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A/N: Hello! Good to see you again. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, because I enjoyed typing it. The following is brought to you in thanks to Livin' Notorious Productions. Let the second chapter begin. Love and be loved. Read… and review. Peace!
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A Promise

I'm either bopping my head
or I'm just standing there watching
I'ma hustler I hustle,
you can tell that I'm paid
And I protect what I got;
I'm in a house with my-

"TAKATO!" I heard someone scream at me.
I stop my CD player and look up and see Rika about eight feet away with an angry look on her face.
Uh-oh. I flash a smile at her and take the headphones off. Play innocent and you can never go wrong! "Hello Swee-"
"Don't you try and sweet talk me! You said you'd come to my house and we would walk here TOGETHER!"
"I know… but it was just that… it was twice the distance for me, and I thought-"
"You THOUGHT!? YOU THOUGHT!? YOU should not have had ANYTHING to THINK about!" she screamed at me.

I looked down at my shoes and felt defeated. See, I was supposed to go to Rika's and we would walk here, the old hangout, together. I, however, realized how retarded this was on my behalf and just stopped when I got here and started listening to my CD. A big mistake you say? 'Big' doesn't fit the context of the situation… it's much worse.

I smile again, walk over and give start to give her a hug, but before I can get my arms around her she pushes me and I fall to the ground.
I look up at her disappointed, but she shatters my look with her stare as cold as anything I've ever seen!
"Is it too late to say I'm sorry?" I offer.
"Yes, it is." she says coolly.
Ouch! "Too late to beg for forgiveness?" I ask.
"Yep."
"Well… how can I possibly make it up to you?"

She looks at my CD player sitting on the ground and gives it a devious look. "Break your CD and promise you'll never break a promise to me again."
I give her an upset/shocked look. She knows I just got that CD, but if I don't do as she says I could be in some deep shit. "Alright."
She looks a little taken aback. "Really?"
"You know I'd do anything for you."

She smiles brightly at this, goes and picks up my CD player, pops it open, and hands it to me. "Okay, you do the honors."
I stare it down, giving it a pleading look, begging for forgiveness. Then I lift my knees cap up, and bring the CD down hard on it, feeling a sharp sting in the pit of my stomach as I watch the CD crack into several pieces.
I watch the last few pieces fall to the ground, and look at her. "Happy?"

"No. Now promise you'll never break another promise to me ever again."

I look at her thinking 'Isn't that redundant?' "Alright, I, Takato Matsuda, promise to you, Rika Nonaka, that I will never break another promise I make to you for as long as I live, so help me God, I pray that you may show mercy when you kill me."

"Who show mercy? Me or God?" she asks.
"You, obviously."
She laughs aloud at this, and I finally get my hands around her as I give her a hug… this is where I belong.
"Would you two get a room!" some yells not too far off.

I don't let go, but turn to see Henry walking towards us. A long ways behind him come Kazu, Kenta, Jeri and… What the hell!?
Walking besides Jeri and talking to her is Ryo Akiyama! What the fuck is he doing with them? Who invited him? "How's your dignity doing since last night Takato? Is it broken? And your pride, shattered?" Henry says to me.

I turn from looking at Ryo in the distance and give Henry a dissatisfied look, laugh at him, and take a full out swing at him. He was too far for me to have hit him even if I had wanted to, but he ducked and moved away regardless laughing all the way. Kazu and Kenta come running the last bit of the way to find out what Henry is laughing about, yet I find myself looking back up at Jeri and Ryo. What the hell was he doing here? Did one of them invite him to come? Did Rika invite him? We never really talked about our crushes before we started dating, but I know she had one on him for a while… apparently during the summer we were apart. Luckily though, Ryo seemed to have disappeared off the radar more so then Rika had during that summer. Kazu and Kenta claim they still talked to him and that they were becoming better card players from his lessons, but that's just talk… and talk is cheap.

I look at Rika and she doesn't seem to have noticed because she just gives me an odd look because of my stare and smiles. I smile back, and walk over to Henry as Kazu and Kenta continue to rant about this or that. I get as close to Henry as I can, so no one else can hear what I'm going to say, "What's Ryo doing here?"

