn’t watching either" he said. Yolei watched his eyes turn a sad indigo, and her heart broke. He looked so sad and lonely, there was no possible way that this was the same guy who was cruel, evil, and who tormented poor digimon. There was just no way.

"Say" Yolei heard herself saying. "Would you like to come to the park with us later this afternoon around four. The others and I are going to play some soccer, or at least Davis is. Would you like to join us?"
Yolei could have slapped herself right there and then if she could have. What was she doing? Asking their sworn enemy to hang out with them?

"I don’t know. I’ll have to think about this first, but thank you for the invitation." Ken looked down at Leafmon, who was looking up at him with patience. "Well, I’ll let you go Yolei, see you later....."
And with that, Ken left, little Leafmon begging him to turn back and talk some more. Yolei sighed. How was she ever going to tell the others that she had spoken to Ken? Not only that, but had invited him to hang out with them at the park. They had all agreed that if any of them saw Ken that they would tell each other, hoping to see if he was up to no good again. They probably wouldn’t believe her if she told them the truth and that he was actually shy towards her. Yolei shrugged, coming back to reality, and realized that she still needed to find her mom and sister. Panicking once more, she ran as fast as she could.

"Yolei! Where have you been?" asked Kari as she watched her purple haired friend run up to her and the others. Yolei stopped inches away from Kari, making Kari step back a few. Gasping for breath, Yolei tried to answer her.
 
"Yes Yolei! Where have you been?" demanded a tiny pink Koromon. The little creature looked like a tiny bird with its beak small tiny feathery wings.
"I was.....with my.....mom and sister........saw Ken....." Yolei stopped talking, though still taking deep breaths. She hadn’t meant to say the last part just yet.
"What? You saw Ken?" asked T.K., Patamon sitting on his head like a bat as usual.
"Where did you see him?" asked small Cody. His digimon was sitting next to him, trying to look like a stuffed animal so no one would see him.
"Well, we went shopping in Tamachi and I ran into him" explained Yolei. Davis walked up to her with Demiveemon on his head and asked, "Was he nice to you? Or was he nasty?"
"Oh no! He was actually really sweet! He acted shy to be honest" answered Yolei. Everyone but Davis and Yolei gasped.
"He was nice to you? Are we talking about the same Ken Ichijouji?" asked T.K., astounded. Yolei nodded.
"Well it does make sense" began Kari. "I mean, it’s not as though he can do anything bad to us here and I think he may have actually changed. You all saw the way he acted when he lost Wormmon."
"Oh! That’s another thing! Ken must have gone back to the Digital World at some point because he had Leafmon with him. Wormmon’s baby form, they were going to get ice cream, if you would believe that" said Yolei.
Cody shook his head. "I just don’t believe it. How can someone change like that so quickly? It just doesn’t add up, I mean-" Cody was interrupted by someone’s voice.
"I know I may have done some nasty things in the past, but please, you must give me another chance. I’m not asking for your forgiveness, all I want is that you trust me enough to know I won’t hurt you" said the voice.
Everyone looked over towards the sound of the voice and gaped. There, stood Ken, wearing his Tamachi school uniform, all gray. His blue hair came down to his mid neck. Leafmon sat in his hands, smiling around at everyone as though this was an everyday thing.
"Ken!" cried Davis and Yolei at the same time. Ken bowed his head and was about to start walking away when Leafmon struggled in his arms.
"Please Ken! Stay! See! Davis and Yolei want you to stay!" protested the little digimon. Ken looked down at his tiny digimon and sighed. Ever since he had gotten Leafmon back at Primary Village he refused to do anything Leafmon may not like and treat him with pure kindness. He owed that much to the little digimon. The whole time he had been the nasty Digimon Emperor he had treated Wormmon horribly. Kicking him, using his whip on him, and just plain out hating and ignoring him. Well, now Ken made sure that Leafmon had the perfect life. It made Ken sick to think of what he had done to the digital world.
Ken turned back around to face the digidestined, his head still low. Yolei had to do something, and before she knew it, words were coming out of her mouth. "Why don’t you come and join us Ken? On our trip to the park."
"What?" cried out Cody and T.K.
Ken slowly nodded, walking up to Yolei.

"Alright, as long as everyone doesn’t mind" whispered Ken.
"Sure! You can join us" said Kari. Cody only scowled at Ken while T.K. just kept his mouth shut. Davis was soon ecstatic.
"Alright! Awesome! You ready for some soccer Ken? I still need to get you back from the last time we played!" he cried out. Ken cracked a small smile and nodded.
"If you don’t mind losing" mumbled Ken teasingly. Cody and T.K. glared at him at this comment yet said nothing.
"Ha!" laughed Davis. "Is that a threat?"

"I suppose you could call it one" replied Ken calmly.
That was enough said for Cody. He stormed up to Ken and yelled. "What are you up to? If you think this little kind charade of yours is going to work you can just forget it! Why don’t you just crawl back under the control spire you crawled out from!"
"Cody" tried Kari, hoping to calm him down.

"Just leave us alone! We don’t want you around! Understand! After what you did to all those poor digimon, we can never trust you!" finished Cody, seething.
Ken went very pale throughout Cody’s whole speech. He stood there, frozen to the ground. Yolei and Davis tried to walk over and comfort him but Ken only backed away from them.
"He’s right, what was I thinking. I can never have any friends. Ever." whispered Ken. Kari stepped forward.
"Now that’s not true Ken, everyone can have friends" she reasoned.
"Yeah, everyone but me" he said, then tightened his hold on Leafmon and turned around, only to have a camera flashed into his face.
"Look everyone! It’s Ken "The Rocket" Ichijouji, out playing soccer with his friends!" cried a woman reporter. Ken covered his face with his free arm and ran.
"Leave me alone!" he cried sadly, running past the cameras. One of the reporters got a look at his face and gasped.
"Ken Ichijouji is crying everyone!" she said. The three reporters all started taking down quick notes and then turned to the Digidestined.
"Do any of you know why Ken was crying? Are you his friends? Did you make him cry? Why is he upset?" were some of the questions they were asked.
All of them only said "No comment" and walked away. Once they were out of earshot, Cody spoke up.
"Well, serves him right! He wanted to be famous and now he’s got it!" he hissed under his breath.
"Cody! That’s not fair! Ken didn’t ask for the paparazzi to follow him everywhere!" argued Kari. Cody ignored her, still fuming with anger towards Ken.
"Why don’t we change the topic?" offered Davis. Everyone nodded.

"So...Yolei, you told us you were doing something tonight. What is it?" asked Kari. Yolei smiled.
"Well, my cousin Touji is coming to visit for a couple of days and I’m supposed to meet him tonight at the Tamachi Central Park" replied Yolei happily. Cody glared at her.
"Does everything you do have to be in Tamachi all of a sudden?" he mumbled. Yolei glared back down at him, being a lot taller.
"Oh I’m sorry Cody, I don’t hold grudges like you do. Just because I’m in the same general area as Ken Ichijouji is doesn’t mean I’m going to see him" Yolei barked back. Cody went silent.
"So....You’re going to meet him at Tamachi.....why?" asked T.K., ignoring the tension between Cody and Yolei. Cody looked at Yolei reproachingly at this question.
"Oh, well, see there’s an airport in Tamachi and not in Odaiba and Touji doesn’t know his way around. I’m doing it because everyone else is getting ready for Touji back at our apartment" she answered. Everyone nodded.
"Do you think I could beat Ken at a soccer game?" asked Davis suddenly. Everyone’s gazes turned to Davis, who was completely oblivious to everything going around him. They all sweat dropped and ignored him.
 Chapter 2

Rain poured down on Tamachi Park, where Yolei currently stood, getting soaked with each passing second. When she had arrived fifteen minutes ago, the sun was out, birds chirping. Clouds then appeared out of nowhere and it poured. She growled under her breath. She shivered and she cursed to herself. "Why? Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this!?" she cried into the dark sky.
"Maybe its cause the Gods above want to punish you for your beauty" came a deep soothing voice. The rain stopped hitting Yolei’s head as an umbrella was held over her. Yolei turned around to see none other than Ken Ichijouji. He smiled at her warmly. "You looked cold, wet, and lonely, so I decided to come and say hello."

Yolei blushed to her hairline. "Wow-uh....thanks Ken. You really didn’t have to....I’m just here waiting for my cousin Touji."
"Well, my apartment is just across the street. Why don’t you come in and you can watch from him from our balcony. It’s a little more dry there" offered Ken shyly.
"Oh...thanks..."mumbled Yolei.

Yolei was astounded. ‘Wow, I can’t believe I'm in Ken’s apartment right now!’ she thought to herself. She and Ken had just walked into his apartment.
"You can just take your shoes off-" Ken was interrupted by his mother’s happy squeal.
"Oh! Ken you’re home! When I saw that you left while it was raining I got a little worried and-Oh! Ken dear! You should have told me you were bringing you little girlfriend over!" his mother squealed. Ken blushed. "You always told me you didn’t have one but I knew you did. You’re just too cute for girls to resist!"
"Mother!" hissed Ken, sadly embarrassed. Yolei bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud. The look on Ken’s face was classic.
"Oh! Sorry dear! I’ll just leave the two of you alone while I make you some cookies" said Mrs. Ichijouji, hurrying off into the kitchen.
"Mom, Yolei isn't staying for very long. Just until her cousin arrives at the park across the street. She was going to get soaked from the rain" Ken called to his mother, who didn’t reply back. "Come on in. This is the kitchen, parent’s room, and at the end of the hall is my room."
Yolei looked around. It was a nice apartment. Slightly smaller than hers, only because she had a bigger family, but lots of space. Yolei followed Ken into his. Once he opened the door, Ken’s right foot was attacked by a cute giant worm.

"Hello Ken!" Wormmon greeted happily. He looked over and saw Yolei. "Oh.....Hello Yolei."
She smiled at the worm digimon. "Hello Wormmon."
Yolei walked farther into Ken’s room while Ken shut the door. Wormmon saw his chance and crawled up Ken’s legs and back and onto his shoulder. He started whispering into Ken’s ear. "What’s she doing here? Is she here to yell at you like that Cody boy did?" he asked suspiciously.
Ken patted Wormmon on the head and lifted him up, putting back down on the floor. "No, she’s just staying here until her cousin gets here. He’s supposed to meet her at the park across the street. It’s raining so I invited her in" he explained. Wormmon nodded.
"Wow, this is a nice picture of you Ken" commented Yolei from the other side of the room. She was currently looking at a picture of Sam next to his computer.
Ken sweat dropped. "That’s not me, that’s my older brother Sam."
"Oh, I didn’t know you had a brother. I thought you were an only child" replied Yolei.
"He....past away five years ago" whispered ken sadly. Yolei’s eyes widened. She turned to Ken and saw that he was staring into space.
"Oh...Ken....I’m so sorry. I didn’t know" groaned Yolei.

"Its okay.....Let’s walk out here onto my balcony. You’ll be able to see your cousin from here." With that said, the two of them walked out and watched the rain fall down. They both leaned against the railing, both several feet away from each other. A nervous tension filled around them as they stood there, neither of them knowing what they were going to say.
Yolei looked at him from the corner of her eye. Before she knew it, the words were spilling out of her. "Ken....why were you the Digimon Emperor?" Yolei clapped a hand over her mouth, turning a bright red. Ken looked at her for a moment before answering.
"I don’t know" he said simply. "I really don’t." There was silence for several minutes. Then: "Is that your cousin?" He pointed down to a boy with black hair and a red jacket. Yolei looked and saw that it was.
"Yeah, I gotta go. Say....thanks a lot Ken. And....did you really mean what you said about the Gods punishing me for my beauty?" said Yolei. Ken flushed and nodded. She only smiled and left.
 Chapter 3

Ken shut the door to his apartment and sighed.
"Ken honey! Did your little friend leave?" came Mrs. Ichijouji’s voice.
"Yes mom" Ken replied, walking into the living room and sitting on the couch.
"Good, because I want to check your weight" his mother continued.
"What?" exclaimed Ken, confused.
His mother walked up to him and said, "I want to check your weight. Your looking so much more skinnier these days and I want to see if it’s not just my imagination."
"Mom, I’m fine" Ken protested.

"We’ll see" she retorted and grabbed Ken’s arm. She dragged him into the bathroom and Ken got on the scale. They waited for the scale to work and when it did, Mrs. Ichijouji was not happy."110!"
Ken blushed. He hadn’t realized that was all he weighed. Other boys like him weighed at least 35 pounds more than him. He looked up at his mother, who stared at him with worry.
"You need to eat more Ken, I’ve always told you" she crooned.
"I will, I promise" said Ken, stepping off the scale and out of the bathroom. He walked down to his room and walked in.
Wormmon was laying on the bed, asleep. One of his antennae's twitched and he woke up. "Oh! I fell asleep. Is Yolei gone?"
"Unfortunately" mumbled Ken, climbing up to his bed.
"What do you mean by that" asked the Digimon.
Ken didn’t answer. His mind drifted to Yolei. Her long lavender hair and her pretty smile. "Ken?"
"What?"
"Are you okay? You look funny" was the answer.
"No." smiled Ken. He looked up at the ceiling. "I just found out I’m in love that’s all."

Yolei beamed at Touji when they walked into the apartment.
"Hey Auntie! How are you?" he asked, hugging Yolei’s mother.
Yolei smiled. Then she frowned. She wished she could have stayed longer with Ken. He seemed so lonely at his place. Yolei still wished that she would someday be able to marry him. He’s so cute!
"I’ll be in my room if anyone needs me" said Yolei. No one seemed to hear her, for all their attention was on Touji. She shrugged, used to being ignored.
She walked into her room and collapsed on her bed. She reached under her pillow and pulled out a picture cut out from a magazine. It was of Ken. He was wearing his soccer uniform and posing with a soccer ball under one arm.
Poromon suddenly appeared out of no where. The tiny little pink bird huffed in anger when he saw what Yolei was looking at.
"Why are you looking at that Yolei?" he demanded.

"Cause I like him. I know he was the evil Digimon Emperor, but I think he’s changed. You haven’t seen him the way I have. He’s sweet and kind, and .....lonely. He has no friends, because if he did, he’d be hanging out with them, and....he’s cute" explained Yolei.
"You already said that. Do you really like him?" asked Poromon.
Yolei nodded. "Well then, I’ll just have to get used to it. If you really do, you should ask him out."
"What!? Me? Ask Ken Ichijouji out! No way!" cried Yolei in disbelief. Then she sighed. "Yeah.....I think I might...."


Davis was in his room, kicking his soccer ball. Veemon was sitting on his bed. "I wouldn’t do that if I was you Davis" warned the little blue digimon.
Crack!
"Oh no......" moaned Davis. His window cracked when he hit the ball too hard. "Mom’s gonna be mad."
The doorbell to his apartment rang. He ran out of his room and answered the door. Davis gaped when he saw who was at the door.
"Ken! What are you doing here? And how’d you know where I live?" asked Davis, letting Ken come inside.
"It’s called a phonebook Davis" Ken answered simply. Davis sweat dropped.
"Oh, yeah.....I knew that" he mumbled. "So what are you doing here?"
"I came here to tell you something. Something that I can’t tell my parents, too embarrassing. And you seem to be my only friend.....right?
You are my friend right?" asked Ken, sitting on the couch. Davis sat beside him.
"Yeah. I’m your friend. I know you did a lot of nasty things in the past but your decided to change and become one of us" Davis replied. Ken nodded happily.
"Well then, I suppose I could tell you then." Pause. "I like Yolei."
Davis blinked. "You....like Yolei? Like....as a girlfriend like...."
Ken nodded. "Wow."
"Please don’t tell anyone else, I had to tell someone and you were the only person I could think of." pleaded Ken. Davis smiled.
"Don’t worry Ken, your secret is safe with me" assured Davis.
Ken nodded. he sat there for a few minutes, staring into space, when Davis saw that he was sweating, and shivering a bit. Ken’s face went pale white. "Say Ken, are you okay? You don’t look well."
"I’m fine" said Ken, standing. "I need to be getting home though."
"Okay, later man!" said Davis, seeing Ken out the door.

Wormmon could feel Ken shifting in his sleep. Another nightmare. Ken was always having them. He tried drifting back to sleep, but his worry about Ken kept him from doing so. He looked up at Ken and saw that he was frightening white, and was soaked with sweat. Ken was panting, his brow furrowed with pain.
"Ken?" whimpered Wormmon. What’s wrong?"
Ken woke up. "W-Wormmon. Go get my p-parents. Doesn’t m-matter if they see you" panted Ken.
Wormmon was off in a heartbeat. He hurried down the hallway and into Mr. and Mrs. Ichijouji’s room. The two were sleeping. He jumped up on the bed and started poking them awake.
"Ken is ill, he needs you!" whispered Wormmon into their ears. The two seemed to wake up at this. Wormmon scurried out of the way before either of them saw him.
Mrs. Ichijouji was in Ken’s room first and went to ken immediately.
"Ken? Honey? What’s wrong?" she cried.
"My chest hurts.....along with my head" Ken replied.

Yolei yawned the next morning. She was the first one up save for her dad, who had already gone to work. On the counter was a newspaper. She looked at it bleary eyed. Whe her eyes came to focus, she read the front page.
"Oh my God……" she breathed.
Chapter 4

Ken slowly opened his eyes. White. Everything was white. He groaned as he shifted in a soft white bed. The last thing he remembered was severe pain and begging Wormmon to go and get his parents.
He started to look around when his parents walked into the room.
"Oh! My baby! Ken! Your awake!" cried his mother, as she attacked him in a giant hug. Ken moaned in pain as she squeezed his ribs.
"Ouch....Mom...please don’t...." he mumbled.
"Oh, I’m sorry honey" she apologized. Ken’s dad patted him on the back as Ken ducked his head down to hide behind his hair. Only....No hair fell.
Ken felt at the back of his head to see if his hair was pulled back. All he felt was bandages. he looked up at his parents, confused.
"Mom- What happened to my hair?" he asked, a little afraid to hear the answer.
"It.......fell out. It appears that you had some type of cancer in your chest. I’m really sorry. The doctor said this was common. It’ll grow back soon, son" answered his father.
Ken eyes widened in disbelief. "No....." he whimpered, feeling his head.
"It’s alright, you can just wear a hat" offered his mother.
But Ken didn’t hear her. His mind was racing. His heart yearned for him to ask out Yolei, but....how can he ask her now that this has happened?
Will she want to go out with a freak with no hair? Unable to bear the thought, Ken burst into silent tears.

By the early morning, just about everyone in Odaiba and Tamachi knew about what had happened to Ken. The didgidestined had all decided to get together at Izzy’s house to discuss it.
"Wow, this is a pretty rare disease. It says here that he’ll be let out later this afternoon, perhaps late tonight" says Izzy, who was typing away at his computer.
Davis shook his head. "Wow. You know, come to think of it, he didn’t look all that well when he came over to my house yesterday" he commented. Everyone looked at him.
"Ken was at your house?" Cody asked suspiciously.
Davis sweat dropped. "Yeah, he was bored. I think he was kind of lonely too. He says that I’m his only friend."
"I’m sure that’s what he tells everyone" hissed Cody.
"Would you just knock it off!" yelled Yolei. "He’s not the Emperor anymore! He’s changed. I saw him too yesterday and he says he doesn’t even know why he was the emperor!"
"He told you that?" asked Sora.
It was Yolei’s turn to sweat drop. "Yeah...after I asked him by mistake."
"Well, let’s just hope he gets better" sighed Kari. Everyone nodded.

Ken stepped out of the hospital doors later that afternoon. A large brown hood over his head. He walked dejectedly in between his mom and dad as they walked down the street.
Everything was going fine until someone came running up to them. It was girl about ten years old. She held a paper and pencil in her hand.
"Your Ken Ichijouji aren’t you?" she asked in a chipper voice. Ken reluctantly nodded. He reached for her pencil, knowing it his autograph she wanted, when a large gust of wind came and swooped his hood back. The girl screamed when she saw him and ran.
Pulling the hood back quickly, Ken begged to his mother. "Let’s go home. Now! Before anyone else sees!" His mother hugged him tightly and they quickened their pace.

Ken opened the door to his room, happy to be home. He sighed as he shut the door. Wormmon, who had been up ever since the night before, worrying, rushed up to his partner.
"Ken! Your okay! I was so worried about you!" cried the little green worm. Before Ken could do anything, Wormmon climbed up him and onto his shoulder. Wormmon paused, sensing something wrong. "Ken....What happened to your hair?" I don’t see it"
"That’s because it fell out" replied Ken. He grabbed Wormmon and climbed up to his bed, where he put Wormmon down on the bed. He slowly removed his hat. To his surprise and happiness, Wormmon didn’t run or gasp, only looked at Ken with sadness.
"Oh Ken. I’m sorry. If it helps I still love you just as much" said the little digimon. Ken smiled brightly.

Ding Dong! The doorbell to the Ichijouji household rang and Mrs. Ichijouji walked happily to the door to answer it. There, stood Yolei.
"Hi Mrs. Ichijouji! I’m one of Ken’s friends. We met yesterday. I heard about what happened and I came to wish him well! May I see him?"
"Oh....well, I don’t really know if he wants to see anybody right now, but you can go ahead and try. His room is at the end of the hall. Knock please. He likes his privacy" answered Ken’s mom.
Yolei walked down to his room and gently knocked. "Ken? Are you there? It’s me Yolei. I came to wish you well" she said. She cursed herself for sounding so stupid.
"Yolei? What are you doing here?" came Ken’s voice.

"To wish you well. I’m coming in" with that Yolei opened the door. The lights were dimmed and Ken was sitting on his bed. The sheets were over his head.
"Ken, what are you doing? Playing hide and go seek or something?" asked Yolei at the sight of Ken under the covers.
"No...I just don’yt want you to see me. You’re too pretty to see a freak like me" he said.
Yolei blushed. "You’re just saying that Ken,. You’re too sweet for your own good. Now take those covers off. What, are you bald?" laughed Yolei.
She had only meant for it to be a joke, and when Ken answered, she was shocked. "Yes."
Ken lifted the covers off his head and Yolei gasped, making Ken cringe.
"Its because of the cancer isn’t it? Your hair fell out" she said. Ken nodded. Yolei smiled. "Well, I still think you’re the hottest guy on the planet!"
Ken blushed. "What!?"
"Oh yeah! All you have to do is wear a large hat or something and you’re still the loveable Kaiser we all love!" said Yolei.
Ken laughed a little, but then stopped. "Wait....Kaiser?"

"Oh, no. Ken, I know your not him anymore, I was just joking! You know? Haha!" tried Yolei. Ken nodded. There was silence for several minutes.
"Ken....." came Wormmon’s voice. Ken looked at his friend. "You know you want to ask her..."
Ken nodded, and looked Yolei. He then climbed down his ladder and walked up to her. He grabbed her hands and looked at her in the eyes.
"Yolei, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you. And....get me a hat!" he cried. Yolei laughed and found a hat sitting on the table. He put it on.
"What I’ve been wanting to ask you was.....will you go out with me?"
Chapter 5

Yolei could do nothing but gape at Ken for several minutes. Had the guy of her dreams just ask her out?
"Oh....my" whispered Yolei. Ken just stood there nervously waiting for her reply. " I-I can’t believe it..."
"What? Can’t believe what? See, Yolei, if you don’t want to go out with me you don’t have to, I-" ken was interrupted by Yolei.
"No! I’ll go out with you, its just.....I’ve had this major crush on you since like.....forever...and now you’re asking me out.....Wow" replied the surprised girl. Ken smiled.
"So...that’s a yes?" he asked, just wanting to make sure.

"Yes."

Everyone met in the digital World the next day as they always did. Yolei was insistent that they all come. Even the older kids if they could.

But Izzy was the only older didgidestined that could come.
"Yolei, what’s the big deal if everyone comes or not?" asked Kari when Yolei was disappointed about who all had come.
Yolei sweat dropped. "Well, see....there’s something I kind of have to tell you. But follow me as I tell you." So everyone followed Yolei, wondering what the heck was going on. "See....yesterday I asked someone out....."
"Oh! Who’d you ask out?" asked Kari. All the boys sweat dropped.
Yolei didn’t answer. Instead, someone else answered. "Me."

Everyone looked up to see Ken wearing a large over-sized hat and sitting beside a tree with a book in his hands. He closed the book and stood up.
He bowed his head with shyness. "You’re going out with Ken?" asked TK.
Yolei nodded. "Who asked who out?" asked Cody, once again with suspicion evident in his voice.
"Ken asked me out. You know how I went to his house last night to wish him well?" Everyone nodded. "Well, it turns out, that Ken has been wanting
to ask me out for a while now and he finally got the courage to last night."
Everyone looked over at Ken, who nodded. "That's right. Ever since I first saw Yolei I've had a bit of a crush on her, even as the Emperor. But now that I've been talking to her and she came over to my house, I couldn't help but ask her out.
And before you get all judgmental, I just want to say that I will do nothing to harm Yolei and I would never forgive myself if I did. I will try to make her happy."
Yolei beamed at these words. It seemed to her that ken really cared about her. If he was willing to say things like that, she knew he really did care.
Davis walked up to ken first, being the first one to get over the shock.

"So….Looks like you'll be hanging around us more. That's so cool! I keep tryin' to tell these guys that you're one of us! Why else would you have the Crest of Kindness?' he said. Ken shrugged.
"So….Might as well become friends now eh? I'm TK, in case you didn't know" introduced TK. Ken and TK shook hands. It seemed that know that Yolei was going out with ken, TK considered him a part of the group. Kari walked up and did the same. Cody didn't however; he stayed back with Armidillomon beside him.
Gatomon walked up to him and shook his hand. "I may have wanted to turn you into kitty litter a couple of times, but I see that your really are sweet on the inside, so I'll let what happened in the past go. Besides, I'm one to talk, I used to be evil like you too." She purred.
"Really?" asked ken curiously.

