Rika's Appearance in DIGIMON TAMERS (episodes 42-51)
Ruki is in a hotel in Yokohama with her family, watching the news that reports about the D-Reaper. The army is there to fight it. Meanwhile, Takato decides not to leave Tokyo but to stay and help.
Rumiko knows her daughter will do whatever she needs to and won't listen to her - just like she didn't listen when she first got married. She gives Ruki the same T-shirt she already has but the heart is full on it. She also bought the same one for herself. Ruki agrees and changes shirts, touched by her mom's gesture.
Meanwhile, Takato and Jian are returning to Tokyo as well. They unexpectedly? meet at the tunnel that leads straight to West Shinjuku, the Shinjuku's Chuo Park. Their reunion is really nice and it confirms them as a team once again. They walk through the tunnel when Rukato fans' favourite scene happens. Ruki catches Takato looking at her, Jian looks interested too:
I'm not sure what to think about this scene but it made me do this little What is Jian trying to tell us? sub-page because he trully communicates with his face a lot. I guess Ruki is getting in touch with her more feminine side (a full heart is pretty feminine) and hearing a compliment for looking good is part of it? Takato would of course never say it to her because she'd normally bite his head off for it, but he notices it. And Jian is just confused by the two, like super confused. Maybe Ruki did think of Takato as a boy and not as a friend that moment. I finally understand why Rukato fans like this scene so much. xD
They reach the park where the army is already trying to shoot a yet unknown D-Reaper soldier.
They meet a D-Reaper agent in the park that looks like it's scanning them. They run away to hide because they don't know what to could happen if they interacted with it. They go to Takato and Jian's school to stay there over night. They continue to Takato's home in the morning to make some bread for breakfast. There's this funny scene where Ruki complains about eating bread ...:
... but Renamon basically scolds her for being rude. Although Ruki's quite mature for her age, she still allows herself to express these little things that annoy her or she doesn't like (like when she asked Juri to stop calling her Ruki-chan), something Renamon could never do because it's rude. ((She eats muesli and fresh fruit for breakfast in German version. :D))
They bake the bread and it's really nice to see them doing something this casual together as friends. A car stops by the bakery later and it's Yamaki, Reika and Megumi. They explain what they know about the D-Reaper to them. Yamaki drives them to the enemy and they start fighting it with their Ultimate level evolutions but can't really do much (TAOMON: "This is the first time I've ever felt fear."). Everytime their Digimon gets hurt, it hurts the Tamers too. They can't evolve to their Mega level (JIAN: "... we could do it in the Digital World because we were data too."). It's Beelzebumon in his true Mega evolution, who comes help them destroy the one D-Reaper agent.
Trio finds a piece of paper glued to the entrance of the bakery that says they should come to Ruki's house. Ruki hesitates to go (it might be a trap she says) but she's exposed as just being worried because she's "never brought friends home...". Renamon pushes her to let them come. It's a really cute moment I never really noticed - Ruki sharing her friends with the rest of the world.
It turns out it's their parents, who invited them for a dinner at Ruki's home. They tell them how they don't like the idea of them fighting but will try to be supportive of it. Trio feels bad for their understanding parents.
Their D-Power starts to react soon and they have to go. Rumiko seems to have the most problems with Ruki going:
SEIKO (to all of them): I don't know how long we'll be able to stay here, but we'll do everything we can to help you. So, at the very least, take care of yourselves.
And so they go. They see D-Reaper agents attacking Alice and Dobermon. She tells them they were looking for them to deliver them something from Zhuqiaomon and Qinglongmon - the Digital Grid, the power that can change them into data and allows them to evolve to Mega level together with their Digimon.
Ruki, Takato and Jian enter the Digital Grid before evolving with their Digimon to the Mega level. They think about their relationships, what shaped their personalities, how they evolved and what they had to overcome to be here. Ruki's thoughts are an amazing retrospective on her growth:
Ruki's aware of how she was before she made friends with Renamon and the other Tamers and she's also aware of her change and the reasons behind it. This might be the first time she admits these feelings to herself. I just love how she emphasizes she never wanted to be a boy because she was never bothered with her gender and just wanted to be a strong person. The absence of her father (and the assumption that he wanted a boy) probably was one of the reasons Ruki felt she needed to be tough and not to leave anyone close to her.
Dobermon vanishes and the trio fights different D-Reaper agents in their Mega levels. Hirokazu, Kenta and Antylamon join the fight and Ruki is even happy to see Hirokazu (see how she's okay with the guy when he's not acting like a dumbass). Dukemon gets pulled inside the D-Reaper bubble, where Takato finds out the scary looking Juri is actually a D-Reaper agent. She tells him that they decided the humans weren't worth living. The episode ends with Justimon's over the top appearance on the scene.
Justimon enters the scene and introduces himself (and it's outragous hahah). Ruki immediately recognizes the "annoying 'refreshing' presence" as Ryo. He then kicks away a D-Reaper agent trying to attack Sakuyamon and tries to keep agent's attention away from Sakuyamon and SaintGalgomon so that they can go and save Dukemon. They go and Hirokazu and Guardromon stay behind to help Justimon.
MarineAngemon helps them stay in their Mega level inside the bubble. Takato and Guilmon, who dedigivolved after entering the bubble, are being chased by D-Reaper-Juri but they get them out. Meanwhile, Justimon and Guardramon continue fighting. Justimon seems to have great fighting skills but he doesn't defeat the agent until Ruki, Jian and Antylamon come back to help him.
They all go to Ruki's house later. Ruki remembers Alice and how they never thanked her for her help.