He gives me an odd look, turns to look at Ryo, and turns back to me and says, "Kazu and Kenta called him about the portal. Hey! I'm not any happier about it then you are, but he's a nice guy so whatever."

I look discomforted but nodded and turn back to Rika who seems to have finally noticed Ryo's fast approaching. She sort of looked tense, and in thought. Most likely trying to figure out quick comebacks to whatever he would throw at her. I can't blame her though, because for some odd reason… he created tension around the both of us.

He and Jeri stopped talking just as they were reaching the group and he seemed to not notice the cold stare I was giving him. I didn't like him too much anymore… if at all. He was staring at Rika with a smirk on and (in my opinion) a lustful look in his eyes. "Hey Rika."
She gave him an angry look and I thought she might try to make him into a frozen icicle with such a cold stare… colder then anything I had ever seen. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard about the portal and just thought I'd come along for the ride." He said. "Plus- why would I dare pass up a chance to see your pretty little face?"
He still didn't seem to notice me staring him down… or me standing there… or even that ANYONE else was there. Nevertheless, Rika didn't respond immediately and he took it upon himself to try and get a little closer to his dream girl. He started to walk towards her, and I took a step in between the two, staring into his eyes, daring him to try and get past me.

He gave me a confused look but didn't seem to make any kind of connection there might be. He side stepped me to his left and kept on walking. I turned around grabbed his right shoulder and he spun around and… WHAK!

"Back off Matsuda…"
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"Takato! Takato! Takato?"

Someone was calling me… a long way off and I couldn't make out who it was but I could hear my name. I tried to open my eyes but they wouldn't budge. I moved my fingers around and felt hard ground on their tips. Ground? How did I…

'Ryo!'

I force my eyes to open and see that I'm surrounded by everyone. Regardless, Rika is the first face I see when I sit up and she has a look of concern and worry about her, but I can also sense anger and frustration from her as well. Before anyone can say anything I ask, "Where is he?"
"He left… we told him to." Rika tells me.
"I'll gonna kill him." I say, beginning to sit up.

But Henry pushes me back to the ground. "You're not gonna do anything."

I give him an angry look but I know he's right. 'What an ass hole?' I think to myself… about Ryo of course. I wonder if anyone told him about me and Rika after he hit me? I'll ask later, now is not the time. "So we gotta get to work on planning this trip." I say, with a smile on.
Some of them smile, and Henry even laughs at my pathetic, yet successful, attempt to change the subject. "Sounds good to me." Rika says smiling at me, which I've grown accustomed to. It's both beautiful and rare… and deadly combination.

"Takato… let me ask you this; How does it feel to have, one, had your dignity taken away, and then, two, been knocked out in one punch from Ryo Akiyama?" Kazu asks a foot or two away.

Rika gives me a questioning look, and I get up and give a quick threatening step towards Kazu, whose immediate response is to turn and run. Everyone laughs and I turn to see Rika still giving a questioning look. "Hold Up!" I yell over everyone's laughing.

Now THEY all give me questioning looks. "Rika doesn't know what happen yet." I say out loud, knowing I'm about to be humiliated.
Everyone jumped at a chance to tell her just how my dignity came to be broken, but none faster then Kazu.
"So, last night, it's graduation, a time for elegance, style, grace, and celebration." He leads her on. "But not for Takato."

Rika smiles as he builds up the suspense of my woeful story. "We practiced, and practiced, and practiced some more for the big night, two weeks before graduation, and everything went off without a hitch. However, we're not talkin' about practice. We're talkin' about graduation!" he laughs to himself.
"Anyway, we get there, blah blah blah, fast forward to we're walking down the isle to take our seats and guess what Takato does? No, don't guess, I'll tell you. Poor, poor Takato here he… well he tripped and fell flat on his face in front of EVERYONE!"

Everyone laughs again, and this makes me feel uneasy, knowing I'm being made fun of. Rika laughs a little bit, but then turns to me and gives me such a smile; I forgot there was even anyone else around.