"Yes. I was taking orders from my old Master Myotismon. Then I met Kari, and she turned me away from darkness" replied Gatomon, "Just like all of you helped me" whispered Ken, mainly to himself.
Izzy walked up next. "It's nice to have another fellow genius around" he commented. Ken laughed nervously.
"Yeah. Wait, you're Izzy Izumi right?" asked Ken. Izzy nodded. "You're the one who wrote the essay about Geology. Your theories in that essay are amazing!"
It was Izzy's turn to blush. Everyone seemed to have accepted ken at this point. Cody was the only one. Ken knew Cody still hated him. But he had no idea what he was supposed to do. Davis then spoke up.
"Hey man, I'm sorry about what happened to your hair. It must be awful" he commented.
Ken nodded. "It's already growing back though. He didn't take off his hat, but if one looked hard enough around Ken's ears, they could tell that already a lot of hair has grown. Davis called it 'Peach Fuzz' later that afternoon, making Ken blush insanely red.
Finally, after everyone was in their own conversations, Ken finally had the chance alone with Yolei once more. He grabbed her hand, as she wasn't looking in his direction and startled her. She turned. "Oh! Hi Ken! So, everyone seemed to accept you." Ken glanced over at Cody. "Except for
Cody, but that's just him for you. He's always been that way he has this way of thinking that once you're bad, you're always bad. But I don't think that."
Ken smiled at that. The two of them started leaning closer to each and right when they're lips were about to touch…..
"HEY!"
Ken yelped in surprise. Something small, blue, and very animated, was currently glued to his hat. Ken looked up to see two pair of large reddish eyes looking at him from upside down.
"DemiVeemon!" cried Davis, exasperated.

Yolei looked as though she was about to slap Davis as she walked up to him. "Davis! Can't you learn to control your Digimon!?"
"Oh, its okay, I was just startled Yolei, that's all" said Ken. Ken then looked back up at Demiveemon, who was still perched on the top of Ken's head.
Wormmon, who had been watching the other's all afternoon by Ken's side, felt a pang of jealousy, and climbed up to ken's shoulder. Ken smiled.
"What? Suddenly all Digimon like me?" Cody scowled at this. Everyone ignored him.
"Well, we've never really talked before. Except for that time you had Davis and me dangling off a cliff. But I don't that counts" said the blue mon.
"Demiveemon!" scowled Davis for mentioning the memory.
Ken acted as though it was nothing. "Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you Demiveemon, but if you excuse me, I think Wormmon is on the verge of tearing you to shreds for sitting on my head. "
And indeed, Wormmon was scowling at Demiveemon accusingly. Demiveemon ignored him and hopped into Ken's arms. "You think I'm cute though right?" he asked. Ken didn't reply, his blush did it for him.
Yolei snatched Demiveemon from Ken's arms and dropped him.

"If there's one person Ken's going to meet, it's going to have to be Hawkmon. She then grabbed hawkmon and had Ken hold him.
"Yolei! I am perfectly capable of having a conversation with ken without being in his arms!" struggled the bird Digimon.
For the rest of the afternoon this continued. Everyone seemed to have a good time. It had been a long while since ken had ever had such great fun, and smiled so much. He looked over at Yolei, talking with Kari. He smiled, maybe having her around would make him a happier person.
Chapter 6

Ken Ichijouji sighed with embarrassment as his mother scowled at the scale below his feet. Ken closed his eyes, wishing he was somewhere else.

With.....Yolei perhaps. This thought made Ken smile. Though Ken was brought out of his thoughts by his mother’s whining.
"Oh Ken dear! You told me you were eating more!" she cried. Ken opened his eyes and faced his mother. He was wearing his light green pajamas and currently had no hat on. The only time he didn’t was when he was at home.
It has been a total of six days since the incident and his hair was finally coming. It was no resembling Cody’s only slightly longer. It was growing incredibly quickly to Ken’s happiness.
"I am eating more" Ken was currently protesting gently.
"Then how come you weigh a pound less than last week!" squealed Mrs. Ichijouji with worry. Ken shrugged. He didn’t know why he was losing weight. The only possible reason would to be the fact that he has small meals. But Ken was never the person to eat much to begin with.
He had a very small stomach some would say.

"Well, I do play soccer mama" Ken tried again. Mrs. Ichijouji was about to start complaining again when the doorbell rang. Ken jumped off the scale and ran to the door. "I’ll get it!"
He already knew who it was. His happiness, his dream girl, his angel.
Yolei. She was meeting him tonight and they were going to watch a movie in his living room. His parents had promised not to get in the way. Though Ken had an idea that his mom would be sneaking around trying to listen in on any conversation they may have. ken opened the door and smiled at a beaming Yolei. "Hi Yolei."
"Hi Ken! Look! I brought some popcorn and pop for us to drink during the movie from my dad’s grocery store!" said Yolei, holding up a bag of food.
Ken sweat dropped. "That’s great Yolei, just don’t show my mom, she was kind of hoping she could make us this giant feast by the looks of it in the kitchen" Ken joked. Yolei giggled. "Hurry, go to my room. Oh, hi Hawkmon. Sorry, didn’t see you."
"Quite alright Ken. Is Wormmon in your room?" Ken nodded. Hawkmon followed Yolei into his room while ken went to see if his mom was around. Seeing that she wasn’t Ken walked off into his room.
Due to the fact that Ken and Yolei hung around each other so much, Wormmon and Hawkmon had created a friendly friendship. The two of them seemed to be the best of friends just like their partners.
Yolei smiled when she saw Ken walk into the room. However, her smile did not last very long. She suddenly saw in her mind’s eyes,
Ken getting out his whip and cackling as he pushed on his old yellow sunglasses, as though he was still the emperor.
Ken looked at Yolei with worry. She was looking at him as though she feared him.
"Yolei? Are you okay?" he asked, titling his head to one side. Yolei snapped out of it and shook her head.
"No, I’m okay. I just kind of dazed there for a moment. I’m fine really" she answered. Ken smiled. One of his hands was currently behind his back.
"I have a surprise for you" he said. Yolei gulped.
"Is it a whip?" asked Yolei without realizing it. Ken furrowed his brow in confusion.
"No!" he let it go though and smiled. He held out his hand and let Yolei see what he had. He was holding a beautiful red rose.
Yolei beamed with delight, taking the flower as Ken sat himself beside her. "Today is our one week anniversary!" Ken was saying.
"I thought that you should get something special."

Ken and Yolei smiled at each other and looked into each other’s eyes. "That was really sweet of you Ken" she said. Ken nodded slowly.
Ken shyly pushed himself closer to her and put an arm around her shoulder. They were really close. Their lips were almost touching.
They kissed.
Yolei was screaming on the inside during the kiss. All those images of Ken as the emperor suddenly flooded her mind.
‘You are kissing the Digimon Emperor!’ one part of her mind was saying. ‘The guy who tortured poor Digimon for the fun of it! The guy who was trying to kill you and the others!’
‘No....this is Ken. Not the emperor’ another part of her was saying. The sweet kind Ken you fell in love with.’
Listening to her first thoughts, Yolei pulled away, making Ken sit there, confused.
"What’s wrong?" Ken asked, worried. His heart was thumping hard in his chest. ‘I knew it! She doesn’t like me! I’m not good enough!
I’m worthless!’ he thought to himself.
"I’m sorry. I just can’t help but see you as the emperor" whispered Yolei.
Ken’s heart seemed to stop right there and then. He could feel his heart being torn into two. She could only see him as the emperor, and
not as his true self. Ken.
"But, Yolei. I’m not him anymore. I changed. I thought you understood that" he choked, trying not let the tears come.
Yolei was trying to hold back her own tears. "I know. But I can’t stop thinking that your still him and, I think that maybe....this won’t
work out. I’m sorry. I’ll go now. I’ll leave you alone. I’m sorry Ken."
With that, Yolei stood and picked up Hawkmon, who was sitting on the floor next to Wormmon, both of them watching with tears in their eyes. The two Digimon said goodbye as Yolei walked out of the room.
Wormmon looked up to see that Ken had crawled up into his bed and was lying down, his face turned the other way.
"Ken?" Wormmon called to his partner. "Ken? Are you going to be okay?"
After several moments of no sound, save for Ken’s soft and faint sobs, Ken finally answered. "I don’t think so Wormmon."
These words broke the little worm’s heart.

Several days had past since the break-up and Yolei had been spending as much time as she could with Kari and the others as she could to help get her mind off Ken. It wasn’t really working but it helped. She was going with Kari and the others to watch Davis play at his soccer game. The only problem about that, was that it was Ken’s team that they were playing against. This made Yolei really nervous, because she didn’t know how he would react to seeing her again. Yolei wouldn’t be surprised if he would hate her and treat her cruelly or just ignore her altogether, for she was the one who left him and broke his heart.
Yolei sat down on the stands between Cody and Kari. Although Cody had disliked the idea of Ken and Yolei going out, he had been really supportive the last few days and had been there for Yolei while she was depressed about the break-up.
Their Digimon sat in their laps as they waited for the game to start. TK was currently down on the field with Davis and Tai encouraging him to do well.
"Good luck Davis" said TK.
"Yeah. Something tells me that Ken won’t be much of an issue this time. He’s probably not in a very soccer game mood and won’t do as good today" said Tai.
Davis thought other words. "I don’t know you guys. He’ll be wanting to vent out his anger on Yolei. So he’ll probably be ready to play hard. But I can beat him! That guy hasn’t a chance!"
TK and Tai said good luck and sat back up in the stands.

Yolei didn’t see ken at first. She didn’t really think he’d show. But that was when she saw her raven haired ex.
he was standing in the out part of the huddle for the Tamachi team. His face was neutral. It looked as though he was no longer captain of the team and was listening to his orders on how to play. The coach was telling them to try their best and win.
Davis and the Tamachi captain shook hands and the game began. Everything was running smoothly. It didn’t look as though Ken had seen Yolei sitting up in the stands yet.
It wasn’t until Ken’s eighth score did Ken seem to notice Yolei. He had just gotten possession of the ball when he looked up and froze. Time seemed to have stopped for the both of them. Everyone on the felid was confused by Ken’s sudden stop.
Then, without warning, Ken began to run again. He ignored Davis’ blocks and kicked the ball as hard as he could into the goal. He scored, but he had hit the ball so hard that the ball went and poked a hole in the white net. Everyone was surprised by this. But when they went to look back at ken, he was running in the other direction and off the field.

"Wow! Did you see that! ken had kicked the ball so hard it caused the net to break!" Davis was saying in awe after the game. After the incident,
Ken had fled. No one knew where he was know, but they all assumed he went home. And it was because he saw Yolei. This made Yolei shiver.
"He ran away right after he saw me" Yolei whispered to Kari.

"I’m sure he was just surprised in seeing you. He hadn’t seen you since....you know....and it probably just brought back some unhappy emotions
and memories. He probably couldn’t face it right then" explained Kari. Yolei nodded.
"Yeah, you're right" nodded Yolei. "I just feel so guilty. I did the right thing right Kari?"
Kari shrugged. "I really don’t know Yolei. You said that you still thought of him as the emperor right? Well, are you okay with that? Or does it bother you so much that you can’t stand to be in the same room with him?"
Yolei shrugged. "I don’t know. I supposed I could give it another try, I mean, I do really miss him. And he did make me happy..."
"The you should do it Yolei" encouraged Kari. If he makes you happy then you should do it. Don’t be miserable just because of something that happened in the past. Ken is sorry for what he did. he’s trying to make up for his mistakes as the emperor and its time you realize, that’s not who he is anymore."
Yolei nodded unsurely. "Yeah. I guess your right. I guess I could give it another try. But the question is....will he forgive me?"

Mr. and Mrs. Ichijouji were both worried about their son. He spent all day in his room either crying or sleeping and he was really depressed.
They knew why. Ken had told them the next day through his tears. Mrs. Ichijouji had made sure that she was their for her son and hated Yolei for doing this to him. Mr. Ichijouji kept trying to tell him that there would be others.
"Don’t worry son. Before you know you’ll have to use a stick to keep back all the ladies". Then he’s add. "Just like your old dad!"
Ken didn’t eat, to the great disappointment of his mother. No matter what Wormmon did, he couldn’t make his partner do anything. He tried taking him to the Digital World, but as soon as Ken saw a control spire he went back home and cried some more. Guilt over top of guilt.
There was only one thing that was good about all this. His hair was getting longer and longer with each day. His hair was no down to the tips of his ears. It was thick and curled at the end. Down along the back of his neck hair was growing as well. It was the day after the soccer game
Ken seemed to finally revert back to his normal self. he woke up and ate a decent sized meal for breakfast, to the content of
Mrs. Ichijouji and Wormmon could finally tell that he was over Yolei. Someone could actually say her name without him going all silent and teary eyed.
That was the day, Yolei stopped by.

The doorbell rang.
"Ken dear! Could you get that?" asked his mother. Ken went to answer the door. When he did, his heart stopped.
Ken and Yolei stared at each other for several minutes before Yolei invited herself in.
"Hey Ken. We need to talk" she said. Ken nodded, not really listening. He was still in too big of shock.
"Ken? Who is it- You! get out of my house! You broke my boy’s heart and I don’t ever want to see you here again! You leave him alone!"
cried Ken’s mother.
"Please Mrs. Ichijouji. I just need to talk with ken for am few minutes" said Yolei.
Ken and Yolei walked into Ken’s room and sat down on the floor. That was Ken finally got his voice back.
"Yolei....what are you doing here?" he asked.
"Well, I know the last few days have been really hard for you, and they have for me too. And I’ve been thinking about it lot the last few days and
I’m sorry. I think I went a little overboard the other day" she began.
Wormmon watched from the bed. He smiled. He knew the two of them would try again.
"I think we should start over. It was very unfair of me to do that to you. You’re no longer the emperor. I know that now" Ken smiled at these words. He
couldn’t believe his ears. "What I’m trying to say is.....will you go out with me again. I really think we can make this work."
Instead of answering, ken kissed her. On the lips. Yolei’s eyes went wide with surprise at first, but then she returned the kiss. When they parted, ken answered.
"Of course. This can work. We’ll make it work. I know we can" he said. They kissed again. Wormmon was bouncing with joy on the bed. And outside the
door was Mr. and Mrs. Ichijouji, spying. They smiled at the two.

It was official. Ken and Yolei were back on. Everyone was happy again. Everyone was currently in the digital world. They were destroying control spires.
Stingmon and Halsemon you working together to destroy them, both thrilled for their partners.
Ken and Yolei sat next to each other, wide grins on their faces.
"Look Ken. One by one they are being destroyed. Before you know it, their won’t be anymore" said Yolei. Ken beamed at this. He no longer felt guilty
for what he had done in the past, because he knew he was making up for it and that the didgidestined forgave him. Except for Cody, but Ken knew he
would come around.
That was when ken felt someone touch him on the back. Armidillomon sat behind him. He had de-digivolved like everyone else. They were now taking a break.
"Yes?" asked ken.
"Hi. Um...Cody has something he would like to say to you. He’s just too shy to say it" said the mon.
Ken looked over at Cody, who was scowling at his partner.
"Well, Ken. I just want to say that.....I forgive you. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to watch you. I trust you, but I’ll still be keeping my eye on you"
With that Cody held out his hand. Ken shook it.

"Thanks Cody, you don’t know how much that means to me" said ken. Cody then walked away.
"See ken. I knew this would work out. It took me a while to realize it but, I no longer think of you as the Kaiser" said Yolei.
"Kaiser? Now I’m known as the Kaiser?"
"The name is just easier to say" shrugged Yolei. Ken nodded. With one last kiss on the cheek, Yolei leaned herself against ken.
Chapter 7

Ken sighed as he drummed his fingers on the desk. The one thing he didn’t like about not being the Kaiser anymore ( he started referring his old
self as Kaiser instead of emperor due to Yolei calling him that) He was no longer a super genius. He was still smart, but not super smart. Now
he had to actually look at his work in school to get it done. Before he just did it, no thinking was necessary.
He sighed. He was currently in math.
He and Yolei had been going out for three weeks now. His hair was completely back to its normal length. The cancer he had didn’t bother him
much anymore, although there were times when he was dizzy and had problems breathing or catching his breath. The doctor said that was normal though. There was also something else that really bothered Ken.
He had no friends at school.
Everyone avoided him because he disappeared for two months. Everyone thought he had been kidnapped and were afraid that if they became too friendly with him, they would disappear too. None of them knew where he really was those two months and Ken wanted to
keep things that way. Not even his own parents knew.
He was lonely at school. He had no one to talk to. The only people who did talk to him were people who wanted to copy his homework.
Or teachers. But they didn’t count.
So later that night, Ken decided to talk to his parents.

"Okay! Tonight we are having chicken ptarmigan! Everyone hungry?" asked Mrs. Ichijouji. Ken and his dad nodded as they sat at the table.
Ken made a mental note to save some food from his plate to give to Wormmon every time he had a meal. The poor Digimon was always hungry and it was hard for him to find food in the house alone.
It wasn’t until they were about done with dinner did Ken decided to speak.
"Mom? Dad?" began Ken.
"Yes son?" his parents replied.
"Would it be possible for me to transfer to Odaiba Middle School?"
There was silence.
"But Ken honey, I thought you were happy at your school" crooned Mrs. Ichijouji.
"Yeah son. You can’t go to Odaiba now. You’re going to one of the best schools. All the guys at work are jealous because-"
Mr. Ichijouji cut himself off and sweat dropped. "Sorry son. I was doing that again. Thinking about the fame and not about you."
"Yes. He’s right. That’s fine sweetheart. Whatever makes you happy. But why Odaiba? That’s clear across the river" asked Ken’s mom.
"Because...all of my friends go there. Along with Yolei. And....I really don’t have all that many friends at the school I’m going to now" answered Ken truthfully. Mr. and Mrs. Ichijouji smiled.

Yolei sighed. It had been three days since she had last heard from ken. He didn’t call her Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, which was very odd.
She didn’t like the thought that Ken might be mad at her for some reason, or that he was sick, or anything.
She sighed as she sat down in her homeroom next to Kari.
Kari looked over at her friend and said, "Don’t worry Yolei. I’m sure Ken will call sometime." Yolei nodded but didn’t believe it.
That was when their teacher, Mrs. Pasitano walked in.
"Hello class!" she greeted happily. "We have a new student with us today!"
Yolei groaned. She didn’t care about some new student, she cared about Ken! She listened anyway, her eyes closed. She heard Kari gasp but ignored her. She probably just thought the new kid was cute or something.
"We are very honored to have the great child prodigy come to our school. Ken Ichijouji!" finished Mrs. Pasitano.
Yolei’s eyes went wide. ‘What?’ she screamed in her head. She looked at the front of the class and there stood Ken.
He was blushing and looked like a shy little puppy. He waited silently for the teacher to tell him where to sit.
Yolei could here Davis two rows behind her whoop with joy when the teacher told Ken to sit next to him.
"Hey Ken! What are you doing here?" she could here Davis ask.
"I transferred schools so I could be with you guys" She heard Ken answer.
"Great!" said Davis.
Ken nodded and that was when Mrs. Pasitano began class.

Yolei currently had her arms around Ken’s left arm, making him blush slightly as students watched them walk down the hallway.
She couldn’t have been happier. Now she could see Ken all day every day!
"Yolei, you’re cutting off my arms circulation!" laughed Ken, giving Yolei a kiss on the cheek to make her let go.
Yolei reluctantly let go, however, she grabbed Ken’s hand.

"Do people stare a lot here at Odaiba?" asked Ken out of the corner of his mouth. He noticed that ever since he first stepped into the school, people were staring at him. Some even forgot what they were doing and walked into one another or dropped whatever they were holding.
Yolei looked around herself and saw that they were being stared at. She followed some of the student’s glances and saw that they weren’t
looking at the two of them, they were looking at Ken and Ken alone.

Ken was just like everyone else, only, not knowing what else to wear, Ken wore his Tamachi uniform. He’d never asked Yolei or any of the others if they wore uniforms at school, so he decided just to wear his old one. As it turned out, they didn’t, and now Ken looked a little out of place.
Yolei smiled. "It’s because you’re you" she said, leaning in on him.
Ken raised an eyebrow, making Yolei laugh.

"What I mean is, you’re Ken Ichijouji. The child prodigy. Everyone is just amazed that your here at our average normal school and not at smart, enriched Tamachi" Yolei explained. Ken nodded.
That was when they reached Yolei’s locker, which, Ken noticed, was right next to everybody else’s. Kari’s locker was beside Yolei’s. Then TK, the Cody. Davis was on Yolei’s right.
"Aww...Bummer...Davis, why did you have to have your locker beside mine?" Yolei began to whine. Davis looked over from grabbing his book and smiled, seeing Ken.
"Sorry Yolei, but the empty locker is beside mine, not yours!" jeered Davis. Yolei growled under breath.
"Its okay Yolei. At least we are still close to each other" came Ken’s calm reply. Yolei stopped glaring daggers at Davis at Ken.
Ken turned to the empty locker and got out the lock the principal gave him this morning. He opened it and started putting his things inside.
His book bag was already sitting on one of the many hooks when something wiggled inside.
"Um...Ken. You’re book bag is alive. Was it alive when it was on your shoulders a few seconds ago?" asked Yolei stupidly.
"No..." whispered Ken. He grabbed the bag and unzipped it. Out came the large green bug known as Wormmon.
"Wormmon? What are you doing in my book bag?" asked Ken.

Wormmon took a few seconds to breath in large gulps of fresh air before answering.
"Well, I was wondering what the big commotion about changing schools was about so I hitched a ride to find out" he answered.
"Aww" cooed Kari from behind. "That’s so sweet."

"Upamon and the other Digimon play in the computer room all day while we’re here. Perhaps you could stay with them all day" offered Cody to
Ken’s surprise. Ken saw his chance to be friendly with Cody and took it.
"That’s a great idea Cody. Thank you" said Ken gratefully. Cody nodded and gave a ghost of a smile.
"Say, I’m on my way be the computer room. I’ll sneak him in before my next class" offered TK. With that said, Ken handed Wormmon over to TK and with Yolei glued to his side, he walked to his next class.


Ken tiredly walked into his room later that day. He had just gotten back from school and he was exhausted. More exhausted than usual. Wormmon was struggling to get back out of his bag. He had spent the whole day with the other Digimon and was happy when Ken came
to get him. But he was now sleepy and hopped onto Ken’s bed and curled into a tight cute ball. Ken smiled.
Ken stretched and pulled off his shirt and pants and changed into his pajamas. He slipped his slippers on and walked out to the living room.
His mother was humming to herself in the kitchen while his father watched TV. He was about to sit down and read a book when pain suddenly clouded his mind. Grabbing his chest, Ken fell to the floor.
"Ken, you okay? Son?" asked his father, seeing that his son fell. Ken nodded in pain, gasping for breath. These little fits had been happening ever since his cancer. But this was the first time it was ever this bad.
"Ken, honey! Oh Ken!" cried Mrs. Ichijouji when she heard the commotion. She ran to him and held him close.
That was when the pain began to subside and Ken was finally able to catch his breath. His parents sighed with relief when Ken was able to sit up.
"Here son, I’ll carry you to your room where you can sleep" whispered Mr. Ichijouji, and with that he lifted Ken and walked
him into his room, where he set Ken on his bed.

Ken pushed Wormmon out of view as he climbed under covers. He received a kiss from both of his parents and was left alone.
After several moments, Wormmon broke the silence. "Ken? What happened?"
"Its nothing my friend. I just lost my breath and had a little chest pain. Nothing you should worry about" Ken replied, soothing his partner's worries.
"I hope you’re right Ken" shivered Wormmon.

The next morning Ken was pale and weak. His parents didn’t know what to do. So they called a doctor......
"What’s wrong with him?" asked his mother reverently. She was wringing her hands together.
Ken was currently asleep, heaving in and out deep breaths. His eyes were shut tightly in pain. His one hand clutching his pajama shirt over his chest.
The doctor looked over at Mrs. Ichijouji, trying to show some hope in his eyes. He ran a hand through his short brown hair and sighed.
"There doesn’t seem to be any signs of the cancer left, he has no signs for it. I believe this is just the after effects. I’ll look over his papers and files and we’ll just keep an eye on him alright?" said the doctor.
Mr. and Mrs. Ichijouji both nodded, not entirely convinced.
They watched as the doctor left and once he did, they looked over Ken one last time. His mother gave him a kiss on the forehead while
his father squeezed his hand before they left the room.

There was silence for several minutes in the room until a ruffle of sheets could be heard.
Wormmon poked his head out of the blankets to make sure the coast was clear. He then looked up at worriedly.
He scrambled up towards Ken’s face and slowly tried to wake his ill partner.
"Ken..." he whimpered. "Ken....please wake up..."
Ken groaned and his eyes slit open. "W-Wormmon?"

"I’m here Ken. And the doctor person was here. He said that you don’t seem to have any signs of that cancer stuff. He says this is just some of the after effects and that they’ll keep an eye on you" reported the worm.
Ken nodded, half asleep. "Call Yolei on my D-3. Tell her I’m not feeling well and that I’d like her to come over and cheer me up. Okay?"
Wormmon nodded, and being the obedient digimon that he was, he went right to it. He jumped off the bed, and up onto Ken’s desktop, where he found Ken’s D-3 underneath his digivice.
He opened it up after taking the digivice off it and started typing the best way he could. Ken had started teaching him how to spell,
but he still wasn’t all that great.
‘Yolie, pleese come as soon as posible. Ken is sic. He wants u to cheer him up. he mises u. - Wormmon
Wormmon sent the message, praying Yolei would get it and understand the message.

Yolei stretched and yawned as she walked into her room. She looked over at her bed and found Poromon gobbling up a small bag of chocolate she had hidden from her sisters earlier that morning.
"Hey!" cried Yolei. Poromon looked up, chocolate all over his face.
"What?" asked the little bird digimon innocently.
"That was MY chocolate!" cried Yolei, with that she went for Poromon and attacked him by grabbed him and holding him close, giving him a squeeze.
"I’m sorry Yolei!" cried Poromon in distress.

"Sorry? Why are you sorry? I was just teaching you a lesson for not sharing it with me!" laughed Yolei.
Poromon giggled and the two of them continued eating the chocolate. That was when Yolei heard a beep.
She looked around the room, trying to find the source of where the beep was coming from and found that it was her D-terminal.
She got up from her bed and reached for it. She opened it up and there it said she had a text message......from Wormmon?
She opened up the file and read the message. Yolei kept herself from gasping, not wanting to worry Poromon, who was still gobbling away on the chocolate.
Ken was ill. Oh poor Ken. She smiled though. He wanted her to cheer him up. He missed her. How sweet.
"Poromon, you can have the rest of that chocolate" said Yolei, standing.
"I can?"
"Yeah, I’ll be back later. I’m going over to Ken’s."