Ryo and Cyberdramon leave the group to go fight D-Reaper by themselves and the rest go to Yamaki's and the Wild Bunch's HQ. Ruki finds out about Juri's family situation and feels bad for her. She goes outside to be alone:
Juri's father can't stand doing nothing anymore and drives to the D-Reaper bubble to get his daughter back. Tamers follow him and encounter yet another D-Reaper agent, who's imitating Juri's voice. It feels contradictory feelings of Juri towards her father. Ruki gets angry at it for thinking it understands Juri:
They start fighting it and Justimon joins them too. Shibumi materializes Grani again and he comes to help them defeat a few agents.
(I don't know why but I really like the last picture with Ruki and Ryo holding Juri's father, isn't it cute?? ♡)
D-Reaper is expending and the HQ might have to relocate. Tamers and the rest watch footage of the DigiWorld they got from Grani and see that D-Reaper has made horrible damage there as well. Moreover, D-Reaper expended outside Japan too (to America, England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand...).
Tamers see Beelzebumon inside the bubble and decide it's time to fight again. They're determined to save Juri this time. They send Takato to go save her and they stay behind to fight off the agents. Beelzebumon helps Dukemon. Meanwhile, D-Reaper starts transmitting footage of the Tamers fighting with their Digimon, showing the world that they fight as one.
Yamaki and the Wild Bunch use a satellite link to communicate with Takato directly and tell him to use a program they equipped Grani with. The bubble is destroyed and Beelzebumon manages to come to the core to save Juri. He almost saves her but she's not ready to go with the Digimon who killed Leomon.
D-Reaper consumes the Government Building to shape the Mother. It seems like D-Reaper's power grows with Juri's sorrow. Tamers can't get through to her. They still lose their power if they enter the bubble and have to wait for a solution. The D-Reaper Zone expands to a diameter of 12km in the following week.
The trio are at the Tsukuba Advanced Communications Research Institute where Yamaki and the Wild Bunch are figuring out how to get Juri. Tamers have to evacuate the city again.
Ruki is with her family in a hotel in Yokohama. Renamon is sitting with them at the restaurant table and feels uncomfortable. Ruki's mom and grandma want Ruki to focus on the family and spending time together now. Ruki agrees to it but is hiding her D-Power under the table, ready to go back to fight when the time comes.
Shibumi and the others make a program that would help the Tamers fight and it's time to reunite again. Jian swipes Shibumi's card and sends a message to Takato and Ruki, making their D-Power glow.
I suppose the parents are even more against their children fighting the D-Reaper now that they know it's not just the Digimon fighting. That's why Ruki leaves Yokohama without telling anything to Rumiko or Seiko.
Renamon and Ruki evolve to Sakuyamon to fly to Tokyo. Ruki tells Renamon how comfortable she feels as Sakuyamon:
The trio meets in Tokyo. Jian explains about the Red Card Shibumi created that will allow them to fight inside the D-Reaper. I love how they took time with this solution. It took days to come up with the idea and to implement it successfully (or not so successfully as it turns out) before they could even have a chance against the D-Reaper.
Justimon appears suddenly: "I hope you haven't forgotten about us!" Ruki doesn't mind him but then he doesn't come in his usual outrageous way and he doesn't annoy her.
They prepare their D-Powers because they only have one Red Card.
They finally enter the D-Reaper Zone and start fighting the agents in front of the Mother. Hirokazu and Kenta are fighting outside the Zone.
The four of them have a little moment before going into the final battle:
I guess that Takato meant that they all had to overcome something to be there, they all had to evolve somehow but their core hasn't changed. They always had it in them, they just had to find it and embrace it?
Juri is finally willing to fight. D-Reaper connects the two worlds to erase them both. The Reaper agent appears from the DigiWorld and scares them all with its mightiness. Dukemon wants to fight it but Justimon tells him to go save Juri and leave it to them. Dukemon does so and is almost defeated but Grani shows up in the last second and sacrifices himself to give Dukemon his powers. Dukemon evolves to his Crimson Mode.
Justimon asks Sakuyamon to give him all her powers. If she could channel all her powers into Justimon's blade, they could slice the Reaper in half. Ruki is not too thrilled about the plan because it could hurt Ryo. He convinces her to do it but Renamon's still not sure it's a good idea:
Ruki gives all their powers to her biggest rival, putting the needs of the world before hers. She's no longer the girl that had to win all the time to be the strongest, she's a part of a team now and has to give up her (actual) strength to protect people and the worlds she cares about.
Justimon cuts the Reaper in half but it just glues itself together. The four Sovereigns come to help from the DigiWorld and pull the enemy through the tunnel. SaintGalgomon goes into the tunnel to rotate the D-Reaper into its original unevolved state because Shibumi loaded the Shaggai into Terriermon. D-Reaper is sucked into the tunnel and Takato finally reaches Juri. The Red Card had a flaw and they can't stay in their Mega level any longer. Hirokazu and Kenta come get them out with MarineAngemon's help.
They're in Shinjuku park, happy that it's over:
But then the Digimon dedigivolve to their In-Training levels and Jian's dad reveals they have to return to the DigiWorld:
Jiang-yu is devestated because he knew this was going to happen, however it was the only way to save both world. The Digimon understand and say goodbye to their Tamers, promising them they'll see eachother again.
We know from the Drama CD, Message in the Packet, that Ruki doesn't handle the separation very well, especially the not knowing when (if) the two will finally meet. The series ends on a bit more positive note, when Takato walks pass Guilmon's hiding place and sees the entrance to the DigiWorld open again. The ending itself is still heartbreaking and I have tears in my eyes just writing about it. The amazing combination of happiness, sorrow, Juri forgiving Impmon, Jian forgiving his father for not telling them about the plan, the sweet-and-sorrow last moments between the trio and their Digimon and the perfect music accompanying the scene ... this truly is the greatest Digimon season ;_;