She always knew how to melt me with that stare… but before it used to be by it being so cold… now it's because it's so wonderful.
I come to my senses and look around. The laughter has died down and only a few people are still chuckling to themselves. "Everyone good?" I ask them.
Everyone smiles and nods and finally I am able to move past this. "Alright, now that you've all got that out of your systems, we can get serious about this. We need to prepare for everything and anything while were in the digital world. Remember, when we get there, we're not gonna have anyone to protect us. I don't have ANY idea what were gonna do about that, but some way, somehow… we'll find a way."

Everyone is quiet now, and it gives me a feeling of importance, like I'm the center of attention. "The first thing we have to do… is tell our parents."
There's some moans and groans from the group, but I know they'll listen to reason. "We have to do it guys. We have to-"
"- Stealing my speech?" Henry asks.
I smirk at him, and realize that he's right. "And if I am?" I ask.
"Just wanted to be clear about it, that's all."
"Okay, so can I talk now?"
"Go ahead."

I pause for a moment. There's really no reason to go on now, he just pretty much ruined my moment. "Damn it, Henry! You stole my thunder!"

Some people laugh out loud while some just smile at it. When everyone just clams down I start again. "Whatever. But here's what I'm trusting you all with- go home and tell your parents about this. (short pause) Alright, see ya later."

Everyone stands up from either laying on the ground or sitting cross legged or whatever position they were in and actually start to leave. They leave in groups, and talking about this or that, but when everyone is gone only one person is left standing and waiting for me. I smile as I walk up to her and stick my hand out for her to hold. "Hey there sunshine."

She gives a snicker, but ignores the pet name I just called her. "You wanna come with me to my house when I tell my mom? 'Cuz, ya know, she likes you and it would just make it easier."

I didn't even bother turning it over in my head. "If that's what you want."
"Don't worry, it is. Thanks."
I gave her a big smile and she finally grabs hold of my hand. "Ready to go?"

She looks at me concerned. "This is some deep stuff, Takato. We're talking about going back to the digital world unprotected. If anything goes wrong before we meet up with our partners… or hell any friendly digimon, we could… we could die!"

"I know… I know. Don't think I haven't thought about it. We're just going to have to hope for the best… and… and…" I stopped because I didn't know where I was going with this.

"And what?" she asked in all-seriousness.

I searched for an answer and finally came up with one. "And the people at Hypnos will know what to do."
She brightened up after hearing this and must have made the same realization as I did, that in fact- we did have a plan for what to do. We just needed help making it from some people that had an idea of what they're doing. "So, ready to go now?"

"Most definitely."

So we made our way from the hideout and towards her house, I don't know if she was still angry at me or not for leaving her at her house this morning, but if she was, she sure wasn't letting it show. So I guess, in the end, I was right.

Play innocent… and you can never go wrong.

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A/N: What's going on people? Did you like it? All the cool kids liked it, so you better have liked it. Hahaha. Sorry I'm having a little trouble updating, it's just kind of hard to find time to type while dealing with school too. After XC I joined the track team (HUGE F-CKING MISTAKE!), this time my parents didn't make me do it, so I only have myself to blame. Hopefully I'll have time to type during the Christmas break. I don't think there's too much to explain this time. Yeah, Takato is pretty weak if he can just take one unsuspecting punch to the face and be knocked out. Ryo, unfortunately, will be a major character in this story, where as in Autumn Leaves, he made but a few appearance (a couple of author's notes where I mentioned him… never even mentioned in the story line). Like I said in the last note, this is gonna be more of an adventure then a romance, with more drama in the middle, and most of the romance coming at the end. So they've found something, or rather someone's to help them make there way through the digital world, but will they be willing to help them, after all they went through with the first time they went into the digital world?¿ So, did anyone notice that this entire chapter was from Takato's POV? Autumn Leaves was based more around Rika (in my opinion anyway, and I'm the author) and this one is gonna be based more around Takato. Anyway, I'm working on chapter 3 so be prepared for when it eventually comes out. Also, for those of you who don't know, LivinAMovie Productions (my self-titled video making) and author Notorious P.A.T. (my self-titled story making) have formed a company partnership and the result is Livin' Notorious Productions. Thus every chapter is brought to by them. Pretty exciting, right? That was a joke people, so yes, it's okay to laugh. Alright, now go read Run (second chapters up)! Okay, peace!

Love Always. Rukato Forever.

"Gentlemen it's time to spread the word, and the word is… Panic!"
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