The doorbell rang at the Ichijouji house and Mrs. Ichijouji went to answer it.
Yolei stood happily on the side of the door, a container filled with hot noodle soup, vegetables and rice in her hands.
"Hello Mrs. Ichijouji!" greeted Yolei happily. Mrs. Ichijouji only looked at her, not knowing what there was to be so cheerful about.
"I brought Ken some food and came here to cheer him up!"
Mrs. Ichijouji tiredly nodded and let Yolei in. She hadn’t slept in days for all the worrying over Ken.
Yolei knew where she was going. She headed straight to ken’s room at the end of the hall and knocked.
"No more medicine!" came the of Ken. He sounded exhausted and furious at the same time. Yolei let herself in.
"Ken? It’s me Yolei.....I don’t have any medicine with me" she called into the darkened room.
Ken shifted in his bed so that he was facing Yolei. he smiled. His face was flushed with a slight fever and was covered in a thin layer of sweat.
He sat up on at least twenty pillows that were all over his bed and made room for Yolei to come up.
Setting the food up on the bed, Yolei climbed up and made herself comfortable. "I got Wormmon’s message. You missed me huh?"
Ken nodded. "Yeah" his said, his voice croaking. "Its not contagious, what I have, otherwise I wouldn’t have invited you here."
Yolei only smiled as she started to open the container of food. "Well, I brought your favorite rice, and some chicken noodle soup to have . And also some steamed vegetables. I know you don’t really like them that much, but I kinda brought em’ for me" she said sweat dropping.
Ken laughed a bit and started digging into his small bowl of soup.

The two talked, or Yolei did anyways. Wormmon munched on some veggies and had a few rice balls. Ken ate his soup, which soothed his aching throat and chest. Yolei made him smile and laugh, something he hadn’t done in a while. It gave him strength and his head became
less dizzy and dazed. His nose cleared and was soon runny from the soup.
After returning with some tissues, Yolei asked, "So ken, when do you think you’ll get better?"
"The doctor doesn’t really know what’s wrong with me, but he said this is probably just some aftereffects. Due to the cancer my body wasn’t fighting off as many infections and colds as it should have, making me get sick" replied Ken. Yolei nodded.
"Well, I just wanted to stop by and give you this, visit you, and cheep you up" said Yolei.
"Thanks Yolei" whispered Ken. He gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I am feeling a whole lot better."
Monday morning. Ken took in a deep breath as he stepped off the early bird train to Odaiba. Over the weekend he had slowly gotten better. he smiled. He should have known he would have gotten better. Yolei had cheered him up Saturday afternoon and Sunday he spent in
bed regaining his strength. There was only one thing that was bad about all this. Or at least, for Yolei.

"Achooooo!" she sneezed loudly. Ken sighed as he sat a few rows back beside Davis. They were currently in Language Arts and poor
Yolei was suffering from a nasty head cold. Her throat was scratchy, nose tingly and runny and stuffed up and she was always sneezing!
Her head was dazed and dizzy and she couldn’t think straight.

Ken knew she had gotten it from when he had kissed her the other night. He really didn’t think it was that contagious. So, therefore, being the bearer of Kindness, he felt guilty.
Though he had no choice to stay a good distance away from her since his immune system was off. ‘Stupid cancer!’ thought Ken bitterly.
The class seemed to be a blur for everyone. After class however, Ken had an idea.

As they walked down the hallway and on their way down to the computer room to pick up their digimon, Ken pulled Yolei back from
the others and had her walk slower with him.
"What is it Ken?" asked Yolei, making sure not to breath on him.
"Do you have instant e-mail?" he asked. Yolei was about to answer but Ken cut her off. "Besides your D-3."
Yolei still nodded. "Yeah, why?"
"Well, since your sick, I thought maybe we could talk by e-mail" he suggested.
"Okay!" said Yolei, ecstatic at the idea.
"We’ll have to contact each other somehow, but here’s my e-mail nickname for it" said Ken, writing it down on a handy piece of paper.
"Alright then!" said Yolei.

Ken sat down at his computer, Wormmon fast asleep inches away. He turned it on and waited. When it was ready he got e-mail up and waited for
Yolei to start talking. He didn’t know her nickname and couldn’t contact her.
E-Mail Talk

EricaX - Ken? You there?
Breezyhope - Yes.
EricaX - Your name’s Breezyhope? Why?
Breezyhope - Well, when I was still got a lot of fan mail and stuff, a fan e-mailed me under this name. How she got it is beyond me.
I had to change my e-mail, cause then everyone would it. So I put it under her old name.
EricaX - Oh.
Breezyhope - So why EricaX
EricaX - I don’t know. I wanted something different and I didn’t want to use the name Yolei. So I guess I just liked the sound of it.
Breezyhope - I like it.
EricaX - I like your better.
Breezyhope - So what do you want to talk about?
EricaX - I don’t really know. Maybe we could talk about what we are going to do about Arukenimon.
Several minutes go by without a reply from Ken.
Breezyhope - Sorry, she just makes me so mad. She was the one who made me become the emperor.
EricaX - I know. But we have to stop her somehow.
Breezyhope - Please, lets not talk about her.
EricaX - Alright, we won’t.
Breezyhope - Feeling any better?
EricaX - No.
Breezyhope - I’m sorry.
EricaX - Its okay. Not your fault.
Breezyhope - Yes. Yes it is my fault, I was the one who just had to kiss you the other night when I knew very well that I was sick.
EricaX - But you didn’t know you were contagious.
Breezyhope - I should have known.
Neither of them type for several minutes.
EricaX - Are you guys going to go to the Digital World tomorrow?
Breezyhope - Yeah.
EricaX - Could you do me a favor and take Poromon with you. He’s getting homesick and tired. he’s needs to regain his strength.
Breezyhope - Sure.
EricaX - thanks. Well, I had better go. See you tomorrow.
Breezyhope - Goodnight Yolei. Love you.
EricaX - Love you too Ken.

End of E-mail talking.
Ken sighed as he walked with the others in the digital world. he noticed that the moment they walked into the Digi Town the others suddenly
separated themselves away from Ken. He wondered why.
Yolei, being the only one who was close to him noticed too, and whispered into ken’s ear, "Doesn’t this place look familiar to you at all?"
It had been a week since Yolei had been sick, so it was safe for them to be close.
Ken shook his head, wracking his brain to try and remember. Everything from his emperor days were fuzzy and blurry. he couldn’t remember anything. All he could remember was the beatings and cruelty towards everyone and Wormmon. He couldn’t remember any places,
battle strategies.....anything that was important. He looked down at the little digimon in question and gave him a reproaching look.
"Trust me Ken, you don’t want to remember" said the critter with sad eyes. Ken sighed. Yolei hugged him arm and decided that perhaps it would be best if she told him so that he knew why the others were acting the way they were.
"Ken, this is one of the many towns you destroyed with the help of Kimeramon. You destroyed all these homes" she said sadly.
Ken looked around at him in wide eyed shock. he had known that he had done damage to the digital world, but this kind of damage.
Buildings were in ruins. What looked to be stores and houses wrecked. Destruction everywhere. And it was all caused by him.
He pulled away from Yolei and hugged Wormmon, who was in his arms, tighter.
"Ken..."whined Yolei.
Ken shook his head, making Yolei know that he wanted to alone.
Davis, who was in the lead, stopped in the middle of the digi town and turned around, facing everyone.
"Okay you guys, you know what to do. Let’s make this place back to the way it was!" he said in an all too cheery voice.
"Before I came and ruined everything" mumbled Ken. Even though he mumbled, everyone heard. They looked at him but said nothing.
"Look Ken, we know you’re sorry. You can’t change what’s in the past, but-" Ken cut him off.
"But you can change what’s in your future. I know. Wormmon here has said that a million times" Ken said, trying to laugh.
He hugged Wormmon one last time before letting him on the ground.
"Ready Wormmon?" he asked, getting out his black digivice.
"I was born ready" replied Wormmon triumphantly.
"Wormmon digivolve to........Stingmon!"
Moments later, everyone else’s digimon had digivolved and were ready to get to work.
It was about two hours later that things started to heat up.
Cody and Ken were currently both working on a small store that was crushed in. The two were silent, never saying a word.
Ken was painting the door out on the road and Cody was painting the railing of the door while Digmon and Stingmon worked inside.
"Hold it Stingmon!" he heard Digmon cry. Cody looked into the store and saw that they were trying to get a beam that had fallen back into place.
Cody looked back at Ken and saw that he was busy painting. He got back to work. Ten minutes later, Ken ran out paint. He stood up and walked over to Cody.
"Cody, I’ve run out of red paint, do you know where’s there’s anymore?" he asked innocently.
Cody nodded. "Yeah, its inside on the other side of where Digmon and Pingmon are working."
Ken nodded. He was about to go in when he turned back to Cody. "His name is Stingmon, not Pingmon. Just in case you didn’t know" he said.
"I knew" snapped Cody curtly.
"Then why did you call him Pingmon?" asked Ken, ignoring Cody’s resentful glances at him.
Cody didn’t reply, so Ken walked in to get the paint. Stingmon and Digmon were still trying to get the beam to stay into place.
"Excuse me" called Ken as he ducked under them.
Ken found the paint sitting on a block of wood. He grabbed it, made sure it was the right color and started making his way back.
Ken was about to walk underneath them when he heard Cody call out.
"Digmon, help!" he called.
Digmon, worrying about his partner, let go of his part of the beam, making Stingmon hold the whole beam. "Wait!" he called.
Ken, who was already underneath the beam, didn’t have time to even react when the beam came crumbling down on him.
"Aww!" he cried. Ken landed on his stomach, the heavy beam on top of his back. He fell unconscious.
"KEN!" cried Stingmon. With all his strength, Stingmon was able to move the beam off ken. The giant bug scooped his partner into his arms to see if he was alright. He cradled Ken his strong green arms, wondering if he would be okay. That was when the anger settled in. Stingmon looked up and saw Digmon and Cody outside. It looked as though
Cody had stupidly stepped into some quick drying cement without realizing it. Digmon was currently trying to break him free with his
"Rock Cracking" attack.
Cody was free by the time Stingmon said anything.
"Look at what you did" he hissed at the two.
Digmon and Cody looked up to see a seething Stingmon holding a knocked out Ken.
"What happened?" asked Cody.
"You two is what happened" snapped the bug. "When you left me in charge of the beam it made me drop it and making crash down on Ken!"
"Well don’t blame me for your mistake" Digmon retaliated.
"My fault? It was yours! You just had to leave me in charge to see Cody" replied Stingmon.
"Yeah, cause he was in trouble. You’d have done the same thing if things were the other way around" snapped Digmon.
Stingmon just glared at the pair for a moment, and then flew off.
He had to get away from the two of them. Just thinking about Digmon and Cody made him sick.
He laid Ken down on the ground next to a tree a ways off. he looked around. Davis and Yolei were not very far off, and neither were Kari and TK.
Stingmon decided that Davis and Yolei would be the best two to help. They knew Ken better than the rest.
He flew over towards them, leaving Ken alone.
"Yolei?" he asked timidly. Yolei, who had been hammering, looked up and saw Stingmon.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"It’s Ken" was all the digimon had to say.
"W-What happened to him? Is he okay?" she asked frantically.
"I don’t know. I was hoping you could tell me. Come on" he said, and with that showed Yolei the way, Davis, who had been listening, followed.
"Something happened. A beam came down on him when Digmon and I were working. Cody called for Digmon’s help when he and I were putting the beam up and I dropped it, and now Ken’s unconscious. The beam had fallen on top of Ken" explained Stingmon.
Davis and Yolei gasped. "You think he’s going to be okay?" asked Davis.
Stingmon shrugged. "I don’t know."
When they reached the tree ken wasn’t there.
"ken?" called his digimon. "ken? Where are you?"
"Right here Stingmon" came Ken’s voice. He voice was filled with moaning pain.
The three looked around the tree to see ken lying there. His eyes were closed. "What happened to me?"
"A beam fell over you" answered Stingmon. Seconds later Stingmon de-digivolved to little Wormmon, who crawled onto Ken’s lap.
Ken, surprised, pushed him off.
"Sorry! S’just that my chest and back hurt. Hard to breath" whispered Ken.
Yolei and Davis kneeled next to Ken and looked him over.
"You should see a doctor man" suggested Davis.
"yeah" Yolei agreed.
"Okay. I’ll just go home. The doctor was supposed to come and check on me anyway. I’ll say I tripped down the steps at school today" replied ken, trying to stand. With the help of Davis and Yolei, Ken was able to stand.
That was when Cody walked up.
Yolei saw him and scowled.
"Cody!" she yelled.
"What?" he asked. He ignored Ken and Wormmon completely.
"Because of you and your stupid Digimon, Ken may now have a broken rib and is having problems breathing!" cried Yolei.
Cody looked over at ken, who was still trying to gain his balance on standing.
"That wasn't my fault" he said quietly. This only made Yolei more mad.
"YES IT WAS! I’m blaming you Cody Hida! Now get away from me and Ken!"
"Yolei, please calm down..." begged Ken. He tried walking over to them but lost his breath. He grabbed his chest in pain and tried
taking deep breaths. He winced.
"Like I said, it wasn’t my fault Ken was the emperor" began Cody, not really knowing what he was saying due to all his anger towards Yolei. "I wouldn’t have planned to get my foot stuck in the cement if it wasn’t for him!" Cody put his hands over his mouth in shock from what he just said, his eyes wide.
"You planned this!?" demanded Wormmon. "You planned for Ken to get hurt!?"
"Not get hurt like that! It’s just....I HATE YOU KEN! You’re not one of us! The others may think and say so but I never will!
No matter what you do, you’ll always be the Digimon Kaiser in my eyes!" Cody screamed, he then picked up Armidillomon and left.
Yolei growled, balling her fists in anger as she watched Cody leave. "Ohh....If I could jut get me hands on that guy..."
A hand grabbed her by the arm and she looked back. Ken was smiling at her. He gave her a kiss on the cheek before speaking.
"Forget about him Yolei. There’s nothing we can do to make him like me, like he said. I’m tired and in pain and I just want to go home"
ken turned to Davis. "You guys can keep working, but I’m going home. The doctor wanted to see me today anyway. Tell Kari and TK what happened. Later."
"I’m going home with you Ken, I’m not letting you out my sights" said Yolei, kissing him back.
"That’s right Ken. Yolei and I will take care of you. Along with Wormmon" said little Hawkmon, tugging on ken’s pant leg. Ken smiled and picked Hawkmon up.
"Thank you" he mumbled. Wormmon crawled up to Ken’s shoulder as they walked off to go home to the real world. Hawkmon in Ken’s hands, Wormmon on his shoulder, and Ken’s arm wrapped around Yolei.

"Well, we seem to have a fractured rib" said the brown haired doctor an hour later. Ken sighed. He knew it. He could tell by the sound of his breathing.
"Ken honey, how did you do that?" asked his mother. Ken looked at his mother straight in the eyes. He was currently on his bed.
He hated lying to his parents, but he just couldn’t bare to tell them about the digital world. Not after what he had done as the emperor.
It would break their hearts.
ken took a gulp and answered. "I fell down the stairs at school. Someone tripped me. His name was Cody, he doesn’t like me very much."
Well it wasn’t a complete lie. This was Cody’s fault.
"well, you’ll just have to be more careful next time son" said Mr. Ichijouji, giving his son a pat on the back. Ken winced in pain. "sorry!"
ken smiled. His parents loved him so much, he didn’t understand how he couldn’t have seen their love before.


Ken watched silently as Yolei and Davis fought over a doughnut. He watched back and forth as the two of them fought and made themselves look like complete idiots in front of the entire lunch room of Odaiba school.
Yolei had wanted the doughnut first, however, Davis, being Davis, said that it was he who had wanted it first, and so the fight began.
"It’s mine!" cried Yolei. The two fought over it and Ken hated to see them fighting. His chest still hurting from the day before, he carefully reached between the two of them, grabbed the doughnut with a small yank and took a large bite of it as he sat back down into his seat.
Slowly, Davis and Yolei turn to glare at him, sweat dropping. Ken only smiled what they called his ‘poker smile‘. It had been the first time
Ken had genuinely smiled. It was at Christmas a week ago.
Ken swallowed and laughed. "Sorry, but it didn’t look as though it was going to be eaten anytime soon the way you two were going."
Davis sighed and grabbed an apple out of his lunch sack. He scowled. "Great, Ken gets to eat a doughnut while I’m stuck with an apple."
Yolei did the same. "Ohh, strawberries!"
That was when Kari and TK walked up and sat down at the table.
"Has anyone seen Cody?" asked Kari.
Ken looked up at the ceiling while Yolei scowled at the name.
"What?" asked TK.
"You didn't tell them Davis?" asked Ken. Suddenly everyone’s attention was on Davis, who sweat dropped.
"Well, no. I was kinda busy doing other things, like helping rebuilding’ the Digi world!" Davis retaliated.
"What? What happened?" asked Kari, concerned.
Davis explained to the two of them what had happened the day before. By the end, Kari and TK understood why Yolei and ken had acted the way they did at the sound of Cody’s name.
"I’m sure he didn’t really mean it" reasoned Kari. TK nodded.
"What are you talking about? Cody said so himself it was his idea and he meant to do it" argued Yolei. She would have continued, but the sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted her. They all turned around to see Cody, holding his tray of food.
"See" he hissed. "Before Ken came around, none of this would ever have happened. This is why I hate you Ken, you cause problems!" and with that he took his tray and dumped it on top of ken’s head. mashed potatoes dripped down Ken’s face, along with green beans, peaches and chocolate milk.
"Nice" mumbled ken sarcastically.

Ken walked into his room later that night after he had finished his homework. He had a lot on his mind right now. He wanted to be friends with the digidestines, but it was clear that if he continued to be friends, there would only be more problems. So there was only one thing for him to do.
Breezyhope: Yolei, I know your offline right now, but I have to tell you this......I think you and I need to break up.

Ken didn’t press the send button, but he didn’t delete it either.
The tension between everyone didn’t lessen any in the slightest. Ken and Yolei could only see each other when they were by themselves, when Cody was around, he couldn’t. Ken always walked away, he head down low, ashamed. He took what Cody said about him making problems seriously and he didn’t dare look at any of them, save for Yolei, in the face.
‘What I am going to do?’ he was thinking to himself. He sat on his bed in his bedroom, holding Wormmon in his lap, who was half
asleep. The only thing that was keeping the little critter up was that he knew Ken was distressed.
Wormmon looked up at his partner with worry. ‘
"ken?" he asked. Ken didn’t reply. "Ken?" asked Wormmon, only this time slightly louder. He couldn’t yell, a). because he didn't want to, and b.)
ken’s parent’s may hear him and attract attention.
Ken finally looked down and asked, "What?"
"Are you okay? I know you’re stressed. I’ve always been able to tell, even when you were the emperor. It’s your eyes that give you away. That’s why you wore those silly sunglasses."
"Yeah, well, now I don’t have them to hide behind, so now what do I do?" asked Ken. Wormmon shook his head. He nuzzled his head against Ken’s arm.
"You don’t have to hide Ken. Just tell them how you feel. If they really are your friends, they’ll help you feel better. Or at least Yolei will" said the worm. Ken nodded and smiled at the thought.
Tonight was their one month anniversary and there wasn’t anything that was going to get in his way of showing her a good time. Even if it meant he had to swallow all his emotions. He would do it for her. But Yolei wasn’t available until around 5:00, because she had to
work in her dad’s store, and it was only 11:00 on a Saturday. He sighed, and laid back on his pillow.
Wormmon hopped onto his stomach and curled up into a ball, ready for sleep.
"Hey!" teased Ken. "Who exactly told you that I was your official pillow?"
"I did" yawned Wormmon. Ken laughed at this and scratched behind Wormmon’s antennas.
"Well then, sleep away" said Ken, yawning himself. "Hmm. Now you’re making me sleepy!"
"Sorry" mumbled the worm.
"Its alright. I suppose a nap wouldn’t hurt" sighed Ken, closing his eyes. He rubbed Wormmon’s back and when he fell asleep, his hand slid down and landed on one of Wormmon’s many pinchers.
Wormmon, who was sleeping, woke up with a start at this, and panicked a little. He looked down to see Ken’s hand next to him.
He looked up at Ken to see that he had fallen asleep.
He shivered as an image of Ken as the Kaiser flashed through his mind.
He remembered that memory very well. The day Ken hurt his right front pincher.

Flashback

Wormmon gulped as he walked into the dark chamber. Ken was at his control module, sneering at the screens as he typed with great speed.
He was working on his "project" again.
‘Whatever that is’ thought Wormmon.
He bravely crawled his way over next to Ken’s chair and looked up at him. Ken was too busy with his work to even notice the digimon sitting there staring at him. ‘Why won’t he ever pay any attention to me?’
Wormmon just sat there, content that he was in Ken’s presence without being hit or yelled at. He closed his eyes and thought about the little boy he used to love. The boy who used to come to the digital world to play with him. Cuddle and hug him. And make promises to him, that he would always come back.
Wormmon’s peace was interrupted by a loud grumbling sound coming from his stomach. It had been days since Ken let him eat. Usually he would just go to the kitchens and get something, but now that Ken was living in the digital world permanently, that was not an option. He blushed and looked up at Ken, frightened.
Ken froze. For several minutes he sat there, listening. Wormmon’s stomach growled again and Ken finally moved. He turned his head to look down at the little critter, his face full of distaste.
"Quiet Worm! Or I’ll get out my whip!" Ken threatened. Wormmon cringed at the thought.
"I-I-I’m s-sorry K-Ken, I-" stuttered Wormmon.
Ken whipped out his whip from what seemed to be nowhere and before Wormmon could react, he whipped him. "Don’t call me KEN!"
Wormmon moaned in pain. The whip had hit his front right pincher, making it bleed. Ken saw this.
"Oh boo hoo" he sneered. "What’s the matter? Did I hurt you? I‘m so sorry." His voice was dripped heavily with sarcasm.
Wormmon just whimpered as Ken continued to sneer at him. "What a worthless bug you are. You can’t even do anything right.
You’re a terrible partner. I’m disgraced to even know you."
Wormmon’s stomach grumbled again.
"Would you stop doing that?" demanded Ken.
"I-I c-can’t help it. I’m s-starving" whimpered Wormmon.
Ken didn’t say anything at this. He only turned back to his screens and started typing, ignoring the digimon completely.
Wormmon sighed with relief. he wasn’t going to be whipped again. Wormmon was about to leave when, "Wormmon!" Ken called.
"Before you go. I have something for you."
Wormmon perked up at this thought. ‘What could Ken possibly have for me?’ he wondered. He walked slowly up to Ken, his pincher in spasms.
"Y-Yes?" asked Wormmon.
Crack!
Ken smiled as he looked at his whip. "The perfect tool to punish unwanted pests."
"Hahahahahahahaha!"
Ken laughed like a maniac for several moments, then fell silent, typing again.

End Flashback

Wormmon shivered one last time, and then flinched when a hand touched him on the head. Wormmon looked at Ken to see that he was still asleep, but he was slowly petting him. His hands as gentle as gentle could get. He smiled. This wasn’t the Kaiser. This was his Ken-Chan.
The boy he once loved.
Wormmon smiled when he remembered the first time he had ever met Ken.

Flashback

Bored, lonely, and friendless, Wormmon walked through the small forest that was next to the Digi Dessert. He was lonely, had no friends and yet was happy. he knew he was waiting for something. Anything, and he would find his friend.
Wormmon continued walking when there was a great flash in the air. Wormmon looked up only to be crushed under a body.
The body lay still for a moment and then got up. Wormmon heard a gasp before he opened his eyes and someone asked him, "Who are you?"
He opened his eyes to see a human.
‘A Digidestined!’ though the worm. Every digimon knew about the great digidestined. And when Wormmon saw the black device in
his hand, he knew he was right.
He bowed and introduced himself. "I’m Wormmon. A digimon."
"Digimon?" asked the little boy. he didn’t look any older than eight.
Wormmon nodded. "What’s your name?"
"Kenneth. But please call me Ken. I like it better" was the reply.
Wormmon nodded, taking it all in. "So your name is Kenneth, but you want me to call you Ken? Why?"
Ken nodded. "Ken is short for Kenneth, and I said I like it better."
Wormmon nodded. "Well its a pleasure to meet you Ken. I’m a your digimon partner."
"So does that mean you’ll be friends with me?" asked Ken timidly.
"Of course! We’re inseparable!" cried Wormmon. Ken laughed at this and picked up the little critter.
"Wormmon" he mumbled, giving him a tight hug.
Wormmon was celebrating inside. He had finally found his friend. A boy with short blue hair and a kind smile. Ken was so gentle and lonely, just like him.

End Flashback

Wormmon smiled and crawled up to Ken’s chest and curled up to fall asleep. His Ken-Chan.
Ken glanced at his watch for what seemed to be the twentieth time in the last five minutes. He was nervous. He had awoken from his nap with Wormmon an hour and a half ago, and now he was getting ready to go out with Yolei.
Ken looked into the mirror once more to run the brush through his hair. He was so glad that his hair had grown back quickly. The press had not made the experience fun.
He wanted to make this night special, not only for him, but for Yolei. He put the brush down and looked at the clock. It was time.
It would take a half hour to get to her house, which was where they were going to meet. His parents had agreed to drop them off at the mall, where there was a Italian restaurant. His parents would go shopping while they were eating and then take them home.
"Mamma!" he called. "It’s time to go."
Mrs. Ichijouji stuck her head through the door to his room. "Oh, its time already?" Ken nodded. "Well then, let’s get going."


Ken nervously knocked on the door to the Inoue apartment a half hour later. his hands were trembling, and he shook even more
when he heard someone coming to answer the door. His parents had stayed in the car, to the relief of Ken, he didn’t want his parents
embarrassing him, even when he knew they wouldn’t.
The door slid open, and there stood Yolei. She was wearing a pretty short sleeved dress with a gold chain necklace, her hair brushed back neatly behind the ears.
Ken blushed and looked down at the ground. He must have looked like an idiot compared to her.
"H-Hi Yolei. Are you ready to go?" he asked.
"Yeah, whenever you are" she answered. She turned around and called, "Mom! I’m leaving! Later!"
"Bye Yolei!" called someone from inside.
Ken gulped as she turned back around. "Ready?" he asked.
"yeah, whenever you are" replied Yolei.
"Great. My parents are out in the car waiting."

Sitting down, Ken and Yolei picked up the menus and started looking through it.
Ken looked up at Yolei and said, "Dinner is on me, by the way. So you can get whatever you want."
Yolei blushed. "Thanks Ken. You’re so sweet." With that she blew him a kiss, making him blush bright red.
"I think I may order the spaghetti, what about you Ken?" commented Yolei.
"I think I may too" was the reply. Yolei nodded. This was turning out to be a pretty good anniversary.
Things went really smooth. They talked and laughed and really enjoyed each other’s company.
"Okay......If you knew you were going to die what would be your last meal?" asked Yolei after they had eaten.
Ken laughed. "What kind of a question is that?"
"Just answer the question!" cried Yolei.
Ken paused for a moment, a wide grin on his face, as he thought about what he would have for his very last meal.
"Shrimp."
"Shrimp?"
"Yeah shrimp. It’s like the best food out there" answered Ken.
"Okay.....whatever" scoffed Yolei, rolling her eyes.
"Oh, okay, you wanna be that way huh?" The two paused for several minutes due to their laughter. "What food would you eat for your last meal?"
"Ice cream.....NO....chocolate cake......no!......carrot cake.....no!" stammered Yolei.
Ken was to the point where he was laughing so hard he could hardly breath. His face was all red. "You’ll noticed that there’s no vegetables or
anything that are actually good for you in there" wheezed Ken from his laughter.
Yolei went red as a cherry. "Hey! It’s not my fault all my favorite foods are bad for you!" she retaliated.
"I never said it was" Ken pointed out.
The two of them finally stopped laughing and silence ensued. Ken tapped his finger on the table while Yolei looked up at the ceiling.
"I once had a birdie named Enza" began Ken in a sing-along voice.
Yolei looked at him as though he were crazy and she could tell that he was trying his best not to smile or laugh.
"I opened up the window, and Influenza!" he finished.
Yolei just watched as Ken smiled to himself. He looked up and knew it was his cue to explain himself.
"I learned it from Sam before he died. I just now remembered" he explained. Yolei nodded. She knew talking about Sam was a touchy subject.
But the way Ken had joked with it was surprising.
Ken fiddled with his fork. "I usually don’t like to think of Sam, but recently, its been hard not to. When I was the emperor, I never thought of him
. But I think that was partly because the dark spore made me forget about him." Yolei nodded. She had no idea what Ken must have gone through.
Losing a brother. It was so sad.
Yet ken seemed to take it well. Except with the part that he blamed himself for Sam’s death, but Yolei would probably do the same thing if she had been in his position.
"It happened to everyone. Losing someone. I lost Sam, and then I almost lost Wormmon too. I’m just glad and lucky that digimon get reconfigured" he said.
Yolei nodded. She didn’t want to interrupt.
"And lately, I’ve been afraid of losing you" he concluded.
"What do you mean Ken?" asked Yolei, moving around in her seat.
"Well, you know things aren’t going so well with me and Cody. Heck, I think I still have some chocolate milk and corn stuck in my hair from when he
threw his lunch at me. And I know that things get any worse, the others will want to stop seeing me too. And then perhaps you may leave..."
"Ken!" Yolei cried out. "I’m not going to leave you. You’re the first person who has ever understood me." She grabbed his hand from the other side
of the table. "You don’t mind it when I ramble on and on about stupid stuff or about stuff I did as a kid. You listen. Nobody has ever taken me
seriously before you ken, and I thank you for that. That’s what I love about you."
Ken smiled. "Well, you are very interesting" Ken defended. Yolei laughed.
"I think its time we move this relationship up a notch" commented Yolei.
Ken smiled. "Yeah, but I have a curfew" joked Ken. Yolei laughed.
"Not that silly. This" and with that, Yolei stood and reached across the table to kiss Ken. Ken kissed back. When they broke apart, smiles whereon both their faces.
"That’s more like it" joked Ken again. They laughed.


TK sat down next to Ken Monday morning in the lunch room. Ken smiled and said hello.
"How are you TK?" he asked.
TK shrugged. "Not bad. You?"
"Great." was the simple yet happy reply. TK nodded.
"So....."
"Did you want to ask me something?"
"How did you-?"
"A guess."
"Well, its not really a question. I came here to tell you that Cody is no longer speaking to any of us, and we were wondering of maybe you
could make things a bit better between the two of you" said TK.
Ken looked at TK hard in the face, then nodded.
"I’ll see what I can do."
Sitting down on the train, Ken went through a black folder that he had found while he was doing homework last night and looking for a piece of paper to write on. It was a folder from when he was the Digimon Emperor and Ken was curious to know if there was anything in there
that might help them defeat Arukenimon and Mummymon.
he hadn’t had the time to check it out earlier because he had leave and catch the train, so he decided to check it out on the train. Wormmon was currently asleep in his book bag and he didn’t want to wake the little one up. The train was practically empty save for two girls who
were chattering away across from him, glancing looks at him and giggling.
‘Fans.....Go figure...’ though Ken.
Looking into the folder, he saw pages filled with notes, and every now and then he come upon a doodle of a control spire or dark ring.
He also saw near the back of the folder, a picture of what looked to be Kimeramon.
‘Wow.....I made that thing?’ Ken couldn’t help but ask himself. ‘What was I crazy?.......Yes.’
He sighed as he began to read them, but he was unable to get very far, for the two giggling girls decided to sit beside him, making him in the middle and unable to escape.
"Hey! You’re Ken Ichijouji aren’t you?" asked one of them.
"Unfortunately" mumbled Ken, who couldn’t help but blush. ‘You’re dating Yolei. You’re dating Yolei.’ He kept reminding himself.
He had to admit, they were pretty.
"See! I told you Erica!" sneered the long haired blonde.
"Yeah, well. I wasn’t sure! There area lot of look-alikes out there!" Erica defended. "Besides, I was the one who first suggested he was Ken, Breezy!"
"May I help you?" asked Ken.
The two girls looked at Ken and smiled.
"Sorry" Breezy apologized.
"We’re just big fans" said Erica.
"Well, its a pleasure to meet the both of you. Would you like m autograph? Most fans do" suggested Ken.
"Sure!" Breezy and Erica cried.
With that, Ken tore two pieces of paper off his old emperor notes and signed them. He made sure they had nothing on them first though.
Wouldn’t want them finding out about the Digital World.
Time didn’t go slow enough for Erica and Breezy for it was soon Ken’s stop, which to their disappointment, wasn’t theirs.
"See! I knew we should’ve told your mom to let us go to Odaiba! But no! We have to go to Kyoto!" seethed Erica as she hit Breezy in the arm once Ken got off!
"Hey! Its not my fault Ken gets off here!" snapped Breezy, hitting Erica back.
"We’re still friends though right?" asked Erica suddenly.
"Of course" mumbled Breezy.

Ken sighed. ‘Girls.....The only one I understand is Yolei.’ ken smiled at that thought, and went on his merry way.

Ken looked around the lunch room later that day to see that what TK had told him the day before was true. Cody wasn’t sitting with them.
He was actually sitting by himself near the back of the lunchroom, staring grumpily out the window.
Ken gulped and took a deep breath. carrying his tray, he glanced at Yolei, who gave him a worried look. He then walked over and sat down at the
table across from Cody.
Cody’s eyes widened and then narrowed when he saw Ken.
"Hey Cody" greeted Ken tensely. ‘No small talk, just get to the point’ he thought.
Cody only growled under his breath.
"You know, the doctor days that my rib has healed. In case you were wondering" began Ken.
Cody ignored him.
"Look Cody, I know you hate me, and I don’t blame you. I’d hate me too. But, everyone else has given me second chance, why can’t you?" asked Ken.
"Because you don’t deserve it" spat Cody.
"And why don’t I? Everyone deserves a second chance Cody and you know it! Okay, I was the Digimon Emperor, I did horrible and nasty things, I admit it! But I didn’t know digimon had feelings! I didn’t think they were real! I thought it was all a game! I was being controlled
Cody! By a dark spore! I wasn’t myself!" defended Ken.
"That’s no excuse!" snapped Cody. "You still didn’t have to do all those things!"
Tears were beginning to well up in Ken’s eyes. ‘How could Cody be acting so cruel with him, even after all this?’
"Alright Cody, imagine yourself in my shoes. Imagine that it was you who did all those terrible things. Wouldn’t you want people to
forgive you? Wouldn’t you want a second chance?" Cody stopped glaring at him and started staring into space, thinking. "How would you
like it if you were trying to fix things, when nobody was willing to forgive you. Because....
That’s what you’re doing to me Cody. I want to be friend. I really do. And you’re denying me of doing that. I’m sorry for what I did and I want to be your friend. I want all of us to be friends. And without you, it doesn’t feel right because your a digidestined and you should be a part of the group."
Cody sat there for several minutes in silence. He then stood up and walked off with his empty tray. Ken sighed. It hadn’t worked.
He glanced at the others, who were looking at him with pitiful looks.
That was Cody sat back down, to Ken’s surprise. ken looked up as Cody sat down. It was tense for a few moments, then....
Cody smiled and took out his hand for Ken to shake.
Ken shook it happily.
"You’re right Ken. I’ve been too hard on you. Everyone does deserve a second chance, and its not like it was your fault, it was the dark spore"
said Cody. Ken smiled. Finally, something was going right in his life!
"Ken.......?"
"Yeah Yolei....?"
Yolei shifted in her spot on the blanket. She and Ken were currently up on top of Ken’s building, watching the stars. Both laid across the
blue blanket next to each other.
"Ken....I think we need to move our relation up a notch" she said softly. Ken turned his head to look at her wide eyed.
‘What?’ thought Ken. ‘Isn’t our relationship moving fast enough?’
"What do you mean?" asked Ken uncertainly.
"I mean...Okay. See....Kari and I went to see a movie yesterday....it was a romantic movie about two people in love. And I saw the way
their relationship was going and I thought to myself while I was watching it.....I want that...." Yolei explained.
"Want what?" ventured Ken.
"Movie Love" was the reply.
"Movie Love?" Ken repeated.
"Yeah. See, the couple is always kissing and hugging and being real lovey dovey and stuff and Ken....I want you to do that with me.
is that okay? Or are you not ready?"
"I.....I’ll have to think about that Yolei....."

"She wants me to be more ‘lovey dovey’!" cried Ken as he put his head in his hands. "She wants our relationship to be more ‘Movie Love’ like!"
TK clucked his tongue as he shook his head. "Oh....I’ve been there. Kari wanted the exact same thing a while back. She got over it though."
The guys, Davis, TK, and Ken, were currently hanging out at Davis’.
Ken looked up at TK desperately. "Yeah....so what’d you do about it?"
TK shrugged. "Gave her what she wanted" he replied. he looked to see Ken’s confused face and decided to explain himself a little more.
"Listen, if you want a girl to stay with you, you’ve gotta give her what she wants. Girls are strange. They’re picky. Never happy with what they’ve got. So, you gotta make them believe in you, make
them think that you’re willing to go the distance for her." Ken nodded. "Are you willing to go the distance for her? Is Yolei really
that special to you? Is she worth it?"
ken leaned back in his chair and thought for several minutes. He then looked up at TK and answered, "Yeah. She is worth it. She‘s
the best thing that‘s ever happened to me."
"Then give her what she wants! Give her ‘Movie Love’. Be more romantic, give her kisses and roses. Do it for her" said TK.
"Are you guys done talking about all that love crap?" Davis’ voice butted in. TK and Ken looked over to see Davis kicking a soccer
ball on his knee with Patamon, Wormmon, and Veemon watching happily.
Ken smiled. He would do it for her.

Yolei turned the page to her book and was just about to start reading when someone kissed her.
She yelped.
Ken pulled back just in time to miss getting slapped in the face.
"H-Hi Yolei" greeted Ken nervously.
Yolei looked up and saw that it was only Ken.
"Oh Ken! Geez! Talk about giving a girl a heart attack!" she cried.
Ken bowed his head in shame. "I’m sorry Yolei, I was only trying to be more romantic, like Movie Love, or that stuff you were talking about the other day" Ken said.
"Oh......" Yolei blushed. "Sorry, I just wasn’t used to that was all."
"Well, I won’t do it anymore if you’re going to act like that. I just wanted to show you that I loved you."
"Ken....That’s so sweet....Say, we’re in the park....let’s go for a walk...."
"Okay..." replied ken, and with that they began to walk.
"So....you really were just trying to be more romantic?" inquired Yolei after several minutes of walking and holding hands.
Ken shrugged. "Well...yeah....even the idiot Kaiser has a heart enough to do that."
"Wow....Did you just make fun of your past?" marveled Yolei.
"I think I did just that" chuckled Ken. His chuckle was cut short though, for his lungs suddenly lost all air. Ken grabbed his chest, taking
deep longs breaths, his eyes wide with fright and shock. Pain filled his chest.
"Ken? Ken? Are you okay?" cried Yolei, kneeling next Ken as he fell to the ground.
"Pain......" moaned Ken, his eyes closing shut.
"Ken! Ken! Please Ken! Get up! We have to get you to the hospital!"
Yolei stood and whipped out her D-3. She turned it on, praying someone was on. Someone was. Joe!
E-mail

Joe,
Come quick! Ken’s having problems breathing! We’re in the park! Hurry!

Yolei

Yolei sent it, praying Joe wasn’t in school taking a test somewhere or was busy. Ken was still trying to catch his breath when she was done,
and before she could kneel down beside him again, he fainted.
"Yolei....." he sighed.

Ken woke up, not for the first time, in a white room. White walls, ceiling, pillows, blankets. he hated that there was no color to be seen.
"ken! My baby!" he heard his mother cry.
Ken sat up, rubbing his eyes. he moaned as his chest ached. Bandages were covered all over his torso.
"Hello Ken. Just relax, you’ll be fine, said Joe as he came into view.
His blue hair in his face. "You’re lucky today was my off day at school. Yolei e-mailed me and as soon as I got the message, I came straight
away. I called your parents after were put a breathing tube in you. You weren’t breathing on your own, but your fine now, so we took it out.
You starting breathing again about three hours ago."
Ken nodded, making the room dizzy. He froze and raised a hand up to his head, to feel nothing but a head full of long blue hair. He sighed with
relief. He didn’t want to have to go through that again.
Joe laughed, seeing what Ken had done. "No Ken, it didn’t fall out."
Ken closed his eyes and leaned back as his mother ran her hand through his hair. His father sat on the other side of the bed, holding his hand.
He smiled, and before he went back to sleep he whispered, "Thanks Joe."
Struggling to get into a comfortable position , Ken groaned under his breath. His parents refused to let him be released from the hospital anytime
early, so he had no other choice but to miss school and miss time with Yolei and the others.
Wormmon was curled up at his side, sleeping peacefully. It was mid-afternoon and there was no way Ken was going to be able to sleep.
Reaching for a magazine on the counter beside his bed, Ken was surprised when he heard a loud bang of thunder from outside and he fell to the floor.
Thump!
"Ow...."he moaned. When he had fallen, he had taken Wormmon with him, and the poor little creature was now a pancake underneath Ken’s
weight. Ken grabbed his chest, breathing deeply as he winced in pain.
Thunder was not something he had expected. The last time he had looked outside it had been happy and sunny without a cloud in the sky.
That just proved how many times Ken had looked out the window that day.
Wormmon, who had been asleep one minute, and a pancake the next, squeezed out from beneath his partner and looked up at him with worry.
"Ken....?" he asked. Ken didn’t reply, instead, he only tried to continued catching his breath. The two laid on the floor for several minutes before Ken was finally able to calm down and catch his breath. Brushing back his hair behind his ears and out of his face, ken stood and climbed back into bed. But not before grabbing the magazine he had been reaching for.
Wormmon, who Ken seemed to have forgotten about, jumped back up onto the bed and rubbed against Ken’s arm, trying to get his attention.
"ken?" he asked again. Ken finally looked down at his partner and smiled.
"Sorry Wormmon" whispered Ken, petting Wormmon affectionately. "I haven’t really been myself today. I’m just sick and tired of being in here today you know? I want to go home, I want to go back to school before I get so far behind there’s absolutely no chance of catching back up, and.....I want to see Yolei and the others!"
"Why haven’t they been in to see you?" said Wormmon.
Ken shrugged. "They have lives Wormmon. They don’t have time to waste it all by visiting me all the time" was ken’s reply.
Wormmon frowned. That was when the door opened and in came Mrs. Ichijouji. Wormmon his before he could be seen.
"hello Ken sweetie" she greeted warmly. "good news. The doctor says you can leave. I’d prefer if you’d stay over night, but I know you want to get out of here."
Ken nodded after giving his mother a hug and laid back on his pillow.
"I’ll go and get the doctor and have him give you one last check and then you’ll be released. Okay?" asked his mother. Ken nodded and
his mother left. Wormmon poked his head out from underneath the pillows and blankets. He closed his eyes and sighed.
Wormmon sat and watched as his partner’s chest raised and fell. Raised and fell. Then....unrepentantly, Ken began to wince in pain again, the stopped.
"Ken?" asked Wormmon fearfully.
"Can it Worm!" hissed Ken. Wormmon’s eyes went wide in fear and shock. ken’s voice wasn’t sweet and gentle, it was harsh and deep.
Wormmon backed away from experience, memories from the past flooding his mind.
"Ken-What’s the matter?" asked Wormmon bravely.
"The problem is that my weakling counter-part has been controlling me for too long. This body has been his for too long. I want it back!" came the Kaiser’s voice out of Ken’s mouth.
"Well, you can’t have it! This is Ken’s body, not yours!" cried the little green digimon. he knew this wasn’t ken who was speaking, nor was it really the kaiser, it was the dark spore that was still inside Ken’s body. The spore was only using the Kaiser’s voice.
Ken winced in pain once more and fell back onto the pillows and after several minutes, Ken woke up, in deep sweat.
"W-Wormmon" he called out, frightened.
"Yes?"
Ken put a hand over his mouth as he shivered. "W-Wormmon.....D-Did...I say anything.....do anything.....It was so scary. I didn’t know what was going on. I could hear voices in my head....everything was darkness around me......Wormmon....I’m scared..."
whimpered Ken, grabbing his partner and hugging him tightly.
"It’s alright Ken. I’m here. I won’t let anything hurt you" reassured Wormmon. Ken nodded. "You did say something though." ken looked down at this with panic evident in his face. "But I knew it wasn’t you. It sounded like the Kaiser. But I knew it wasn’t him either. I think it was the dark spore that’s in you."
At this, Ken felt his neck. Nothing.
That was when the door opened and Ken’s mother and the doctor walked in.
"Oh! ken! What a cute stuffed animal! What is it, a green dog?" said his mother, seeing Wormmon. Ken sweat dropped.
"N-No. It’s.....a worm....." replied Ken.
"Mrs. Ichijouji walked over to Ken and looked at Wormmon closely.
"Oh......it’s......nice....." she said, but Ken could tell that she didn’t like the fact that it was a worm. "Did a friend give it to you?"
"You could say that" smiled Ken.
The doctor then stopped looking at his papers that he had been looking at ever since he walked in and smiled. "Well Ken, you look good to me. You’re free to go. But feel free to call if you have any questions, problems.....anything like that" he said. Ken nodded and threw the sheets off him and slowly got off the bed. Mrs. Ichijouji already had his things and they were able to go home.

"Ken!" cried Yolei the next day at school. She ran up to her boyfriend and hugged him lightly, knowing that if she hugged him too hard, his chest would start hurting.
""Hi Yolei" whispered ken. He kissed her own the cheek after returning the hug.
"I’ve been so worried about you! Joe called me about every afternoon to give me an update but that just wasn’t enough. I would have come to visit but I was busy with school and the grocery store" rambled Yolei.
Ken smiled. ‘Ah, the great sound of Yolei’s babbling’ though Ken. How he had missed it.
Yolei looked over at Ken and sighed. "Is there something wrong? Are you mad at me for not visiting. You just don’t seem very talkative."
Ken looked over at Yolei as they walked down the almost deserted hallway and out the school. "Sorry, I haven’t really been myself.
I’m just sort of out of it." Yolei nodded.
‘Should I tell her about what happened yesterday? Yeah....I had better, just so she knows what’s going on if I lose control around her.
But what if she thinks I’m crazy? Oh well, one more person to add to the list of people who think I’m crazy’ Ken debated in his mind.
"Yolei, there’s.....something I need to tell you....could we go for a walk?" asked Ken slowly.
"Sure!"

With a long walk around the school a couple of times, ken finally told the whole story of what happened at the hospital. Yolei seemed
shocked, but seemed to be taking it okay. She wasn't giving him any, ‘You’re insane’ looks yet.
"ken......? Are you going to be okay? That dark spore isn’t going to give you any more problems is it? Yolei asked.
Ken shrugged. "I really don’t know Yolei. I hope not. If it does, and the darkness does take over me again, will you know that its not me, and that you’ll be able to forgive me?" asked Ken, holding Yolei’s hand desperately. She smiled.
"Yeah ken. I’ll know that it wasn't you, but the darkness."

Trying his hardest to avoid the crowd, Ken walked down the aisle of the grocery store with a loaf of bread in his hand. His mother wanted to make a picnic for she and is father. It was their anniversary this weekend and they decided that instead of wasting money on
a large expensive dinner, they would go on a romantic picnic for the weekend. The would be going to Kyoto park and stay for the weekend, and, not wanting Ken to be all by himself, he’s staying at Davis’. Yolei whined and whined when she found out, saying it was her boyfriend after all. But his parents didn’t want that and
frankly, neither did Ken.
‘I’m not ready for stuff like that yet’ he thought.
Walking up to the cash register, Ken discovered that it was Yolei who was the cashier. He smiled when it was his turn.
"hey Yolei" he greeted.
Yolei looked up with wide shocked eyes. "Ken! Geez! I haven’t heard from you in ever! Why haven’t you called me?" cried Yolei, gaining several odd looks from the costumers.
Ken sweat dropped. "Yolei. I have several times in the last few days."
"No you haven’t! Spill! Why haven’t you called me!?" she demanded. By this point, Yolei had grabbed poor ken’s collar and dragged him over the counter where he now hung, everyone in the store watching.
"Yolei! It’s called an answering machine!" cried Ken desperately. Yolei froze. She then slowly let ken back down and walked away, leaving ken and all the customers there to stare after her.
"Look at him! Just look at him TK!" whispered Kari into TK’s ear as they sat hiding in the bushes. TK looked over at Kari and gave
her a funny look. It wasn’t like Kari to spy on anyone. But currently, Kari and him were hiding in the bushes of the park.
Yolei and Ken were sitting on a bench next to a tree not very far away. They were laughing and enjoying each other’s company.
"What am I looking at Kari?" he asked.
"Ken! Look at him. Look at how skinny he is!" Kari cried.
"That’s what this is about!?" demanded TK.
"Yeah, I’m worried about him TK. Haven’t you ever seen him at mealtimes. He hardly eats anything!" explained Kari.
TK nodded. She was right. Ken hardly ate anything these days. Not since he was released from the hospital three days ago.
"Why don’t you just tell Wormmon. He’ll make sure Ken eats more" TK suggested. Kari nodded.
"I’m going to have to" she looked back at Ken. "Because he’s turning into a toothpick."

Ken smiled as Yolei finished her joke. "Well Yolei. I’m afraid I’m going to have to go home now, okay?"
Yolei nodded, standing. Wormmon and Hawkmon were both still asleep on the bench.
"Yeah, its getting late and I have to work tonight" replied Yolei. Ken smiled and leaned in for a kiss, which Yolei gladly took.
It lasted longer than any they had had yet. Ken couldn’t let go of her, so he put his arms around her.
That was when they finally parted, both smiling.
"Wow" The breathed in together.
"See you" said Ken.
"Later."
Ken picked up Wormmon and watched as she left. He smiled. His chest suddenly ached, but he didn’t lose his breath. This has been happening lately. And Ken knew it had something to do with the spore. He would get this tired feeling, and a few times, the spore was able to take control for several minutes before Ken got control.

Ken walked into his apartment and took off his shoes and hour later.
"Hi Mom! I’m home!" greeted Ken. he walked into the kitchen to find a note saying they left for their trip early. Ken shrugged.
He would have gone to Davis’ anyway.
He walked into his room and flipped on the light, only to see that the light wouldn’t turn on. He looked around his room and his eyes landed on a dark figure on the other side of the room.
"Who are you!?" demanded Ken.
The figure laughed. "Why Ken, don’t you know me? I am your darkness. You’re other self. Your TRUE self."
Ken fell to the ground in pain, making Wormmon wake up.
"Ken!" he cried.
Ken’s chest was killing him. The pain was too much. Within seconds, Ken blacked out.

Erica - I could be evil to you Breezy, and stop here, but you’ve been really nice to me lately, so I’ll continue!

Voices. He could here voices.
"he didn’t do it okay!"
"Yeah....well i don’t trust him, never have really."
Ken slowly opened his eyes to find that he was lying on his bed fading the wall. Yolei, Davis, Kari, TK, Cody and all their digimon were in his room, waiting for him to wake up.
He listened as his friends argued. Yolei, Davis, and Wormmon were defending him. Saying that he hadn’t done something, while everyone else was saying he did. Finally, he spoke.
"What did I do?"
All eyes went to Ken, who sat up and looked at them.
"ken....you...or the Kaiser, who was controlling you, nearly burnt this apartment. Your house is a wreck. The kaiser had gone berserk" explained Yolei.
"More like him going berserk. Please Yolei. How can you defend him like that?" demanded Cody.
"I didn’t do it!" screamed Ken. "Listen Cody Hida, I’ve given you a chance, but you wasted it. I hate you Cody Hida! I didn’t do it and you know it! Now if you don’t get out of my house now, I’ll call the cops!"
Nobody said anything as Cody left.
"I’m sorry" said Ken. "But I didn’t do it."
Everyone smiled.
"It’s okay Ken. Its just hard for us to believe is all" said Kari. Ken sighed at her words.
"Yeah, we believe you. And we’ll help you in any way we can!" said TK. Ken smiled.
"Great, now, may I go back to sleep?" asked Ken. Everyone nodded and left the apartment, leaving Ken and Wormmon to sleep.
"Ken...?"
"Yeah?"
"You won’t ever become him again, will you?" asked the little worm, scared of the answer.
Ken gave a false chuckle. "No. Goodnight."
"Goodnight Ken."
"So....What do you want to talk about now that we are here?" asked Ken. Yolei had wanted to spend the day relaxing at ken’s for some reason, and so they now sitting on his bed.
"I don’t know" was the reply.
Ken shifted from his spot on his back and smiled.
"Have you ever kissed anyone besides me?" he asked softly.
Yolei blushed a furious red at this question.
"I am NOT answering that question!" she yelled, laughing.
"Oh come on!" pleaded Ken, sitting up.
"No!"
Yolei the started giggled as Ken tickled her.
"Come on! Tell me or I’ll keep tickling!" he insisted. Yolei was trying to get away but Ken had a tight yet gentle hold of her.
"No! No more tickling! But I won’t tell you!" she cried.
"Then I’m forced to keep tickling!" Ken cried back. They both laughed. Wormmon and Hawkmon not too far away from them on the
bed, watching their partners happily have a good time.
"Please!!!" Ken pouted. He stopped long enough to give her his best puppy dog face. Yolei shook her head.
"No way! I invented that in this relationship! I’m the only one of these two of us who is allowed to use that face!" Yolei defended, pointing at him.
Ken sighed, then his eyes landed on his partner. He smiled. Wormmon gulped when he saw Ken looking at him mischievously. he tried to scurry away but Ken was too fast for him.
Ken raised the cute looking worm in front of his face and tried again. Behind Wormmon he was giving the puppy look again.
"Come on Yolei. You can’t resist this little guy! Wormmon’s cute and you know it!" pleaded Ken. Wormmon blushed at the compliment.
Yolei laughed and petted Wormmon on the head.
"Alright" said Yolei, defeated.
Ken cheered as he set Wormmon back down next to Hawkmon.
"So...come on, tell me" said Ken, waiting.
"I’ve never kissed anyone, save you" was the answer. Ken blushed at this.
"Wow.....So....Am I any good?" he asked.
It was Yolei’s turn to blush. "Wah.....Of course you are! But remember, I have no one to compare you with."
Ken smiled as he took her hand and kissed it. "Let’s hope it stays that way" he whispered. Yolei laughed as a beeping went off on the
other side of the room. They both turned to see what the sound was.
"I think its your D-3 Ken" commented Hawkmon. Ken got up and climbed down the latter and over to his desk where he grabbed his D-3.
After several moments of reading, he looked up at his girlfriend and their two digimon.
"Everyone’s meeting at the Digital World. Should we go?" he asked.
"I suppose."

"They’re so cute!" cried Kari as they all gathered around in the little forest.
"Yurimon, tiny little pink digimon who love to play"
Ken and Yolei had just arrived, holding hands, when they were attacked by these tiny little balls of pink energy.
One jumped up into Ken’s arms and started bouncing happily.
"Play! Play! Play! Play!" it cried. Ken laughed.
"They all want to play" Cody observed.
"So let’s play with them!" concluded Yolei, grabbing Ken’s hand and dragging him in the middle of the army of Yurimon.
"What should we play?" asked TK.
"I don’t know about you, TL, but I wanna play soccer with these little guys! You wanna help me teach them to play soccer ken?" called Davis.
Ken was about to reply, when a sharp pain shot through his chest. he fell down in pain and just as the others were going to get close to
him, a large black cloud formed from behind him, causing the others to stay back.
"Ken!" cried Yolei and Wormmon together.
The voice that ken had heard the other night suddenly spoke for them all to hear.
It laughed. "Ken is mine. He hasn’t gotten the time to play. We have work to do with him" it hissed.
"Who are you and what do you want with Ken?" TK demanded.
"That’s......really none of your business" it sneered back. Then, suddenly a form could be seen behind Ken.
It was Daemon.

Pain shot through Ken once more and he screamed in pain. Daemon then walked up to ken and held his chin, making Ken look up at him.
"Do not worry Ken. If you come with me, I will soothe your pain" he purred.
Ken shook his head. "N-Never!"
"No one denies the powers of darkness Ken. You know that!"
Daemon was now standing behind Ken again, and right when Ken was going to stand up and run, Daemon grabbed him around the waist
and took off into the air, disappearing in a black whole in the air.
"Yolei!" cried Ken. And then he was gone.
Darkness.
All he could feel was darkness. His neck was killing him. And he knew why, The Dark Spore was trying to control him.
Opening his eyes, Ken saw that he was in a dark and dank cell. Cold and shivering, Ken stood, only to have his legs collapse under his weight.
"You feel it don’t you ken. You are turning into one of us......" came Daemon’s voice. Ken looked up to see Daemon in front of him.
He was confused. What was he talking about?
"What do you mean I’m turning into one of you?" he asked.
"Just what it sounds like. The only way to keep you away from defeating me with the Golden Radiance and your Crest of Kindness is to
make you one of us. A digimon cannot have such human powers. So if that’s what I must do to you keep you away from stopping me is to
turn you into a digimon, then I will. With the help of that Spore of yours." the evil digimon explained.
ken shook his head. That’s why it hurt so much? Was he changing now?
Similar thoughts went on in Ken’s head as he struggled to get up, but his strength was draining fast.
Daemon laughed at his attempts. "They should be coming soon.....Have you ever wanted to fly Ken...." Daemon asked. "For soon you
will have the ability to."
And as Daemon said these words, Ken could feel his back go numb with pain. It felt as though something was ripping outside of his body.
The pain was too much, but Ken refused to black out.
Whatever was happening and coming out of him was long. Two of them. When the transformation was done and the pain subsided a bit,
Ken looked back to see two devilish looking black wings attached to his back. He tried making a motion with them, and when the wing moved
and Ken knew it really was his, he then blacked out. The last thing that went on in his head before he did black out was...."I really am I monster now....."
Daemon sneered down at the now unconscious Ken. Then after several moments of sneering at him, he smiled wickedly.
"You already have your wings Ichijouji.......but soon.....yes....soon .....you will have more than you had before... besides wings...
Hahahahah!!" Daemon laughed as he hid back into the shadows of the room while he waited for ken to awaken. he was about to leave,
when a sudden pink light shone and engulfed Ken. Daemon cursed when he saw that Ken’s Crest of Kindness
had made his devil looking wings change into smaller fluffier wings. Daemon growled under his breath. This was going to be harder than
he originally thought.

"KEN!" cried Yolei. She had been sobbing for what seemed like hours now as she stared at the place in the sky where Daemon and Ken
had disappeared.
Davis, TK, Kari, and Cody all knew it was devastating for her, considering that the two of them had such a close bond. They loved each
other, and it was very difficult to lose someone like that. But they all knew that just standing there wasn’t going to do anything. Looking at each
other, TK and Davis finally walk over to Yolei and grab her by the arms.
"Come on Yolei" started Davis.
"Let’s go" finished TK.
Yolei whipped her head to look at both Davis and TK and glared.
"What!? And leave Ken all alone with Daemon!? No! We have to go save him!" she cried. Wormmon, who had been sobbing as much as
Yolei for his kidnapped partner spoke up at this.
"She’s right" he concluded. "We can’t leave Ken-chan alone with the evil forces. He’s already been under their control and I won’t have it
be repeated. He’s my responsibility and so therefore I will get him."
Yolei nodded at Wormmon’s declaration.
"Yeah" snapped TK sarcastically. "And how do you suppose you’ll do that Wormmon? Huh? You can’t even digivolve without Ken here.
And Yolei, what can you do besides get kidnapped." Yolei went silent at this. "Now I suggest we all go back to the real world, rest, and
some back to defeat Daemon. We’ll be much more prepared then."
"TR’s right" Piped up Davis. Yolei only crossed her arms.

Shivering, Ken slowly lifted his eyelids to see what was around him. Darkness. Nothing but darkness. He moved into a sitting position,
and on the way up, his hands scratched at the floor, and made a loud screech. Looking down, Ken saw two things. One, the floor was
shiny like a mirror, and his hands had long sharp fingernails, like a cat’s. His eyes wide in fear, he looked at the rest of himself.
Fur.
Fur was covering his body, underneath his Tamachi uniform. Long gray cat hairs were all over him save for his hands. The fur ended at the
wrists. Something thumped softly behind as he felt it hit the ground. He turned around to see that he had a long gray tail. He choked back a cry in fear.
That was when Daemon made his appearance.
"So...." he hissed. Ken turned to his voice. "What do you think of the knew you....." Ken looked down at the ground and stared at his reflection.
"Tigramon....."
Ken looked up at him in confusion and utter fear. "Don’t you see it...?" asked Daemon in a riddling voice. Ken just continued to
stare at him wide eyed in fear. "You’re not a pure human anymore Ken Ichijouji. No....In fact, you aren’t quite a digimon yet either. But you will be......"
Ken choked back another cry of fear yet the tears stung at his eyes.
"You will soon get to see your friends.....and they will get to see the new you....."

Yolei flopped onto her bed, utterly and completely depressed. Wormmon lay on her pillow, tears still in his sleepy eyes. Hawkmon
looked between his two friends and sighed.
"Oh honestly Yolei. You really aren’t doing anything to improve things. Look at Wormmon! You are not the only one suffering here!"
said the bird digimon, exasperated. Yolei shot him a deadly look but Hawkmon refused to be intimidated by it. He put his feather arms
on his hips and glared right back.
Yolei sighed as she sat up, hugging her pillow. She was currently in her green pajamas. "Yeah....I know I’m not the only one suffering.
Ken is suffering too. By, god only knows what! Who knows what that nasty Daemon could be doing to him. And-"
"OH.....!" cried Wormmon, distressed. Yolei and Hawkmon both looked back at the little worm to find Wormmon sobbing again.
"Wormmon, what’s the matter?" asked Yolei, turning to Ken’s partner. Wormmon didn’t answer as he tried to calm down a bit.
"Every digimon and their partner have a bond, or connection of you will" he sobbed. "Well, I just lost Ken’s bond. I can feel it. Before I
could feel his presence you could say. I don’t know how to explain it....but I don’t anymore, and I worry that maybe something terrible has happened to Ken."
Hawkmon and Yolei both looked at each other, their in full of concern. What did this mean?

Early that next morning, all the digidestined went to the digital world. It was a Saturday to Yolei’s relief, and they didn’t have to worry
about going to school. They teleported to the same place they lost Ken, to start looking for clues that would help find him. This time though, Izzy was with them.
"You’ll be able to find him with your computer, right Izzy?" Yolei had asked him desperately. Izzy shrugged.
"I don’t really know to be honest Yolei. Daemon could have taken him anywhere in the digital world. It may take a while to find him"
was Izzy’s logical answer.
"Look no more you Digi-brats!" came a familiar voice. Everyone looked over to the right of them to see the figures of at least twenty cat-like
digimon.
Gatomon piped up at the sight of them. "That’s Tigramon. A cat digimon. They may look cute and cuddly, but their Deadly Claw attacks are
well, deadly." she announced.
Everyone prepared for battle. The Tigramon had short blue hair, gray fur, tails, wings, and deadly claws.
"Patamon digivolve to.......Angemon!"
"Veemon digivolve to........Ex-Veemon!"
"Hawkmon digivolve to.....Aquilamon!"
"Armidillomon digivolve to......Anchelomon!"
"Gatomon armor-digivolve to.....Nefertimon...the Angel of Light!"
As battle ensued, Davis took hold of Wormmon, and as the digidestined battled, a single Tigramon watched beyond his fellow Tigramon’s,
watching the battle. It’s blue eyes were sad and downcast.
‘This is wrong.....’ It thought.
Eventually, digidestined were able to defeat the Tigramon.

"Deadly Paw!" one attacked in vain.
"Queen’s Paw!" Nefertimon attacked back.
After the battle was about over, daemon made his appearance.
"I must congratulate you children. You have defeated my small army of Tigramon, but I still have two tricks up my sleeve. First, I am not who
you all think." At this, he used a different voice. One TK remembered perfectly.
"Devimon!" he cried in surprise and anger.
At this, Daemon changed into Devimon, and then, with a snap of his fingers, the little Tigramon who had been hiding in the shadows emerged
from the blackness of the trees.
Yolei paid no attention to any of this. She only wanted to know one thing, and one thing only. "What have you done to Ken?" she demanded.
Kari and TK tried to calm her down.
Devimon laughed. "You want to see your precious Ken? Here he is!"
And with that, the Tigramon walked up to them and stood there. Their digimon were prepared to attack if anything happened.
"Yolei......" the Tigramon whimpered in Ken’s voice. Everyone gasped.
"So....what do you think of the new Ken? Or should I say, Tigramon."
Tears came to Ken’s eyes as he looked down at himself in shame. He was monster. He was no longer human. No longer good enough to be
friends with them. No longer good enough for Yolei.....

"Ken!" cried Yolei and she ran and draped her arms around ken, embracing him in a long warm hug.
"Now....Why did you do this to him?" asked Izzy.

"I did it because Ken is the only one who can release the Golden Radiance. The only one who can stop me. He released me from my prison
while he was still the Digimon Emperor when he used me to create Kimeramon. I’ve been free this whole time, biding my time to figure out the best
way to stop him from sealing me away for good. And here is the best and easiest way! To turn him into a digimon, so his human powers could not be used!"
Devimon explained in a cackling voice. "Remember your cancer Ken! That wasn’t cancer you had, it was me! The hair loss the loss in weight! All me!"
Izzy and the others glared at him as Yolei and ken just held onto each other, listening. "But you forgot one thing Devimon, as long as Ken is
human on the inside, he can still use the Golden Radiance!"
"Ah yes. I thought about that. And I have already taken care of that little problem. See, the longer Ken is a digimon, the more and more he
forgets about what it was like as a human. The more he forgets about the Real World." Devimon laughed.
Everyone’s eyes were toward Ken, who stared back at them blankly. Ken then looked up at Devimon and scowled.
"Now....if you don’t mind....its time to finally get rid of you all!" Devimon was about to attack, when everyone’s digivice started glowing, ken’s in particular.
"What’s this!?" demanded Devimon, furious.
Everyone smiled. "It looks like our digivices have other plans for you Devimon" hissed TK. With that, they all raised their digivice towards
Devimon. Bright lights shot from each of them and hit Ken’s. Then Ken’s digivice shot a golden light towards Devimon, and after several minutes
of getting hit from it, and screaming in pain, Devimon was destroyed.
Their digivices stopped glowing and things returned to normal. TK checked on Kari to make sure she was alright as Wormmon jumped out of
Davis’ hands to jump over to ken and Yolei.
"Ken....?" he whimpered up at his partner. ken looked down at him and smiled.
"Hello...." Ken paused a minute, as though he was trying to remember his partner’s name. "Wormmon."
"Ken" started Izzy, walking over to him. "What is your last name?"
All eyes were on ken.
"Digimon?" he tried.

Yolei was close to tears. "What’s your first name?" asked Izzy calmly.
"Oh...That’s easy! Tigramon!" said Ken happily.
"Ken....." choked Yolei. "What do you remember?"
"That your the prettiest girl I’ve ever met, and I’m going out with you" he said. "And your names. TK, Kari, Davis, Izzy, and Cody. Then of course Yolei.
Ken had pointed to wrong person every time he said a name. He called Yolei, Kari. Davis, Cody. TK, Davis. Cody, TK. And he called Kari, Yolei.
"Is that not right?" Ken asked when he saw their faces. He then sighed and fell to the ground, hugging Wormmon close to his chest. "This is it.
I’m finally a monster. A monster who can’t even remember his friend’s names."
"let’s leave these guys alone" whispered Kari. The others then left.
Yolei kissed him on the cheek. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, you the cutest monster I’ve ever seen." Ken gave a ghost of a smile at
these words. Yolei’s eyes widened.
ken’s titled his head. "Do you hear a humming sound?" he asked.
Yolei listened and her eyes widened again is realization.
"Ken....its coming from you. You’re purring Ken! Oh! How cute!" she cried. Wormmon, who was leaning against Ken’s chest chuckled.
Just then, large cat ears emerged from underneath Ken’s hair. Ken shivered. "I’m getting worse by the minute" he sobbed. In response, Yolei
only hugged him tighter.
"Don’t worry ken," she whispered, playing with his new cat ears. "We’ll change you back somehow."
Yolei was about to kiss him on the lips when the kiss was interrupted by long white whiskers popping out of Ken’s cheeks. Yolei looked at
him and saw that he now had a cat’s mouth. And his eyes changed slightly from being normal, to more cat-like.
"Yolei....you still love me right....even though I’m a digimon..." asked Ken.
"Yes ken. We’ll change you back" She hugged him. "I promise."
They had found Ken over an hour ago and the digidestined noticed that the longer Ken was Tigramon, the more he acted like it, and the more
forgetful he became. And also, the more hungry he became.
"Yolei.....?" purred Ken.

"Yes?" she asked. She was currently walking in front of him a ways, the others behind them. She really wasn’t paying all that much attention.
She was too busy trying to figure out a way to help Ken change back to a human.
"I think I may have a bird for dinner. Is that okay?" Ken asked, licking his new fang-like teeth and lips. He was currently eyeing a certain
digimon with walking beside Yolei.

"Yeah...sure.....Wait. A bird!?" Yolei turned around and snatched Hawkmon out of the away seconds before Ken could pounce on him.
With his new cat-like abilities, Ken landed on the ground and pounced back up to a standing position in no time, saving himself from a face full of dirt.
He growled at Yolei. "You said I could have a bird!"
"I didn’t mean you could have Hawkmon!" Yolei retaliated. She put Hawkmon behind her and grabbed Ken by the shoulders and held him
back by arms distance. "Ken! You are NOT a Tigramon! You are a human being trapped in a Tigramon’s form! Now stop acting like a
Tigramon and be like the Ken I know!"
Ken stopped showing his teeth at her and nodded.
Silence ensued and they continued walking.
"I am a human" Ken stated at last. Everyone looked at him. "My name was.....it was...it is....Ken. Ichi- something. Ichijouji. That’s it. I was..
am.. good at soccer....and I had....have a whole group of friends....." Ken looked at TK and Davis at this. "You guys were that group of friends...
.But now...." Ken looked down at his paws. "I’m not a human."
"That’s right Ken" spoke Izzy. "But we’re trying to figure out a way to change you back to a human."
"Ken....we like the old you.....the human you....you’re not a digimon like us....you’re a human....and you are meant to be one, not a digimon"
whimpered Wormmon, who crawled up into Ken’s paws bravely.

"You’re....Wormmon. Right?" Ken asked. Tears came into Wormmon’s eyes as he nodded.
Then, something caught Ken’s line of hearing, making his large ears twitch. He smiled, and dropped Wormmon, running at top speed.
"Now what’s he doing" asked an exasperated Davis. "That guy is getting harder to keep track of then my soccer ball."
"Which you haven’t seen in a month" giggled Veemon. Everyone started chasing Ken, but it was all in vain.
Ken had always been someone who was fast, but now that he was a cat digimon, he seemed twice his old speed.
"W-Where’d he go?" asked Kari. Gatomon looked up into a nearby tree.
"Up there" She pointed to a Tigramon laying on a tree branch, falling asleep.
"Ken! Get down here right now!" Yolei cried. Ken opened up one eye to glance down at her.
"Please Ken, come down" begged Davis.
Ken slowly sat up and jumped down, looking fierce.
"Leave me alone! I don’t wanna be a human anymore! I like it here! Now go away before I use my Deadly Claw on you" he threatened.
"It appears that Ken doesn’t really remember us anymore" concluded Cody.
"But he did a second ago" Kari pointed out.

"yes, but his memory isn’t very good as a digimon, making it extremely easy for him to forget" replied Izzy logically.
"Ken....No..."whispered Wormmon.
"Fine" snapped Ken when they didn’t leave.
"Deadly Claw!"
Everyone but Yolei got out of the way in time. "Ow!"
Five long gashes streamed down her right arm. She began to cry.
"I guess you really aren’t Ken Ichijouji anymore...." she whispered. Ken only continued to growl, threatening her with his claws. He flapped
his wings a bit, growing impatient. "I really loved you Ken. But I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. I just wish.....please.....could I have one more kiss?"
Ken raised an eyebrow at this.
Yolei bravely leaned in and kissed him. His eyes went wide. The Tigramon was about to pull back and attack, but something told him not to.
Instead, he kissed back, and soon his arms were around her.
They stopped, everyone else blushing.
"They’re so cute" giggled Kari.
"Yolei...." breathed Ken. Yolei beamed with delight.
"Ken! You remember! Ow!" she cried.
Ken looked at what he had down to her arm. "I’m so sorry Yolei! I wasn’t thinking I couldn’t remember! You guys have to help me!"
"Don’t worry Ken! That’s what we’ve been trying to do!" said Davis.
"Hmm....Perhaps....If we simply take Ken back to the Real World, he’ll be normal" stated Izzy. Ken and Yolei looked over at Izzy desperately.
"It is worth a shot" Ken said quickly. Yolei nodded.
The digidestined then went to the nearest TV and went home, praying their plan would work.
Everyone landed in a giant heap on the floor in the school computer room.
"Ouch......That’s my head Veemon.....so stop trampling over it!" hissed Davis, who was on the bottom.
"That’s not me! I don’t have that many legs!" cried Veemon.
Davis looked up and saw that it was Wormmon who was on top of his head.
"I’m sorry" mumbled the worm as he scurried off Davis.
"Aw...that’s okay..." replied Davis as he sat up and rubbed the back of his head.
He looked around to see that everyone else was also trying to untangle themselves from the big heap.
Yolei was helping Kari up, and Izzy and TK were standing up. That was when Davis noticed that they were also helping someone else up.
Ken.
No ears. No whiskers. No fur. No tail. No wings. No claws. Just plain Ken. He was back to normal.
"Ken!" cried Yolei after she helped Kari up. They embraced each other and kissed.
"You’re not a kitty anymore" Yolei commented.
"Is that a bad thing?" teased Ken, kissing her on the nose. "And look. Your scrape is gone. It’s like I never scratched you."
"That’s kinda makes sense. Now that Devimon’s spell is broken, everything you did as Tigramon has been fixed" observed Izzy.
Everyone nodded.

"Well" bowed Cody. "I have a kendo lesson to get to. See you."
Yolei turned to Ken. "So...what now?"
Ken gave her a sincere, loving grin.
"Yolei....do you truly love me....for me?" he asked out of no where. Yolei blushed.
Davis, TK, and Kari had mysteriously disappeared from the room. Yolei laughed. They knew they wanted to be alone.
"Yes Ken. I do."
"Well......I haven’t mentioned anything to you yet....but....would you got to homecoming with me?"
Ken sat typing at his computer doing his homework. Wormmon sat beside him on the desk, watching him type with sleepy eyes.
Wormmon looked up at Ken and saw him lick his lips and swallow. The little worm frowned. That was at least the fifteenth time Ken had
done that exact same thing in the last ten minutes.
"ken? Is something wrong with your lips? You keep licking them." asked the worm after watching him do it again a minute later.
Ken shook his head. "No. I’m just thirsty" was the reply.
"Then why don’t you get a drink?" continued Wormmon. Ken shrugged.
"I don’t know. I guess I’ve been so wrapped up in getting my homework done, I haven’t done so" Ken answered.
"Then why don’t you now. Come on, just a drink. It won’t take long"
pestered Wormmon. Ken chuckled and pet him on the head. "You just won’t leave me alone until I get a drink will you?"
"No."

It has been three months since the final battle with MaloMyotismon. Ken and the others have been living happily, hanging out and goofing off.
Everyday after school, he and Davis met and played soccer together.
But lately, Ken has noticed that he has been thirsty a lot, and the only time he was truly happy was when he was in the sun. ‘Weird’ thought Ken.
Ken stood up and walked into the bathroom, where he turned on the faucet. He cupped his hand in the water to make a puddle and started drinking.
Cool, fresh water trickled down his throat. He drank for several minutes, not wanting to stop. The water tasted so refreshing.
"Ken?" came Wormmon’s nervous voice.
Ken stopped drinking and wiped his mouth, turning off the faucet. He looked guiltily at Wormmon.
"Sorry, I was thirsty" he argued.
Wormmon eyed him worriedly. Ken had drank water from the faucet for a good five minutes without pausing for breath. Something was going on
and Wormmon was determined to figure it out.

Midnight. Wormmon was sleeping peacefully beside Ken when he noticed that he partner began to twist and turn in his sleep.
‘Another nightmare’ he lamented.

Several minutes later, Ken woke with a start. He got up and out of bed and walked over to his balcony. He frowned. It was still nighttime.
Ken stood there for several minutes looking out the window.
"Ken? What’s the matter? Did you have a nightmare?" asked Wormmon, looking at ken upside down. He was still on the bed and the balcony
was below his bed.
"The sun’s not out" answered ken in a dream like state. His eyes were glazed over and he didn’t seem to be himself.
"The sun? Of course not Ken. It’s midnight. The sun isn’t out at night. You know that" answered Wormmon, who was baffled. Ken tore his gaze
from the window and walked over to the other side of the room, where he clicked on the light switch. The bright light stung at Wormmon’s eyes,
but Ken seemed unfazed by it. If anything, he was overjoyed with the new light. He smiled and crawled back into bed.
"This will have to do for now" whispered Ken before he drifted back to sleep.

The sun shone brightly the next day, after school. Davis and Ken met in the park as they always did. Wormmon and Veemon watched as their
partners versed each other in soccer. Wormmon turned to Veemon and asked, "Veemon, does Davis ever wake up in the middle of the night to turn on the light?"
Veemon looked at the little worm as though he was crazy.
"No! I did that once while Davis was sleeping and he went berserk. Yeah.....I still have the mark where he hit me with his shoe...."
Wormmon was stumped. Then why did Ken want the light on last night?
He decided that maybe it would be best if he asked Davis. Ken seemed to be acting normal now, but Wormmon didn’t like it how Ken had
been acting so weird the night before.
About an hour later Davis and Ken stopped.
"Good game Ken" said Davis.
"You too" replied Ken. They shook hands, as they always did.
"I’m going to pick some flowers for my mom, she wants to dry them out and make some popery." said Ken.
"Okay, I’ll be over here" said Davis. He turned and walked over to Veemon and Wormmon and sat down. That was when Wormmon finally got
the courage to say something.
"Davis?" he began.
"Yeah?" asked Davis, looking down at the little green digimon.
"Its ken. He was acting weird last night..."
And with that, Wormmon started explaining all that had happened the day before, and when he was done, Davis was just as worried as Wormmon.
"You mean, he was thirsty and then last night, he was crazy about light? That just doesn’t add up" pondered Davis. Veemon looked over and
watched as Ken looked through the flowers next to a tree, trying to pick some for his mom.
"Maybe.....He’s turning into a flower" the little blue mon mumbled.
Davis and Wormmon both sweat dropped. "Veemon! Ken is not turning into a flower! Stop being so silly!" scowled Davis. Wormmon nodded.
"Humans don’t turn into flowers anyway" said Wormmon. he then looked up at Davis. "Do they?"
"No!"
"Well, that would explain his weird behavior!" Veemon pointed out.
Davis shook his head. There was no way his best friend was turning into a flower.
He stood up and walked over to Ken.
"Hey Ken, have you.......what are you doing?" asked Davis as he sat down next to his friend.
"Re-planting these flowers. They’re complaining that they don’t get enough sunlight from where they are now. So I’m helping them" was the odd reply.
"They’re complaining? Okay, you’ve lost me Ken. Stop goofing off and lets go play another game of soccer. besides, I thought you said
you came here to pick them for your mom"
"I am. Right" ken quickly gathered several flowers in his hand and plucked them from the ground.
"Umm....Okay, ready to go home?" asked Ken.
Davis nodded. "Yeah, sure."
Ken nodded and as they started walking he licked his lips.
"He’s doing it again Davis" whined Wormmon from below.
Davis looked at him and the watched as Ken licked his lips again.
"You thirsty?"
"Very" answered Ken quickly.
"Then let’s go home and get something to drink."

Later that night, ken was in the process of falling asleep when Wormmon crawled up beside him.
"Ken?"
"Yeah?"
"Thirsty?"
Ken nodded.

Wormmon had a bottle of water with him. Ken drank from it until it was empty, which worried Wormmon. That bottle was just opened.
That was when Ken got up and walked out to the balcony.
"Want to watch the sunset with me Wormmon?" asked Ken.
Wormmon got down off the bed and sat beside Ken on the balcony. Ken leaned back and enjoyed the felling of the sunshine on his face.
"Hmm.....Isn’t this nice Wormmon. The sunshine, the cool breeze" sighed Ken.
Wormmon shrugged the best way a worm could shrug. "I guess so."
Ken stood up and went inside, Wormmon following. The two crawled into bed and without another word, they both fell asleep.

Wormmon woke up first, as usual. He was always the one to wake up first. Since it was a Saturday, there was no reason to wake Ken up.
He stretched and yawned and glanced over at Ken. He blinked a few times to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. By the looks of it, Ken’s
skin was a light shade of green. Pale green. Wormmon looked around to see what kind of light was in the room. There seemed to be plenty to be
able to see without imagining colors.
"Ken?" whimpered Wormmon, poking his partner awake.
Ken’s eyes fluttered open, only to make Wormmon more worried. Ken’s eyes were not the beautiful blue indigo they usually were, instead, they
too were green. A dark green.
"Hello Wormmon" greeted Ken, completely oblivious of what was going on. "How are you this morning, huh?"
Ken stroked Wormmon’s back affectionately. However, when he saw his hand and arm, he froze.
"Wormmon.....where you playing with the paints again?" he asked as he looked over his arm. Wormmon shook his head. "Wait......I’m all green.
My skin is green! Wormmon! Why am I green?" Ken was starting to panic.
"I don’t know Ken, I really don’t. Your eyes are green too" whimpered Wormmon. Ken sprang up from the bed and ran to the bathroom,
where he stared at his reflection.
His hair was the same color, but his skin and eyes were, like Wormmon said, green.
"Ken honey? Are you okay? I heard you running about" came his mother’s voice.
"I’m fine mamma!" cried Ken.
He ran back to his room and shut the door.
"Wormmon! What are we going to do? I can’t be seen like this!"
"I don‘t know" mumbled Wormmon, sadly. "perhaps call Davis and the others."
"No, just Davis. I don’t want the others to know."
With that, Ken grabbed his D-3 and e-mailed Davis.

Davis walked into his room, yawning. "Man am I stuffed."
"Now see, this whole time I didn’t think it was possible for you to ever be full" joked Veemon.
Davis glared at Veemon, who smile innocently.
Beep!
Davis looked around his room to find the source of the beep.
Beep!
"I think its coming from your D-3 Davis!" cried Veemon. Davis turned around from where he was looking under his bed and spotted his D-3.
He got up quickly and grabbed it, flipping it on.
"An e-mail.....from Ken!" cried Davis happily. His smile vanished however when he read the e-mail that had been sent to him.
"What’s the matter?" asked Veemon.
"It’s....ken.....he’s......by the sound of it.......turning into a plant" whispered Davis.
"W-What do you mean!? You yelled at me yesterday for saying he was turning into a flower! What, suddenly I’m right!?" demanded Veemon, a little outraged.
Davis didn’t reply. Instead he grabbed Veemon and headed out the door. He was going to Ken’s.

Ken tried to keep himself from panicking. Wormmon was currently on his lap being stroked by his partner as they sat on the bed trying to
figure out what to do. As he sat there, his head bent low, some of his bangs fell into his face.
Ken looked up at the strand of hair, not really thinking of anything, when he saw that his blue hair was turning light blue.
"Wormmon......" Ken whimpered to his closest friend.
Wormmon looked up and watched as ken’s blue hair went from blue, to light blue, then to light green, then to dark green.
"Wormmon.....what’s wrong with me...?What’s happening?" Ken looked down at his hands. They were light green, along with the rest of his skin.
‘What’s wrong with me?’

Ken couldn’t stop looking at himself in the mirror. Why was this happening to him? Just as he was going to go take a nap to relax his thoughts,
someone knocked on his door.
Panic filled him. "Yes?" he called out tensely.
"Ken? Ken sweetie? You friend Davis is here to see you" came his mother’s soft sweet reply. ken smiled.
"Let him in" And with that, Davis walked into the room while Ken made sure he was out of sight from his mother, he didn’t want her to see him
like this. When Davis walked into the room, he immediately saw Ken and held back a gasp.
His best friend was all green!
"Dude! What happened!?" Davis exclaimed. Ken shrugged.
"I don’t know.....but you have to help me.....I can‘t have Yolei seeing me like this! I‘m talking her to Homecoming on Saturday!" Ken wailed.
"Relax Ken. She’ll go with you. I know Yolei. She’ll want to go out with you even if your a flower!" said Davis, finally bursting with laughter. Ken’s
green face turned red.
"Davis!! This isn’t funny! Please! We have to figure this out!"
Davis put a hand on Ken’s shoulder. "Relax, I have it all under control."

"This is having everything under control? Davis, when I’m through with you will wish I was still the kaiser!" Ken threatened when he saw what was in front of him.
Make up.
"But Ken....Don’t you see? This is the only way people won’t see you being green! Put lots of that cream colored gook on you and you’ll look fine!"
"I am NOT, repeat, NOT putting any make-up on!" Ken screamed.
"Ken, honey! What are you two doing in there?" came his mother’s voice. Ken and Davis sweat dropped.
"NOTHING!" they both cried.
Ken sighed, looking at the make up in front of his on the floor. Davis had ran into the bathroom and grabbed all of his mother’s make-up he could
and came back here several minutes ago. Ken just prayed that his mother wouldn’t notice that all of it was gone after he used it.
Just as ken was about to open the bottle of cream, the phone rang and Mrs. Ichijouji answered it.
Silence.
"Ken! You’re friend Izzy is on the phone! Come and answer it!"
Ken panicked. he was going to have to go out there! His mother might see him! Ken grabbed a sweater and stuck it on, making sure his neck wasn’t
exposed, and the Davis grabbed a hat and put it over his face.
Ken ran out and picked up the phone, his mother giving him an odd look.
"I’m cold" he answered her unasked question quickly.
Mrs. Ichijouji nodded and walked away, making a mental note to turn up the heating in the apartment.
"Yes?" asked ken into phone.
"Ken. It’s me Izzy. Sorry to bother you, but I have something going on in the Digital World and I was wondering if you knew anything about it."
"Aright. Shoot."
"Alright, well, from what I know from Tentomon, there is a digimon causing some trouble, if you hook up your e-mail on your computer, I’ll send you
some pictures of her now" Answered Izzy.
Ken dived for his computer as confused Davis stood there watching. He flipped on his internet and put up his e-mail. he had mail. He clicked on his
mail and up came a picture of a plant digimon.
Lilymon. A beautiful yet seductive digimon who will do anything to find her mate.
"Lilymon...." Ken whispered.
Davis thought of something.

"Hey, isn’t that Mimi’s digimon?" he asked. Ken looked back at Davis.
"Yes" replied Izzy on the phone, who had heard Davis. "But this is not the same one. Anyway, now that you know who she is, I need to
tell you that she has been causing some trouble in the digital world. She’s been tearing down cities and creating what appears to be a castle made
of plants and flowers. Here’s a picture of it."

Another e-mail popped up on Ken’s computer and it was another picture, only this time, it was a picture of a plant castle. Flowers and vines flooded it.
Everything was made of some type of plant. Any plant you could think of was somehow welded into the plant castle.
"I was wondering if anything strange has been going on with any of you. I know Davis is there. Has he told you anything that was going
strange about him. Like wanting water, or sunlight a lot. I say this because, according to Tentomon, she’s looking for a mate.
I was just curious if she hadn’t somehow tried anything on the digidestined, since we go there about everyday" Izzy explained, oblivious to Ken’s
shaking since he was on the other side of the line.
"W-What do you mean wanting water? Are there any other symptoms, that might prove she's after one of us?" asked Ken in a quivering voice.
"Well, if one of us is turning green...that’s a good sign" was the reply from Izzy.
Ken dropped the phone, letting it clank to the floor.

‘No...please, not again. Why can’t I just be normal? Why do things always happen to me. First Devimon, now this. What will Yolei think?’
thought Ken. He was in denial at this point. ‘This isn’t happening! It can’t be! This is a dream!’
Davis ignored ken and grabbed the phone off the floor to explain things to a confused Izzy.
"We’ll, we have a problem then don’t we? Is he completely green?"
asked Izzy, trying to analyze the problem.

"Is water wet? Of course he is! Hair and all!" said Davis heatedly.
"Hmm....I’ll have to get back to you on that. I would like to come up with some kind of a plan first. Don’t worry you two, I’ll figure
something out. For now, just keep Ken from hyper-venerating" Izzy said, trying his best to make a joke. They hung up. Davis looked
over to Ken, who was staring into space as he sat on the floor.
"Hey buddy. Don’t worry, Izzy is going to figure something out okay?" Davis tried to reassure Ken. Ken dreamily nodded, taking a deep
breath as he continued to stare into space.
"Why me?" whispered ken. Davis titled his head.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean....why was I the one destined to become the Digimon Emperor. Why did MaloMyotismon choose me? Cause I was vulnerable
enough? Why did Devimon choose me to turn into a Tigramon? Why did that digimon have to have me as her mate?" asked Ken, still staring into
space. Davis just shook his head, beaten by not knowing what to say.

"Cause you the Holder of Kindness. The evil forces are afraid of you the most because you are the only one out of all of us who can control
and release the Golden Radiance" came Wormmon’s voice. Ken looked over at his digimon sitting next to him on the floor. The little
worm seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Ken nodded slowly.

"But still.....sometimes I wish I was just normal, like everyone else. Not a genius, not digidestined, just plain simple Ken" Ken continued to whisper.
Davis’ eyes grew wide. "What are you talking about Ken? We are the luckiest kids alive! We get to have digimon, and save the world!" he said.
"Oh what do you know!?" Ken snapped suddenly. Tears stung at his eyes. "You’ve never been trapped by the darkness, never been
turned into a digimon, never....never...had the....chance to be with girl you love. Yolei has already seen me in too many bad ways.
I just want to be perfect for her. Perfect, sweet, normal Ken."
Davis’ eyes fell to the floor, knowing Ken was right, none of that stuff had ever happened to him.
"I just....want to things to be normal is all...." Ken whispered, all the anger gone.
Suddenly the doorbell rang. Ken ignored it, but Davis went to go and listen at Ken’s door. He pressed his ear against the door and
heard Mrs. Ichijouji open the front door.
"Hello, Ken is the his room with Davis, you can just go one in" Davis heard Mrs. Ichijouji say.
"Who is it?" asked Ken from his spot on the floor. He was now holding Wormmon. ‘
"You’re mom didn’t say, but whoever it is, they are coming in here. It’s gotta be one of the guys" came the rushed reply. Davis
backed away from the doors as ken sat there frozen. Who was it? TK? Kari?.....Yolei?
The door then burst open and in came a hyper-active Yolei.

"Hey Ken!" she cried as she walked up to him and gave him a peck on the cheek. "I brought some food. It started raining, so
my picnic idea went down the drain."
Davis and Ken stared at Yolei. Yolei noticed this and asked, "What?"
Davis pointed to ken, who was now sitting on the bed.

Yolei looked at Ken and shrugged. "Yeah, so?"
"He’s green!" Davis blurted out. Ken sighed and rolled his eyes.
Yolei shrugged once again and sat down next to Ken. "So? He’s still ken isn’t he? Still sweet and full of sugar right?" Ken nodded,
unsure. "Then alright! I don’t care what color you are! You’re still my cutie pie Ken!"
Ken hugged Yolei tightly, then when they parted, he asked, "How do you come up with all those nicknames you give me?"
"I have help" Yolei laughed. Ken nodded, unsure if he should be happy or scared.
"So...Why are you green?" asked Yolei. "Was Wormmon playing with the paints again?" Wormmon, who was sitting next to them,
blushed, then replayed what she said in his mind and got a little mad.
"Hey! I don’t make THAT big a mess when I play with paint!" Ken smiled and grabbed Wormmon around the waist to have him sit
in his lap. That was when Davis and Ken started explaining the last few days and what Izzy had told them over the phone. Then Ken
showed her the e-mail pictures Izzy had sent him.
"Wow....So, she wants you to be her mate?" asked Yolei.

"I guess" shrugged Ken.
"But you’re my mate Ken. Right?" asked Yolei.
"Of course! No one could replace you Yolei!" said Ken. They kissed.
"Aw, Geez! Don’t get all lovey-dovey on me!" moaned Davis. Ken and Yolei looked at him and chuckled.
"So....what are we going to do?" asked Yolei.
"Izzy coming up with a plan" replied Ken. "But until then, we can only wait and see what happens."
Izzy called once more about an hour later. Yolei and Davis were still hanging out with ken. In fact, they were in the middle of a game of
‘Go Fish’ "No! No! NO! You have to have a 4! Now Ken‘s going to win!" Yolei was practically screaming. Ken flinched at her screechy voice.
"Mind keeping down, my mom is out there wondering what the devil we’re doing in here!" Ken exclaimed to her in a hushed voice.
"Sorry Yolei, but I don’t, here’s your proof" said Davis. He then stupidly showed the two of them his cards, making Ken grin.
"My turn, do you have a 6?" he asked, knowing Davis did since he showed them. Davis froze with anger.
He reluctantly handed Ken the card, letting Ken drop down his last pair of cards, proclaiming that he had won. Ken crossed his arms
triumphantly as Yolei and Davis growled at him.

That was when the phone rang.
Davis jumped up and went to the door to listen. "Ken dear! Its you friend Izzy again!"
Mrs. Ichijouji opened Ken’s door and gave the phone to Davis and shut the door, and then Davis gave the phone to Ken.
"Hello" spoke Ken into the phone.

"Ken! I’m glad I got a hold of you. Everyone, that being the new digidestined and me, are meeting in the digital world. We’re going to
take care of her once and for all."

Ken took a deep, calming breath as he held Wormmon in his arms. Davis and Yolei stood in front of him, holding out their digivices. Ken held out his too.
"Are we all ready?’ asked Yolei, looking back at Ken. Davis and Ken nodded. "Then let’s GO!"

Everyone met at the digital world. Kari ,TK, and Cody looked over at Ken as though he were an alien, and to be honest, he did look
a bit like one, being all green.
When they arrived it was high noon, and the sun was blazing down on them. Ken collapsed from the heat.
"ken!" everyone cried.
"Its...so hot here. I need water..." he panted.

Izzy nodded. "I figured something like this would happen. Here" With that, Izzy got out a bottle of water from the book bag he had
brought along with them. ken grabbed the freezing bottle greedily, and started drinking it, trying to remember that he had to save some for later.
Yolei sighed and knelt down next to her boyfriend. She gave him a hug. "Don’t worry ken, we’ll save from that plant witch."
The ground began to shake as a high pitched cackle filled the air.
Roots from the ground emerged and wrapped themselves around Ken’s body.

"Yolei!" he cried. The roots continued to get tighter around him until a figure appeared underneath the shade of the trees.
Lilymon.
She looked like Ken, only female and longer green hair. Flowers twisted around her outfit along with vines and leaves. She wore a combat dress and boots.
"There he is....At last. My beautiful flower comes to me." she hissed.

The roots around Ken started moving towards her, making Ken move along with them.
"What do you want with Ken!?" demanded Davis. He took out his D-3, but Lilymon snapped her fingers and a vine came out of
nowhere and whisked it from out of his hand. Vines soon came out of nowhere and reached into the pockets of the digidestined,
taking out their D-3’s so their digimon couldn’t digivolve and whisked them away as well.
ken was now right next to her and she was now playfully touching Ken’s green hair as the young teen struggled from the root’s grip on him.
"Now now. Don’t you wish to be with me Ken" she said, floating down to Ken’s ear and hissing into it. With her hands, she then
sprinkled what looked like a flower’s pollen over him. "Hypnotic Seed..." she purred.
Ken’s eyes began to haze over as the spell took over his senses and thoughts. The roots then klet go of Ken and went back down into
the ground, letting Lilymon hold him.
For one so small, it was amazing the fairy creature could carry Ken, he was nearly twice her size. She only came up to his ears.
"Give him back! he’s mine!" Yolei ran up to her and cried.
"Oh...so your the lucky brat who’s won Ken’s love" She snorted. "Well, you can forget any of you ever met Ken Ichijouji, for he’s now my mate."
"What do you do with your mates once you have them?" asked TK.

"A good question" replied Lilymon. "I simply enjoy their company and their love for a while, until I tire of them. I then put them into
a deep slumber, one they will never awake from except by true love’s kiss. And I know what you thinking, the glasses girl will just have
to kiss him, well, before he goes into that slumber, I’ll make him love ME, so that true love’s kiss won’t work with anyone but me.
Say goodbye Ken" she laughed. And with that she disappeared, taking Ken with her.

Ken opened his eyes to see the face of Lilymon staring straight into his green eyes.
"Wha-!" he cried, nearly knocking over the chair he was strapped into as he tried to back away.
"Hello Ken..." purred Lilymon. "So glad to see that your finally awake."
Ken shivered. ‘What did she want with me? Does she want me to....be her mate? What will she do with me know that she has me?’
Lilymon smiled. "I know what your thinking. I’m the most beautiful creature you’ve ever seen, right?" she asked, giving him a sexy pose.
Ken blushed, his once green face, red. He shook his head and bravely said, "No! Yolei Inoue is the most beautiful creature
I’ve ever seen! She’s my mate!" Ken gasped to himself. Had he really just said that? Did he really care for Yolei that badly? He had never
noticed how special she was to him before.
Lilymon scowled. She took her long claws and unleashed Ken’s ropes with one swipe. Ken fell to the floor in surprise, only
to be lifted by the chin and kissed.
Ken’s eyes went wide as he began to struggle against Lilymon and get released by her kiss.
SLAP!
"HEY!" screamed Lilymon. When she turned back to look at Ken he was gone.
Panting for breath, ken ran as fast as he could. Tears stung at his eyes as a memory past through his head. Ken rubbed hard at his lips as he remembered.

Flashback

"Have you ever kissed anyone besides me?" he asked softly.
Yolei blushed a furious red at this question.
"I am NOT answering that question!" she yelled, laughing.
"Oh come on!" pleaded Ken, sitting up.
"No!"
Yolei the started giggled as Ken tickled her.
"Come on! Tell me or I’ll keep tickling!" he insisted. Yolei was trying to get away but Ken had a tight yet gentle hold of her.
"No! No more tickling! But I won’t tell you!" she cried.
"Then I’m forced to keep tickling!" Ken cried back. They both laughed. Wormmon and Hawkmon not too far away from them on
the bed, watching their partners happily have a good time.
"Please!!!" Ken pouted. He stopped long enough to give her his best puppy dog face. Yolei shook her head.
"No way! I invented that in this relationship! I’m the only one of these two of us who is allowed to use that face!" Yolei defended, pointing at him.
Ken sighed, then his eyes landed on his partner. He smiled. Wormmon gulped when he saw Ken looking at him mischievously.
he tried to scurry away but Ken was too fast for him.
Ken raised the cute looking worm in front of his face and tried again. Behind Wormmon he was giving the puppy look again.
"Come on Yolei. You can’t resist this little guy! Wormmon’s cute and you know it!" pleaded Ken. Wormmon blushed at the compliment.
Yolei laughed and petted Wormmon on the head.
"Alright" said Yolei, defeated.
Ken cheered as he set Wormmon back down next to Hawkmon.
"So...come on, tell me" said Ken, waiting.
"I’ve never kissed anyone, save you" was the answer. Ken blushed at this.
"Wow.....So....Am I any good?" he asked.
It was Yolei’s turn to blush. "Wah.....Of course you are! But remember, I have no one to compare you with."
Ken smiled as he took her hand and kissed it. "Let’s hope it stays that way" he whispered.

End Flashback

Ken couldn’t keep the tears back any longer. he had betrayed Yolei. He kissed someone else. Not intentionally, but that wasn’t the point.
How could he ever look at her again?
He finally slowed down, running out of breath. He looked up and around his surroundings. It looked like a jungle.
"I must be inside Lilymon‘s castle" whispered Ken. he slowly walked around, looking up and around. There was no ceiling, just sky,
but vines and trees covers must of the view of the sky. Suddenly, he tripped. He caught himself just in time from hitting his head on a
cement step. A large case of stairs went clear up and sitting on top of the stairway stood two identical chairs. They looked like chairs a
King and Queen would sit in.

That was when it dawned on him. Was that what she was going to do with him? Make him a King. Ken didn’t like the sound of that.
He had already had a taste of power and control, and he really didn’t care for it.
He took a step up the stairs and suddenly his wardrobe changed. His Tamachi uniform vanished, only to be replaced by a lime green toga.
Shifting uncomfortably in his new attire and bare feet, Ken took another brace step forwards.
He then stepped back down, falling to the floor and laying his head on a large statue of an ancient looking digimon. The tears came.
"Whatever is the matter Ken? Are you not happy here with me?" came Lilymon’s voice, who seemed to appear out of nowhere.
Ken looked up, his face stained with tears. Lilymon titled her head and crooned. "Please don’t cry. Please, tell me what is wrong."
Ken gulped back his tears and glared at her.

"Okay....for one thing....I’ve been taken away from my friends, I’ve been changed into a green plant freak, and I don’t want to be your mate!
I love Yolei!" cried Ken in anger.

Lilymon tilted her head the other way. "Well, if that’s your problem...."
With a click of her fingers ken hair and skin were normal, and the lime green toga was gone, replaced by a over-sized maroon T-shirt and baggy jeans. "Better?"
"No...." hissed Ken, tears still stinging at his eyes. "I told you. I LOVE Yolei!"
"Well maybe this will change your mind." Another click of her finger and her light green hair turned Yolei’s hair color. ken shook his head in disgust.
"What part of this don’t you understand!? I DON’T LIKE YOU! lEAVE ME ALONE! TALE ME BACK HOME AND
LEAVE ME ALONE!" Screamed Ken at the top of his lungs.
Lilymon snorted, putting her hands on her hips. "Well, you don’t have to scream. You could have just said so." Ken growled,
and to his fear and anger, she floated down closer to him. "Did you not like our kiss?" she asked, gently touching his lips with her fingertips.
Ken flinched and backed away.

"This can all be ours Ken, if you would just let it be. I have wanted this since I was a tiny digimon in training. But now I am fully
grown and powerful and can now have you my sweet Ken" she explained. Ken continued to crawl backwards as she got closer to
him until he ran into the another statue. Pressing himself as far into the statue as possible, he tried to keep her from kissing him again.
It didn’t work. Only this time, he couldn’t struggle and run away, for she used her Hypnotic Seeds again and put him under a trance.
‘No...." Ken moaned in his head, knowing she was going to win. He eyes slowly closed as Lilymon started touching him and taking
control for his actions. Everything went foggy.....

Flowers.....Pollen....bed sheets.....pillows.....blankets...touching.. ...kissing....
That was all he could remember. His stomach swirled inside his body as memories of the night before came back to him. He groaned
as he sat up in the light pink bed. Moving the covers off of him.
Gasp!
Not such a good idea.....

Rolling into a ball, Ken inched his way towards the edge of the bed, making sure to cover his aching body. Vomit. His stomach discarded
unwanted liquids onto the floor for several minutes until it was happy and Ken was able to sit back against the pillows again. He looked
about himself and found that he was in a large empty room full of exotic flowers. Sunlight poured through the ceiling and windows as
he rubbed his eyes and stretched.

Groaning, Ken out his head in his hands. What was he going to do now? They had....Ughhh......
Ken crawled over to the edge of the bed again and let his stomach do its job once more. This time, once he was done, Ken looked up and
about for some clothes. He found some strewn about the room. Wrapping the blankets around his thin body Ken picked them up one
by one and slowly clothed himself. Once he was finished Ken sat himself down on the bed once more and cried.
He couldn’t go on.....He was only thirteen and he had already done....that. And with something that wasn’t even human!
Ken vomited once more and wiped his mouth. He could never face Yolei again. Not anyone. Not even sweet Wormmon. Tears of hatred
and regret flooded his eyes and face.
"What’s wrong?" came her voice. Ken’s eyes widened in fear as he jolted off the bed. Lilymon sat floating there. And she was....bigger.
She was at least as tall as Ken was now. And not only in height to ken’s embarrassment. Before she was shorter and smaller.
"Stay away from me.." whimpered ken, backing away, taking the pink bed sheets with him as they slid on the floor.
"Feeling a bit tired and weak Ken?" she asked knowingly. Ken reluctantly nodded.
"Soon you’ll be right at home Ken...but now you must sleep....we have a busy day tomorrow.....what, with a wedding and all...." she purred.
Ken’s eyes widened in fear right before he passed out right then and there on the spot.
Depression.....

That didn’t even come close to describe what Ken currently felt. He has awoken a half hour ago and he had found himself back up on the
pink bed. Lilymon must have stuck him there after he had passed out. Ken groaned.
A wedding...?

Why a wedding? Didn’t she understand the fact that he didn’t love her, let alone like her. He didn’t even like being in the same room with
her and she wanted to get married? He couldn’t do this....No. Not to Yolei.
Ken pulled himself into a large ball and snuggled up underneath the covers, resting his weary head on the pink pillows. His eyes shut from
exhaustion, he tried not to think of what was going to happen to him.
Instead, he thought of happier things, such as Yolei. Or Davis and the others coming to rescue him. He only hoped that was what they
were going to do....

"Okay....We’ve searched this area...but still no sign of Lilymon’s castle. I’ll have to re-check with Tentomon, see if he’s found anything"
Izzy was saying. Everyone was looking for Lilymon’s castle. Yolei was near hysterical with worry, along with Wormmon.
"Then check!" Yolei cried.
That was when Tentomon himself buzzed into view and flew over to them.
"Well?" asked Izzy, looking up at his digimon partner.
"I have found her castle. But believe me, you don’t want to go there" Tentomon replied.
Yolei pushed Kari aside to get closer to Tentomon. "Of course we do! Ken’s there! We have to save him! Ken would do the exact
same thing if things were the other way around!!"
"Alright then, follow me" said the mechanical bug. TK, Kari, Davis, Cody, Izzy, and Yolei then started walking towards the area
Tentomon said her castle was.
After over an hour of walking however, Yolei was not as determined to go on and find Ken.
She groaned, doubling over with exhaustion. She panted for breath.
"Tentomon, are you sure its up top this large hill....cause if it isn’t, I will personally dismantle you and through away the pieces in different
parts of the digital world" she threatened. Tentomon sweat dropped.

"I'm sure it is. Unless of course it floats and moves around like ken’s old base used to....Then I'm not too sure.." Yolei growled under her breath.
"Look on the bright side Yolei, we’re almost at the top, just a few more paces to go" encouraged Kari.
They were soon up at the top of the hill and everyone collapsed to catch their breath.
"Wow. That is one killer hill" commented Davis as Demiveemon panted on top of his head.
Everyone nodded.
"There it is!" cried Cody suddenly. he was the only one who was standing. He was pointing to what looked like a large fort covered in
vines and plants and flowers.
"Well what are we waiting for!" cried Yolei, suddenly bursting with energy. "Let’s go!" With that she took off, running down the hill and
getting closer and closer to Lilymon’s castle.
Everyone sweat dropped.

Reaching the entrance of the castle, everyone stopped to take a quick look at their surroundings. Ken was in this large place somewhere, and
Yolei was determined to find out where and get him out of here.
Walking into the main hall they heard the sound of someone crying.
"Is that ken?" asked Kari. Everyone was silent, listening. The crying sound seem to die off, but the feeling of sad depression still hung in the air.
The whole place seemed a depressing haven. Even with full sunlight emitting in from the ceiling and windows, it seems dark and empty. Perhaps
it was because of the deadly looking vines and flowers all over the room and walls, that slowly moved every now and then in the wind.
Suddenly, something grabbed Kari by her ankle and flipped her upside down. "Aww! TK!" she cried in fright. Everyone turned around to see
Kari being hung upside down by a large thick vine. Similar to the one that had been holding Ken right before Lilymon took him away the other day.
"Patamon digivolve to.....Angemon!"
"Hawkmon digivolve to.....Aquilamon!"
"Veemon digivolve to.....Ex-Veemon!"
"Armidillomon digivolve to....Anchelomon!"
"Gatomon digivolve to.......Angewamon!"
"Electro Shocker!" yelled Tentomon, shooting the vine with electricity. The vine flinched in pain but only gripped Kari's ankle harder.
"Ow! It’s hurting me!" Cried Kari.
"Well" called Lilymon, appearing out of the air. Everyone looked up. "That’s what you get when you come uninvited."
Izzy suppressed himself from gasping. He saw that Lilymon was at least half her size then when they last saw her.
"What is it Izzy!?" demanded Yolei.
"She’s at least half her old size now....which means...." he trailed off.
"Which means what!?" Yolei continued to demand, Kari’s screams of pain and their Digimon's fighting attacks could be heard behind them.
"She’s....done it with Ken...." answered Izzy. "That’s the only way she could get more powerful. Lilymon does that in order to get power.
Mimi’s Lilymon is the only who doesn’t. She doesn’t have to."
Yolei was silent for a moment. "Wha....." IT then dawned on her. She looked up at Lilymon in disgust. Oh her poor sweet Ken!
"I jave to find him" Yolei whispered. "Distract her so I can go and find him!"
Izzy nodded. He ran over to the others and told them, seconds later, all the digimon save for Ex-Veemon were going for Lilymon.
Ex-Veemon was still wrestling with the vine.
"Yolei was able to sneak her way behind Lilymon while she was distracted. She snuck into a hallway and began searching each room.
She looked into every room, until she came to the very end. She peeked in quickly and saw a large pink bed with a lump on the bed.
She then went to the next room. She stopped, and looked back into the room.
There was a person underneath those sheets. Yolei ran into the room and up to the bed.
"Ken....?" she asked. She looked up towards the head of the bed and saw Ken’s face peeking through a mound of covers. He was
currently sleeping peacefully. He looked so calm and relaxed, yet afraid and sad at the same time. She smiled. Her prince was safe.
He wasn’t even green anymore. She hated to wake him up, but she knew she had to.
"Ken....Ken...wake up Ken" she whispered, trying to gently shake him awake.
Eyelids fluttered open. "Yolei?" Yolei smiled. Ken’s eyes filled with tears as he hid underneath the sheets, hiding himself completely.
"Ken? What’s wrong? I’m here to save you Ken" said Yolei, sitting next to him on the pink bed. That was when she heard him crying.
So it had been Ken they heard earlier.
"I betrayed you...." he choked. Yolei’s eyes widened a bit at this statement.
"What?" she asked.
"I....betrayed you. I...did it.....with someone else...." he choked again.
Yolei smiled sympathetically. "You’re so silly Ken."
Ken came out from under the covers and looked up at Yolei at this.
"I know you didn’t mean to do it. Lilymon had you under a spell. I still love you just as much" She kissed him on the lips. Ken happily
kissed her back. "Nothing will ever make me stop loving you."
"And nothing will ever make me stop loving you Yolei" whispered Ken, sitting up from out of his cocoon of covers. They hugged each
other tightly, enjoying each other’s warmth.
"That’s where your wrong ken sweetie!" came Lilymon’s voice. The two lovers looked up and saw Lilymon glaring at them. "You and I are
getting married today and that’s that!"

Ken glared at her, hugging Yolei tighter. "NO! I don’t love you! We’re not even the same species!"
Lilymon laughed at that. "Well, that can be fixed."

Vines once again crawled up and encircled themselves around Ken as Yolei was pushed off the bed by Lilymon.
As the vines grew tighter, Ken’s skin began to change green once more, and his eyes turned green as well. His hair turned green last, and once
he was all green again, the lime green toga came on him again. ken struggled but the vines were too much for him. Lilymon smiled seductively at
Ken as she drew closer to him. Before Ken could react, she kissed him.
Yolei, who was on the floor, stood there in shock as her boyfriend was getting kissed. Her eyes wide, she hissed with anger.
When the kiss broke, Ken managed to kick Lilymon in the side, making the fairy digimon howl in pain.
"Why you little- I’ll have you know that I will love you so much more than that girl!" yelled Lilymon.
Ken shook his head in order to keep from listening to her. The last time he had listened to her they had done it. But not this time.
Lilymon’s hands began to glow as a large green head band materialized in her hands. She grabbed the struggling Ken’s head and stuck it on.
Three large rubies surrounded in gold sat in the middle of it, directly dead center of Ken’s forehead.
"Ken!" cried Yolei when she saw this. She was afraid the band had put a spell on him. It didn't, for Ken as still struggling.
"Now....don’t you look handsome for our wedding...just let me get changed" with a snap of her fingers, Lilymon was now wearing a pink and
green dress and a pink and yellow hat. "Now...we’re ready for the wedding."
Yolei gasped at this. They couldn’t get married! That was what she was going to do! She wad going to marry ken. Yolei stopped her thoughts.
That was what she wanted to do? Marry ken? Yes. She wanted to be his forever. But if she let Lilymon have her way, that wouldn’t happen.
Standning, Yolei tried to grab Ken, but Lilymon and ken disapeared. Yolei panicked She had to find them before it was too late, but where could they be.
Blaring music suddenly atatcked her eardrums. Wedding music. She had to follow the sound of the music and stop her from marrying Ken.
She ran as fats as she could back down the hallway, and taking several truend down other hallways, she finally came to the surce of the music.
"YOLEI!" came Ken’s desperate voice. Yolei looked over and saw Liymon doing her Hypnotic Seed attack on Ken, making him completely under
her control. His eyes were glazed over as Yolei ran up to him, Lilymon floating there and holding his hand as the slowly walked down the ailse.
Yolei looked in front of her and saw that another plant digimon was doing the ceremony, ready top pronounce them husband and wife.
"Ken! You can’t do this Lilymon!" cried Yolei. She grabbed Ken’s arm and pulled him out of the grip of Lilymon, who snarled at her.
"And why can’t I?" Lilymon demanded. "All my life I have been waiting for this moment. The perfect person to marry and get power from. I have
been made fun of all my life due to my size and now that I have Ken I can remedy that!"
"By making love to him!? That’s how you get your power!" demanded Yolei.

Lilymon snorted. "That’s how we always have. I’m a lot bigger and stronger than I ever was before thanks to Ken. And I will not let you take him away from me!"
"Well that’s just too bad! Cause I won’t let you have him!" With that she pulled off the band around Ken’s head and shaking off the powder from
Lilymon’s attack from off his head.

Ken blinked as he was released from the spell. He looked around and smiled when he saw Yolei holding him.
"NO!" Screamed Lilymon at the top of her lungs. She threw her hands in the air and started making a large ball of purple energy. The ball then fell to the
floor and changed to a digimon. Or at least, what they thought was a digimon. It looked like a tangled mess of tree roots with a face.
"Roottromon.....a plant digimon made of tangled tree roots. Watch out, he’ll squeeze you into a pancake and eat you for dinner."
"If I can’t have you, then no one will!" Lilymon cried as she motioned for Roottromon to attack. Yolei and ken dodged out of the way just in time,
and when they did, they skidded behind Lilymon, who was right in the path of Roottromon, who didn’t care who he attacked, just as long as he got to eat.
Roottromon grabbed hold of Lilymon and started to try and eat her. Lilymon screamed.

"You dumb plant! Not me!" Yolei and ken stood up and watched as Roottromon attacked her. Lilymon tried to escape by using some of her energy
but that only backfired, hitting her along with Roottromon ,and within seconds, they both de-configured, never to be seen again.
Ken sighed with relief as he changed back into his Tamachi uniform and blue hair, peach skin, and indigo eyes.
"What’s going on!?" demanded Davis as he burst into the room along with the others. "We were just now able to get Kari free"
Indeed, TK came in next with Kari in his arms. Her ankle was ankle swollen and bruised. Ken and Yolei smiled as they looked at each other.
"Ah, nothing much.....stopped a wedding, vanquished a villain. Everyday kinda stuff...." joked Ken. Yolei and Ken kissed.
He’s been the nasty evil Digimon Emperor. He’s the holder of the Crest of Kindness, Child of Kindness. He’s a child prodigy genius. He’s in love with
Yolei Inoue. His hair fallen out and has had cancer that was actually all Devimon’s fault. And another digimon, Lilymon, had wanted him to become her mate.
Not to mention that he’s saved the world.

Yet there were still reasons people can make fun of Ken Ichijouji.

Yolei and Ken were walking down the hallway on their way to lunch. This was their everyday routine. They walked as they held each other’s hand,
carrying their lunches in another hand, whispering sweet things into each other’s ears.
But today however, wasn’t like all the others.
It had been one week since the Lilymon incident. Everything went back to normal. TK and Kari were just like Ken and Yolei, always tied at the hips
and Davis and Cody had been forced to become closer friends, not that that was a problem to either of them. Cody and ken seemed to have finally
broken the ice between them. Cody was now treating Ken as though they grew up together, and Ken only treated him the same way. But again,
today was not like other days.
"Well well. If it isn’t the school’s infamous lesbian couple" sneered a kid named Andrew Moskiwitz. Ken and Yolei blinked at the exact same time.
Andrew had walked up in front of them and was glaring at them with a look of triumph. Why, neither of them knew.
‘Maybe he learned how to tie his shoes earlier that morning or something’ thought Ken.
He never did get along well with Andrew, in fact, no one did really. For someone his small of size , he was a tyrant of a bully. He had blonde hair,
very much like TK’s and green eyes.
"You learned a new word!" cried Yolei in mock happiness, like a mother would after a baby learned how to walk. She clapped her hands together
and gave him a mock smile. "Congratulations! Now all you have to do if figure out what it means and when to properly use it!"
Ken couldn’t help but laugh out loud. The mocking joke Yolei had made was quite funny to him, especially when it was being said to Andrew.
Andrew scowled at ken. "Oh you think that funny do you, Ichijouji? Well at least I’m not a girl wanna be."
This made Ken stop laughing. "What?" he asked incredulously.

"Haven’t you heard Ichijouji? What the school’s Rumor Mill has been devising up. Everyone is saying your trying to become a girl. Some even say your
going to surgery and everything. You have the money for it" Andrew explained. Ken was in complete shock. Rumors? What rumors? He’s heard no such
rumors! Andrew was just trying to pull his leg.

"I mean come on. It’s so obvious. Your hair for example" continued Andrew, stretching out his arm and grabbing a lock of ken’s silky blue hair. Ken
pulled back, making Andrew let go of his hair. "You wear it long hoping people will think your really a girl. And you certainly eat like a girl. We’ve
watched what you eat Ichijouji. What are you a vegetarian!? All you eat is rice pretty much! Maybe shrimp on one of your off days."
Ken couldn’t help himself from gaping at Andrew. he dared a glance at Yolei to see how she was reacting to this. She only looked back at him
sympathetically. Not surprised. Sympathetic. She knew. She had heard the rumors. That was why she wasn’t surprised to hear any of this.
Ken shook his head, feeling a bit betrayed.

Andrew smirked. "And your so pale. You have those dainty sad eyes that scream, "Pity me! Pity me!"" Said Andrew in a fake high-pitched voice.
Anger set in. It was one thing to make fun of his looks, appetite, and behavior, but to make fun, and say that he wanted people to pity him was
crossing the line.
"is there a point to this Moskiwitz?" asked Ken in a deathly calm voice.
Andrew stood his ground. "Yeah, the point is, your a disgrace to the male population."
"Oh horror!" sneered Ken in mock terror. Yolei looked at Ken, surprised. ken hadn't acted like this since he was the kaiser. His voice was even sounding a
bit like the Kaiser's used to. "Whatever shall I do? There are people like me, yes, but then there are also people like you, who have such meaningless lives
that they have to ruins
other people’s lives. And if I had to choose between lives, I’d choose my own, cause we all know that only the truly pathetic ones are bullies. Even, there I say it,
lesbians like me have more of a life than you Andrew Moskiwitz.
And by the way, two things. I don’t see you going to the homecoming with anyone save for yourself, pervert, and
secondly, I am not a lesbian! You can tell your Rumor Mill to stuff their faces!" With that, Ken walked straight past a now gaping Andrew, with Yolei
slowly following.
"Ken?" spoke Yolei softly, afraid she would make Ken angry. Ken was silent for several minutes as they walked down the hallway.
""Look, I’m sorry Yolei. I really hope I didn’t scare you too much back there" replied Ken at last, his voice kind and gentle again. "It’s just that I can’t take
it anymore. I’m sick of things always happening to me. And I guess that’s just my way of venting out some of my anger." he turned to Yolei.
"I promise that won’t happen anymore. Or at least not often." He grabbed her hand. "Just, I’ll need to release my anger sometimes."
Yolei smiled and gave Ken a kiss on the cheek. "That’s okay Ken. I understand."
"And I certainly won’t act like that at Homecoming tomorrow night" said Ken. Yolei smiled. "At least, I don’t think I will."
Nervous fingers numbly tied the tie around Ken’s collar. Standing in front of a large mirror, Ken checked to make sure the tie was unwrinkled and straight.
It looked perfect. Brushing off his black suit, he checked himself one last time, ran a comb through his indigo hair once more and sighed, knowing that was as
good as it was going to get.
"Ken! Honey! Come on! It’s getting late! You wouldn’t want to be late would you?" came his mother’s voice. Just the thought of being late made Ken nervous.
So without further ado, he ran out of his room and out the door with his mother to go pick up Yolei for Homecoming.

Yolei’s POV

Perfume? No, no. You don’t want to choke the poor guy. But what if I he thinks I smell bad? No. He wouldn’t do that.
Ken just isn’t the kind of guy who would think that......Maybe just a little perfume. Yeah.
Eye shadow....check. Did I put enough on? I think so. Blush....yeah. My dress....is it smooth. No wrinkles? Nope. Aw....I
love the color red. Ken says all the time that he loves the color on me. That’s why I'm wearing a red dress!

Third Person

Yolei looked into the mirror one last time and when the doorbell rang, she rushed into the family room and over to the door, already knowing who it was.

‘Stand up straight, smile sweetly, and hand her the roses’ Ken told himself.
The door opened. The two of them smiled happily. Ken, doing what he told himself to do, handed Yolei the flowers.
"Oh ken!" cried Yolei, gushing with joy. "They’re lovely! Thank you!" She gave him a peck on the cheek, and ushered him inside.
"Um...Yolei....you don’t have to rush....our dinner reservations were canceled. Micelle's is too overly packed due to Homecoming and
so they had to call us and say it was canceled. I’m sorry" Ken whispered as the two stood in the kitchen. Yolei was putting the roses in water.
"Oh....Well that’s okay...I’m not all that hungry anyways" replied Yolei.
Ken nodded. "We can still go to the dance though." Hawkmon appeared out of nowhere at their feet.
"Hello Hawkmon" greeted Ken, smiling down at the bird digimon.

"Greetings ken. Yolei, you almost forgot your purse" said Hawkmon. Yolei blushed and sweat dropped.
"Whoops!"
` "Ready?" asked Ken. Yolei nodded and away they went.

Music boomed throughout the school gymnasium. The theme for the homecoming dance was Las Vegas Poker.
Giant cardboard dice where at every entrance to the gymnasium. Giant paper playing cards hung from the ceiling, each and every one
of them being either a king or a queen.

Ken and Yolei walked into the school, showed the lady their tickets and walked in from the cold.
"Brrr...." Yolei shivered. Her dress was spaghetti strapped and the temperature outside was about 45 degrees.
Ken grabbed her around the shoulders and held her close, hoping to warm her.
"Better?" asked Ken, giving her a peck on the cheek.

"Yeah" Yolei smiled.
As they continued to walk inside, they came upon TK and Kari.
"Ken! Yolei!" cried Kari, waving them a hello. Kari was wearing a bright pink dress with no sleeves and a pretty gold necklace.
TK wore a black suit and green tie.
"Wow Kari, I love your necklace!" Yolei gushed as she looked at Kari’s necklace.
"Thanks! I got it from TK" replied Kari. As the two girls complemented each other, Ken and TK turned their backs on them to talk privately.
"You haven’t given Yolei the necklace yet!?" demanded TK. Ken blushed and sweat dropped.
"No....I was kinda waiting for the right moment. Are you sure she’ll like it?" asked Ken, nervous.
"Yes, she will. Look, I’ve known Yolei for a long time, I know what she likes" answered TK. "Now go and give it to her! We’ll leave the two of yoy alone!"
"Okay" Ken nodded. TK nodded, patted Ken on the back and went to go and get Kari. Yolei and ken were soon alone again, the whole gymnasium
filled with students and their dates.

"Umm.....Yolei...I have something to show you..." started Ken nervously. Yolei nodded. "I got-"
"Ken Ichijouji!" came the cry of a high pitched girl. She wore a large blue dress and had over accessorized with matching jewelry.
Ken turned around only to have himself being kissed straight on the mouth unexpectedly. His eyes wide, Ken was able to pull the girl off him.
Yolei fumed with anger. "Hey! Just who do you think you are!?" she demanded. "ken’s my boyfriend! So you just keep your filthy paws off him!"
"That’s not what he said last night" purred the girl. Yolei turned to glare at ken.
"Wha- No! No! Yolei....I have no idea what she’s talking about! Really! I was at my grandmother’s last night! You know that! Remember? You
called me while I was there and we talked for like three hours instead of helping my grandma bake cookies! Come on!" Ken defended himself.
"Then why would she come up and kiss you!?" asked Yolei heatedly.
Ken shrugged, suddenly feeling deflated.

"Oh...Looks like I came at a bad time" commented the girl.
"Oh, you think?" snapped Ken. "Just who the hell are you!? I’ve never even met you before!"
"I don’t know who you are either. But my boyfriend told me to come over here and kiss you" explained the girl.
Yolei and Ken glared at her intently. "Who’s your boyfriend?" they asked together.
The girl pointed to a group of guys near the corner of the room. "Andrew Moskiwitz."
Ken growled under his breath, but instead he only sighed and looked to Yolei. "See. I told you. I wouldn’t do that to you. It was only a trick."
Yolei nodded. "I trust you Ken. I knew something had to been fishy. You’re not the type to do that" said Yolei. They hugged. Just then, one of
their favorite slow songs went on. They smiled at each and took each other by the hands.
They slowly danced. Blushing, Ken slowly moved his hands down to Yolei’s waist and as soon as he did that, Yolei leaned closer to his chest
and laid her on his shoulder. Closing his eyes, Ken took a moment to think back on old forgotten times.

Flashback

Typing away at his laptop, Ken groaned with anticipation. He was trying to figure out the ways of the digital world. Figure out how everything
worked in this weird place.
"Ken....." came a small meek voice.

"What!?" demanded the younger ken. Ken was not yet the digimon emperor, but he was well on his way. His once large curious sweet eyes
had become narrow, sneaky, and furious. His eyes no longer held that happy childish shine, but instead devoured all the light, showing nothing but darkness.
"You never play with me anymore....Are you angry at me? Did I do something wrong?" asked Wormmon.
Ken growled in a way no child his age should growl. "Yes. Your bothering me. Keeping me from my work. But don’t worry, if you do as
I say...I’ll play with you" replied Ken slyly.
Wormmon smiled the best way he could for a worm. "I’ll do whatever you say ken....cause that’s what partners are for. Right?"
"Partners? You and me? Yeah...whatever....now stop bothering me!" hissed little Ken. Wormmon flinched a bit, but smiled afterwards. His
sweet little ken was having a bad day was all. That’s why he was being so mean. He’ll be back to his cute self tomorrow.
After about another hour of fiddling with his computer, ken snorted angrily at his computer and hissed, "I’m going home. I’ve got homework.
I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon." And with that he grabbed his black digivice and held it up to his laptop screen. "Digiport Open!"
Wormmon watched as Ken disappeared into the Real World.

Falling onto his carpeted floor in his room, Ken stood up and walked out his bedroom door and out into the kitchen.
"Oh! Ken dear! I made you some apple muffins! Would you like one?’ asked his mother sweetly. Ken made a disgusted face at the sheet
of muffins his mother held out for him.
"No mother."
"Hey tiger! How’d you do on that science test toady?" his father asked.
"It was relatively easy to say the least father. I know I got a perfect score" replied Ken with such intelligence his father couldn’t help but
blink several times before he understood what his son said.
"Ken, we’re going to the park later, would you like to come along. I’ll bring these apple muffins" said his mother.
Ken silently growled to himself as he grabbed a pear from the kitchen’s fruit basket and started eating it. He sat down at the table and
glared at his parents, who were completely oblivious to his glaring.
He silently ate his pear, hating his parents and the world for being so stupid.

End Flashback

Holding Yolei closer, ken shivered a bit at the memory. Three months ago he wouldn’t have been able to remember something like that.
but lately it seemed that he was slowly getting his lost memory back.
he was never going to become him again. Never.
Yolei looked up at ken and smiled.

"Ken...." she whispered. Ken smiled and gave a small nod. Wrapping their arms around each other....they kissed.
The music continued and the dancing went on. Yolei and ken were currently having a conversation with TK and Kari.
"And so when Matt came to get his guitar, there was spaghetti sauce...everywhere!" laughed TK finishing up a story. Everyone laughed.
"Say Kari, I going to go up and get ken and me a drink. Wanna come along?" asked Yolei.
Kari nodded brightly and the girls went off through the dancing crowd to the other side of the room where the drinks were.
Turning around to make sure the girls were out of earshot, TK leaned in closer to ken. "I have the flowers. They’re in the bathroom. Be right back"
and with that TK ran out of the gym to the bathroom.

It was a surprise that TK and Ken had going for Yolei and Kari. Ken had given TK money to buy the flowers for him when he went to his
grandmother’s house so he could buy a bouquet of flowers for Yolei. TK had hid them in the boy’s bathroom until they were ready to be given.
"I already gave her flowers though...." said Ken. "Perhaps I should just give her the necklace." TK had returned and was handing Ken the flowers,
looking around to make sure Kari and Yolei weren’t coming back yet.
TK shook his head, ramming the flowers into Ken’s chest. "No way ken! I worked too hard to get these flowers, so you are giving them to her!"
TK looked to his right. "Shoot! Here they come!" TK and Ken quickly hid the flowers behind their back.
"Oh Yolei!" cried a girl’s voice from the other side of the crowd. Yolei had given Ken a quick smile and wave before turning back to see who
called her. Kari however continued walking their way.

"Kari...." began TK carefully. "These are for you.."
Kari’s eyes lit up. "Oh! Thank you TK!" She hugged him tightly, accepting the flowers. Ken smiled. ‘If Kari reacted that way...then maybe Yolei
will to....even if I already did give her flowers...besides....I have the necklace too.’ thought Ken.
TK watched as ken went in search of Yolei. At first, he only dodged the large crowd as best as he possibly could. He then got to the other side
of the crowd where the refreshment table was.

Ken smiled. There she was. She was standing by the drinks.

He quickly walked up to her, tapped her on the back, and just as she was turned around he gave her a most passionate kiss.
"KEN!" cried Yolei from beside him. Ken’s eyes went wide with shock. Wait a minute.....if Yolei was there.....then who was he kissing...?
Completely on reflex, Ken shoved the girl he was kissing to the ground, as he broke the kiss.
"Ouch! Pervert!" cried the girl. ken looked between Yolei and the girl on the floor, everyone near them watching. They looked so alike!
They both had the same length of hair, same color, same height and build, similar dresses, and both wore glasses.
Yolei, who had had two glasses in her hands, dropped them to the floor, making them crash into millions of pieces, grabbing the attention
of just about everybody. TK and Kari pushed their way through the crowd to see what had happened. No one spoke.
Ken looked at Yolei with guilt covering his eyes. "Yolei....I-"
"Forget it" hissed Yolei. She glared daggers at Ken. She ran past the crowd and out the gym doors. The girl Ken had kissed was now standing.
"Smart move Ichijouji. That’s the best way to win a girl’s heart...kiss another girl" she spat.
"But...I- I thought you were Yolei! You two look so alike and its dark and I-"
TK put a hand on his shoulder and whispered into his ear. "Stop talking and run." ken looked at him. "Run after Yolei."
Ken didn’t wait another second. He bolted out the doors in seconds. After several minutes of murmuring from the crowd, the music started up again and the
dance continued.

Ken panted for breath as he ran, puffs of smoke raising into the air at each breath from the cold. he had to catch her. he knew where she was going. Home.
Running down the street he nearly ran into a telephone pole before he reached her apartment building. Running up the stairs two at a time,
ken reached her door in not time flat.
He banged on the door. "YOLEI!" he screamed through the doorway.
The door opened to Ken’s surprise. But what he saw didn’t make him any happier. Yolei’s older brother and sister stood in the doorway,
blocking the view of his precious Yolei.
"Get outta here Ichijouji. You ain’t welcome here" hissed Yolei’s older brother. Ken only stood there panting as he looked up at the older boy,
holding his side due to a cramp in his side. Sweat poured down ken’s face.
"But- I-came here to-" tried ken.
"To what? Apologize? Little late don’t you think?" sneered Yolei’s sister, who then disappeared when she heard a distressed cry from Yolei’s room.
Ken tried to look in by using his tiptoes, but Yolei’s brother made sure he couldn’t see in. "Let me see if she’s alright-" tried ken again.
"Well she ain’t, thanks to you. She doesn’t want to see your sorry ass ever again" the boy continued to hiss. Ken froze, staring at Yolei’s brother
in utter fear and shock. No...Couldn’t be..
"She-she didn’t say that..." whispered ken.

`"Yes I did Ken Ichijouji. I never want to see your sorry back-stabbing behind ever again. Now just leave me and my family alone. You kissed
TWO other girls tonight Ken, the first was a trick done by a bully, but not the second. You kissed HER! Not the other away around. I SAW!
You and I Ken...are no more....this relationship is OVER!" With that, Yolei’s older brother slammed the door right into ken’s face.
Ken slid to the floor, his back against Yolei’s door. Tears fell like waterfalls. ‘It was over....’ he kept moaning in his head. ‘Over....’

Wormmon had seen the hints that there was something wrong with his partner the second he walked in.
First, Ken’s face was emotionless. Something that never happened anymore.
Second, his eyes were glazed over as though he really wasn’t there.
Third, He was walking like a zombie, not really looking at anything, his arms limp at his sides.
Four, he wasn’t chattering about the dance, nor Yolei, which ken said he would do when he returned from the dance.
Wormmon walked up to ken and hugged his ankle, asking," What’s wrong?"
Silence. Ken shook Wormmon off his ankle. He didn’t reply until after he had taken off his jacket, shoes, socks, tie, and shirt. He crawled into
bed, with only his pants on.
‘Odd’ Wormmon thought. ‘He never does that.’
Wormmon crawled and worked his way up to the bed, and by that point, ken had already bundled himself into a small cocoon of blankets
rolled up into a small ball.
"Ken? What happened?" asked the little worm.
"She never wants to see my sorry ass ever again...."Ken choked. Wormmon cocked his head to one side at this.
"Why not?"
"It was a mistake....I swear to you it was....."
"What was a mistake?"
"The kiss....."
Wormmon knew this was a hard thing for ken to talk about, so he let him be....figuring out the rest for himself. He would find out the whole story eventually.....
Wormmon had seen that look in Ken’s eyes before. He had seen that look after a long hard day of trying to rid himself of the digidestined back when he
was still the kaiser. It was due to his failure to beat them. His eyes would glaze over, his face emotionless. Failure. That was the one thing Ken could never handle.
But now that he was just plain Ken, he had so much more failure then when he was the kaiser, therefore it was harder on him.
Ken was currently asleep, with Wormmon sitting right next to him. How could he sleep? For the first time in months, (save for the incident in the hospital
and apartment) Ken hadn’t shown a single sign of his old kaiser self. But last night he had, and it scared Wormmon out of his wits to think that maybe
Ken will go back to his old ways now that’s his heart’s been broken.
Ken groaned in his sleep, his groggy eyes slowly opening. It was at least 6:30 am. He was so used to getting up for school at that time that he even did
it on weekends like this.
He grabbed his head with both hands and groaned, shifting back and forth.
"Ken?" asked Wormmon bravely. At this ken sat up, rubbing his eyes wearily.
Yawning, he looked down at Wormmon, who was afraid he’d get smacked upside the head like when he was the kaiser. Ken just stared at him, his face
still emotionless, his eyes still glazed over and a bit red. Probably from crying. Ken turned his gaze towards the wall, then to his feet.
He just sat there.....And sat there.....And sat there.....
The only movement in the room was their breathing and Ken’s slow blinking, and Wormmon’s fast blinking.
Silence.
This made Wormmon uncomfortable. He didn’t like silence. Was ken just going to sit there all day?
"She....." Ken finally spoke, his voice croaking. Wormmon looked up. "She....doesn’t want.....to see me....anymore.....No Yolei....No ray of sunshine...no
happiness....no more....laughing and....hugging...." ken looked as though he was about to cry at this point, but he didn’t. "No more reason to get up
every morning....."

he slowly began to rock back and forth.
"She’s does this to me before....When we first started going out....She didn’t want to date me because I used to be the kaiser....But she went out with me
anyways.....back then it wasn’t that big a deal. Sure I was crushed....but I got over it...mainly cause we hadn’t been that close....but now....I feel like
a part of me is missing....Cause we were very close....."
Wormmon took a brave step forward. "So what are you going to do now?"
Ken shrugged.
"Maybe you could call Davis. Go play soccer or something" tried the little worm.
ken shrugged once again, only this time he started moving towards the ladder of his bed and began to climb down. He was still in nothing but his pants, so
he got dressed. He wore his usual Tamachi uniform.
He walked out of his room and into the kitchen.
"Oh Hello ken! You’re up awfully early! Did you have fun last night at Homecoming with Yolei?" asked his mother, who was oblivious to Ken’s attitude.
Ken didn’t reply, instead he walked past her and into the kitchen and grabbed a piece of toast and stuck it into the toaster. It popped up after several minutes
and Ken was able to eat it. He didn’t put any butter on it, he just ate it plain, which was very strange for ken.
"ken honey? Something wrong?" asked his mother.

Ken shook his head. "No." he whispered.
"Alright then. Say ken, why don’t you invite Yolei over today?"
Ken swallowed his mouthful of toast. "She’s busy" he lied through his teeth.
"Then why not Davis? You can go and play soccer" offered Mrs. Ichijouji.
Ken nodded. That was the second person who suggested that. Why not?

About two hours later, Ken decided it was late enough to call Davis. Besides, he had to get out of this house otherwise he’d go nuts. Too
many memories of Yolei.
"Hello, is Davis there?" asked Ken on the phone.
"Oh yeah, let me go get him. That sleepy head will sleep the day away" answered Davis’ sister Jun.
"Thank you."
Ken could hear Jun on the other side of the phone yelling at Davis to get up. Davis finally came to the phone.
"yeah? Hello. Who is it?" asked Davis heatedly.

"It’s Ken. I was wondering if you’d like to do something today Davis" said Ken, his voice flat.
"Um...sure. I’ll meet you at Odaiba Park in an hour" replied Davis, suddenly sounding excited. They hung up.
Ken hung up the phone and slowly walked into his bedroom, where he climbed up on top of his pulled, pulled the covers over him and began to cry.
Wormmon cocked his head to one side. He had heard the entire conversation from on his bed save for what Davis said. After several minutes of
crying and moaning Ken calmed down, looked at Wormmon and said, "Just thought I’d get it out of my system before I saw Davis."
Wormmon nodded.

Ken met Davis an hour later, just like they had agreed. The day was sunny and happy, the complete opposite of Ken’s mood.
"Ken! Head’s up!" Ken just had enough time to look over and dodge a fast moving soccer ball from hitting him in the head.
"Sorry!" came Davis’ apology. Davis ran over to ken, who was just standing there dazed. "Dude, what is up with you today? You’re all out of it.
If you didn’t want to play then why’d you invite me?"
"I had to get away?" replied ken softly.
Davis cocked his head to one side, confused. "Get away from what?"
"The memories....the pain..."
Davis then realized that this was a lot more serious than he had first thought. "What happened? What memories? What pain?"
Ken looked over at Davis and looked him straight in the eye. "Yolei and I....broke up..." Davis could tell ken was trying his hardest to get the
tears at bay.
Davis out an arm around Ken’s shoulder and smiled. "Don’t worry Ken. You’ll forget about her. You don’t need her. You’re too good for her"
he said. Ken not but still looked unconvinced.

The rest of the weekend went painfully slow. Davis tried his best to help ken forget about Yolei, but whatever they did seemed to remind him
of something they has together. Anyway, most of time wasn’t even responding to things Davis said. He nodded every now and then, and said maybe
one word every three hours.
But what Davis was worried about the most was school. If Ken was acting this way now, how was he going to react when he was in the same
area as Yolei. What will he do?
Davis got his answers Monday morning. Davis had decided that it would be best if he spent the night on Sunday so they could go to school
together. He wanted to make sure he was with his best friend the whole way through this.
"Davis" piped up Veemon inside Davis’ book bag Monday morning on the train. Ken was sitting beside him in his usual dazed state, oblivious
to things around him. "Is Ken going to be okay?"
Davis looked over at ken before he answered. he looked back down at Veemon, who was now poking his head out of the zipper, and sighed.
"I don’t know buddy, I don’t know."

When Davis and Ken got to school, they first went into the computer room like they did every morning to drop off Veemon and Wormmon.
When they opened the door however, there were already people inside.
"That jerk! I’ll never forgive him!" Yolei was saying heatedly. The others hadn’t realized that ken and Davis were hiding behind the door.
"Well, like they say, once a bad egg, always a bad egg, or something like that" mentioned Cody. Their digimon were happily gobbling at some
food Yolei had brought from the store. Wormmon and Veemon saw this and before Ken or Davis could react they were already munching on the food.
Yolei, Cody, Kari, and TK all looked down and then to the door.
"If that worm’s here then so is the other one!" hissed Yolei.
There was no point in hiding, so Davis and Ken reluctantly walked into the room. Davis was in front of Ken, who had his hands behind his
back and his low.
Without warning, Yolei snorted and scooped down to grab Wormmon around the waist, throwing him across the room to ken’s feet.
"Oomph..." whined Wormmon when he landed on his stomach and chin. The rice ball had been so tasty but so rudely taken from him.
Davis glanced over at Ken. He knew that had done it.
Ken looked down at Wormmon at his feet and bent over to help him up on all his feet. He then stood. Fury tickled at his eyes. He glared
daggers at Yolei. If looks could kill, they say, Yolei would be dead as stone.
"No one..." spat Ken in a dead calm whisper. "Messes with my partner...and gets away with it."
"Well then" replied Yolei, unfazed by Ken’s glare. "Better start giving yourself a beating for if I recall correctly, you used to beat and throw
that worm around like a dirty old dish rag."

Ken gritted his teeth in anger. The others could do nothing between this little war between their friends. All they could was watch and see
what happened.
"Well at least I don’t look like I just came out of store called, Dirt Poor. Good god, at least I match. And for one with such giant glasses
you certainly are blind. Can’t even determine one color from the next."
"At least I don’t cheat on my girlfri-"
"I DIDN’T CHEAT! IT WAS A MISTAKE!" Yelled Ken, cutting her off.
Silence. Yolei and Ken just kept staring at each with frowns on their faces.
"Well, your idea of a mistake astounds me" spoke Yolei at last. "It didn’t look much like a mistake to me!"
"I once loved you Yolei. But you’ve broken my heart" began ken.
"Oh cry me a river" hissed Yolei.
Ken’s hands were shaking as he stood there perfectly straight. Davis backed away from his spot next to ken as he started feeling cold darkness seep
through Ken. He closed his eyes, as though he was accepting the darkness within him to come out and take control for a while.
"Oh Ken, please don’t do this..." whimpered Wormmon at his feet.
Ken’s eyes slowly opened, but his eyes were deep and full of darkness. A sadistic smile played on his lips as he looked around.
"Ken?" asked TK bravely. Ken looked over to TK.
"Ken? I don’t know any Ken. All I know is Kaiser" smiled Kaiser.
He walked up to Yolei. "Thank you Ms. Inoue. Thanks to you Ken has taken....a little vacation if you will, into the depths of his mind, leaving
me in control for a while."
"Bring Ken back!" Yolei demanded.
"What’s this? Suddenly you wish for him to be back? That’s not what he told me when he asked me to take over." replied Kaiser.
"He ASKED you to take control!?" asked Davis, shocked.
"Well of course he did. I may be evil but I am no liar" answered Kaiser. "Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a world to conquer. Wormmon!!"
Wormmon came gingerly to Kaiser’s side, like in the old days.
Grabbing the digivice from his pocket, the digidestined tried pushing him away from the computer but it was futile. "Give my regards to my
parents" said Kaiser, waving. "Digiport Open!" he cried.
He was about to go in when a bright pink light appeared in front of the screen, blinding everyone. An unknown force pushed Kaiser into
the wall behind him. The others were able to get away in time.
"Uhh...." moaned Kaiser, rubbing his head. Everyone looked up at the computer to see Ken’s Crest of Kindness floating there in front
of the screen.
"Ken’s crest is keeping the kaiser from entering" Kari observed.
"Wow, aren’t you bloody smart" hissed Kaiser, standing. "Move aside!" Kaiser pushed Kari to the side and walked out of the room, the
crest disappearing as soon as he left.
"That was....odd.." commented Cody. Everyone nodded.
Chapter 30

Kaiser walked down the street fuming mad as he past the Odaiba library. His hands dug into his pockets, he sneered at anyone who
dared to look him in the way as he passed people in the street.
"Damn you and your crest Ichijouji!" he said growling. He got a confused glare from a nearby woman and her small child. "What are
looking at woman!?"
The woman’s eye went wide with surprise. It wasn’t everyday a thirteen-year-old like him spoke to any adult in that way. The child in her
arms began to cry as Kaiser walked on.
"Are you done bawling like a baby in there Ken?" Kaiser demanded, asking his other self.
"S-shut up Kaiser! You didn’t just have your heart ripped out of your chest!" remarked ken’s voice.
"Yeah...And I don’t plan on having it happen anytime soon my friend. In fact, that’s why I love the darkness so much. The darkness never
hurts you like the light does. Light is full of nothing but heartbreak and broken dreams. Why bother with it?" asked Kaiser. He looked
around himself and with a snap of his fingers his Tamachi
uniform went dark blue and his hair went wild like it used to. Looking like he just licked an electric socket. "Much better" he mumbled, wiping his hand together.
"Because if your lucky....you’ll find the girl of your dreams and be happy forever" replied ken.
"This isn’t like me to get all sentimental, but was Yolei the girl of your dreams?" asked Kaiser, truly curious.
"Yes..." choked Ken.

"Then....you’ll stay in the darkness? Right?" asked Kaiser a little too eagerly for Ken’s taste.
Kaiser then felt a feeling take over him, a feeling he knew was coming from ken. He’d never felt it before....it was very strange....sad....depressing.
"Just what are you thinking Ichijouji?" asked Kaiser slightly worried about what his alter ego had in mind.
Ken whispered something that Kaiser could hardly understand. His eyes widened at the very thought however.
"Wow....You’re really serious about this aren’t you?" asked Kaiser.

"Of course. Never before have I ever thought about doing this....Have you?" asked ken.
"What do you think Ichijouji?"
"No, you wanted it to happen to others...."
"That’s right. Now..."
"Wait a second...Why are you pestering me?"

"Because you dull brain! You sealed off all of my ways to get into the digital world!"
"I’m not stupid you know Kaiser. I know precisely what you would do if you got into the digital world."
Kaiser grinned evilly at the thought. he glanced down to his feet where a fretting worm was following forlornly , listening to only half
the conversation. He could only hear what the Kaiser was saying, to his great disappointment. He wanted to know what his Ken-Chan was thinking.
"Your pathetic worm is fretting over you again" hissed Kaiser.
"Good old wormmon" ken said, almost chuckling, his voice the turned serious once more. "Now, do as I say Kaiser...Let me in charge now...."
"Well, at least let me get to our apartment. Let me free for a little bit longer. I’d like to enjoy life a little longer if you don’t mind"
"Whatever, just go" cried Ken, frustrated.

An hour later, Kaiser walked into the Ichijouji residence. His parents were both still at work, so the coast was clear.
"Now change back Kaiser!" demanded Ken.
Kaiser clicked his fingers and he was soon wearing the gray uniform and limp shoulder length hair.
"What if I don’t want to?" teased Kaiser.
The pink light Kaiser had dealt with before returned and in a flash, he was on the floor.
"Damn you and your crest Ichijouji!" screamed kaiser inside Ken’s mind.
Ken looked down at his hands and moved them about gingerly. he was in control again. he then frowned and looked at Wormmon sadly.
"I’m sorry pal, but I must do this" he whispered.
Wormmon cocked his head to one side with worry. "Do what Ken?"
Ken didn’t answer. Instead, he headed for the bathroom. he turned on the faucet and pulled the clog up so that the water would fill up. Cold water, he preferred.
Just then, the door bell rang. Ken cursed under his breath and went to answer it.
"Davis!" said Ken surprised. He seemed exhausted, as though he had run to his house, which Ken wouldn’t be surprised if Davis said he really did.
"ken...You back!" cried Davis. He gave Ken a brief hug.

"For the moment" hissed Ken. he headed for the bathroom, Davis in hot pursuit.
"What do you mean? What are you doing?" questioned Davis. He could hear water running from inside the bathroom.
"Nothing, I just have to do something real quick here in the bathroom, I promise I won’t take very long. Then you’ll have all the peace and
quiet you want" answered Ken, going into the door and trying to shut the door on Davis.
"Ken, just tell me what your doing" pleaded Davis.
"Nothing! Just-let-me-do this!" groaned Ken. He was able to shut the door on Davis and lock it.
Ken turned to the faucet and turned it off, ignoring Davis’ pounding and yells through the door.
He slowly dipped his head closer into the water. Dipping his head fully in, Ken didn’t bother to hold his breath. It would just take longer that way.....
Numbness.....
The last thing Ken heard was the bang of a door and the cry of Davis.

Davis knew Ken was doing something in there and he just had to know what. he smiled. he grabbed Jun’s credit card that he’d stolen
from her and started trying to open the door. Snap!
Bingo!
Davis whooshed the door open and to his horror, he saw ken had his head underwater. He was committing suicide!
Davis grabbed for Ken, who took in a gulp of breath before passing out. Still alive....thank goodness....

"Will he be okay?" asked a girl’s voice. She sounded worried.
‘Sounds like.....No....She wouldn’t be here...not in heaven...’ thought Ken.
Ken slowly opened up his eyes to see a girl wearing large round glasses and had long lavender hair.
"Oh ken! You’re alive!" she gushed.
"Y-Yolei?" asked Ken.

"yes Ken. I had no idea you really cared for me that much....I just thought you like very other guy in our school, who just did it for the fun
of it. But you’re not like them...." She kissed Ken on the forehead.
"So...You forgive me....?" asked ken.

Yolei nodded. "As soon as kaiser stormed out, Missy, the girl you thought was me at Homecoming, walked in and explained everything,
feeling guilty for our break-up. I’m so sorry Ken. I should have trusted you..."
Ken shook his head, slowly sitting up. He was in the hospital....again.
"You don’t need to apologize Yolei....Just promise me you’ll never leave me again.." whispered Ken. Yolei smiled and hugged and then kissed.
"I promise."
"Davis! You nut brain! You’re supposed to put the sugar in BEFORE you add the water!" scolded TK as he tirelessly stirred the bowl of cookie dough.
Everyone was currently in Home Economics class. TK, Davis, and ken were in one group, Kari, Yolei, and Cody were in another.
Ken sweat dropped when he glanced over to see how his friend was doing.
"What are you laughing at Ken?" Davis demanded.
ken ducked his head, still stirring the bowl. "Nothing" he mumbled.

Yolei looked over at the boys on the other side of the room. Kari followed her gaze and sighed.
"It’s amazing that just last week Ken was near death" she commented.
Yolei nodded slowly. "Yeah....It really kind of scares me though Kari..."
Kari turned around to Yolei, stirring the bowl in her hands. "What do you mean?"
"Well, just look at how things happened Kari. I dumped him and then look what happened to him. he was so depressed afterwards that
he would rather have Kaiser in charge than face the world. Then, after that didn’t go well, he tired to drown himself. I don’t think I can
handle that kind of pressure...." Yolei explained.
Kari smiled. "But Yolei, there is no pressure. Don’t you understand? This way you know that Ken will never hurt you. He’s completely
devoted to you Yolei. If I didn’t know any better I’d say he was ready to marry you, but that’s way off into the future...."
Yolei went silent. That was true.....She looked up at the laughing Ken across the room. Was she really going to spend the rest of her
life with the ex-Digimon Kaiser?

"Alright Mr. Genius! Let’s just see how well our cookies turn out!" cried Davis when the oven beeped, announcing to the room that they’re
cookies were done. Ken, Davis, and TK all reached in one by one with pot holders on their hands to grab their tray of cookies.
"Aha!" cried Davis in triumph when the three of them compared their cookies.
Ken’s cookies ended up looking rather beaten up. The star shapes that he had used for his cut-outs were far from perfect. They were
chipped and a bit burnt. Ken frowned at them, disappointed.
Davis’s cookies on the other hand looked perfect. Not a single thing seemed wrong with them. His stars turned out perfectly made, and not a hint that they looked over cooked, and Davis made sure ken saw this.
"Look at that Ken! Looks like even a genius like you can’t always be perfect.
Ken mentally kicked himself for feeling so much anger and jealousy towards Davis.
‘Hehe..." cackled a voice inside Ken’s head. ‘Well, well. He beat ya! Didn’t think the dork had it in him....’
"Shut up" ken hissed in his head, or at least, he thought he said it to himself.
Davis’ eyes went wide. "Dude, no reason to get upset. S’just I don’t always win when I'm against you" commented Davis.
ken blushed. "Sorry Davis, I didn’t mean....."
"It’s okay dude! Everyone gets angry sometimes!" smiled Davis, patting Ken on the back. Davis then turned back to his cookie tray,
leaving Ken to deal with the annoying voice in his head.
‘Hahahahaha! That’s was rich! Too rich!’ laughed Kaiser. For several minutes all Ken could hear was Kaiser’s sadistic laughter.
‘Oh boy! That was funny! Not everyday that happens! Snapping at your best friend! What’s that about?’
‘I didn’t do it on purpose’ thought Ken. ‘I meant to say it to you.’
‘Yeah! But ya didn’t! That’s what makes it so funny!’ said Kaiser, still chuckling.
Ken ignored Kaiser and turned back to reality.

"Okay" TK was saying as Kari, Yolei, and Cody walked over to their station. "There’s only one way to see who’s is the best cookies."
He picked up a cookie from Davis’ tray and bit into it. His face turned from happy, to sour in seconds. He stopped chewing, and for
a few moments, looking as though he was going to hurl. Which he did. In the sink. He spat out the cookie, taking several gulps of water from the tap and sighing.
Davis was in denial by this point. "Wha- They don’t taste that bad do they TJ?"
"Maybe they would if you called me by my actual name!" snapped TK, nervously taking one of Ken’s cookies into his hands.
‘Here goes’ though TK before taking a bite.
TK winced, thinking they were going to taste awful.
Heaven.....
Ken’s cookies were outstanding!
TK quickly gobbled up the rest of the cookie and smiled at Ken.
"Wow, these are fantastic Ken!" praised TK. Ken blushed.
Inside his Ken’s head, kaiser was having a fit, but Ken ignored him.
"thank you..." Ken mumbled, rubbing the back of his head.

"No! That’s not fair!" yelled Davis. "His turned out so....crappy!" Yolei hit Davis upside the head. "But it’s true!"
"That just goes to show that you can’t judge a cookie by it’s looks. Or anything for that matter" inquired Cody thoughtfully.
Ken smiled. They liked his cookies. Yolei was the next person to try one. She beamed with delight after she ate it grabbed another one,
but not before giving ken a giant hug. Kari tried one, then Cody. They were amazing.
Davis on the other hand, was sulking in the corner. Ken smiled sadly at his friend and grabbed one of Davis’ perfect looking cookies.
He walked over to Davis and made sure Davis watched him eat it. Davis froze, hoping that maybe TK had been just giving him a hard time.
Maybe Ken would like them...

Ken chewed slowly, almost afraid to taste it...But he knew he had to... To make his friend feel better about his cookies.
He swallowed. Disgusting...

‘Oh! Mother of - That’s just nasty! Get rid of it! Get rid of it!’ cried Kaiser internally, being able to taste the same things Ken could.
"Well? How are they?" asked Davis tensely. After several moments Ken grabbed his stomach. He groaned. He just finished the cookie
and his stomach was already rejecting it. It was as though ken just ate cardboard...
Covering his mouth, Ken went to the sink to discard the nasty vile creeping up his throat.
Shivering, and finished discarding the unwanted food, Ken sat down in a nearby stool.
"Ken! Are you okay! I’m so sorry! I had no idea my cookies would make you throw up! Otherwise I wouldn’t have made you eat it!"
whimpered Davis as he rubbed his friend’s back. Ken looked up.

"But you didn’t make me eat...I ate it on my own free will" reasoned Ken.
‘Yeah...and don’t you EVER do that again!’ sneered kaiser.
Ken smiled. "It’s okay Davis, I have a delicate stomach."
‘That’s the understatement of the year’ snarled kaiser. ken stood up.
He turned to TK. "How did your batch turn out?"
TK blushed. "Alright I guess..."
"There just as great as your Ken" said Kari, eating one. ken reluctantly tried one and smiled. They were very good.
For the rest of the period, everyone sat around trying each other’s cookies, ken eating in tiny bites. He smiled. He didn’t want to upset his stomach again.
‘These cookies....are...’ began Kaiser nervously. Ken perked up, listening hard to see what his alter ego was going to say. ‘
They’re really...good..’ Kaiser mentally winced at saying that. Ken smiled. It was times like this when Ken really didn’t mind that
the kaiser was always there, watching him at his every move. Besides, it was funny to hear him complementing his enemies..
‘If you ever tell them I like their cookies I’ll-’
Ken smiled as he listened to Kaiser’s empty threats.
Chapter 32

Yolei smiled as she brushed up against Ken. They were both currently on Ken’s bed, Yolei faced towards on wall and Ken faced towards
the other. Their head and shoulders touched and every now and then the two of them would turn their heads and kiss.
"Ken...You’ll always be there for me....Right?" asked Yolei softly.
"Of course I will Yolei. You’re my angel" replied Ken. They kissed. They held each other’s hands.
"Um...Is...HE listening...?" asked Yolei, slightly embarrassed.

Ken blushed. "Yeah...he always is...." Yolei gave him a look. "Well, not all the time. Either he’s listening or sleeping in there."
They were talking about Ken’s alter ego, Kaiser.

‘Ya got that right! Now keep it down! I’m tryin’ ta sleep in here!" growled Kaiser in Ken’s head.
Ken chuckled a bit. "Yeah...he can here us, but right now he’s trying to sleep."
‘Key word there, ‘trying!’ sneered kaiser. Ken smiled and looked at Yolei.
"He’s harmless really." Yolei nodded.
"So, maybe now we can continue working on our relationship" said Yolei. Ken nodded.
"Yeah...Our relationship....Something tells me we’re in for the time of our lives." Ken and Yolei kissed.