People dream of being heroes, but those kind of wishes don't always come true.
Heroes only exist in fairytales for little children, and day by day they fade away from your life.
Koh doesn't believe in a lot of things.
For instance, he doesn't believe in being extraordinary and all that 'saving the world' nonsense — they are silly adventures only told in cartoons and comic books to entice children into thinking that superheroes exist. Maybe—maybe—some good novels have those too, but the dystopian universe that is created in the process is a little unbelievable, and Koh stops reading those too after some time.
Growing up, he thinks, is a beautiful thing.
He starts to see the childishness of his childhood days and throws away reminders of it — he doesn't want to know how foolish he had been — yet after some time…
…he can't help but admit that growing up is a tragedy in a way too.
Did you hear about what happened in the SunShine district?
The earthquake? Yeah, we felt it here in DarkMoon too.
Sayo doesn't know the meaning of friends.
There isn't anyone else her age in DarkMoon, as ridiculous as it sounds. She mostly hangs out with an older bunch of boys and girls from her street, but it doesn't feel right lots of times, not that she knows how it really feels to be around peers.
She acts as if she fits in right along with the bunch of idiots she's with every single day, but she feels lonely. It feels like before she met them, when she used to spend her time sitting near the waterfalls playing with the handheld devices Phascomon bought her.
Nothing's wrong. Everything is just fine.
But sometimes when she sees and runs up to them excitedly, she hears them laughing brilliantly, their eyes brighter than the stars that reside far away from the immediate black space around DarkMoon.
It is during those moments when she feels like a stranger to them, and sometimes she turns and walks the other way until Paunch or Barone or Dorothy turns around and sees her— "Oh, Sayo-chan! I didn't see you there just now."
Newton, Dorothy, Barone, Paunch, Gutts — they all treat her nicely, but she can't help but feel that they're more close-knit without her. They existed before she even joined in the fray.
When Koh is confronted with the mission to save CITY, he hesitates. This isn't the world, but it's saving people — friends (yet no family—his stomach churns at this thought) — all the same.
He has once told himself that if he has to ever make this choice, he'd turn it down. Though granted, in the first place, he's never actually believed that this will one day happen to him. But now that the situation has presented itself to him and he sees what is actually at stake, he falters.
Chief Glare watches him with so much hope in his eyes that he can't turn him down.
"Okay." He thinks this is all he's got to say, but then he thinks again, and adds in a light snarl, "But I'm not doing this because I want a reputation or something, you got it?"
The older man smirks, arms folded across his chest. "You've got personality, I'll give you that."
Koh tries not to scowl, but he thinks it's still there anyways, so he kind of gives up halfway and leaves the plaza.
It reminds him of all the reasons why he hates his chief.
Hey, did you know that they got a little kid to deal with all that trouble that's been happening?
After a while, Sayo stops hanging out with them. She spends a little more time bugging Sukikiyo and Kakumi about fighting and Grand Tournaments instead, but eventually she stays at home and tries training by the beach below her bedroom.
"Why do you work so hard?" Phascomon sighs one day, after seeing Sayo lying exhausted on the sand. "You push yourself too hard, young child. I've heard from Sukikiyo and Kakumi. Do you really believe that you'll make it to the Grand Tournaments one day?"
She doesn't listen. She never does. Phascomon's naggy. Phascomon isn't nice. Sometimes, she just really dislikes Phascomon (she refuses to hate anyone), just like how she really dislikes Dorothy and the others sometimes — not that she can blame them though, because she was the latecomer. She didn't belong. She messed up their dynamics.
I hope they're happy, she thinks grimly, mind wandering back to a few days ago when she sees them playing cards by the waterfalls.
"Did you even hear what I say?"
She continues to ignore her NaviDigimon and yells for Moonmon to get up.
You can dream, but there's no guarantee it'll come true. It almost never does, and they die and fade away after time. Some people just gradually forget about it, while some people's lives have been greatly impacted.
Dreams die, and the people die a little bit on the inside, but it's so mild that almost no one notices it until the people die completely, and they look back at everything that has happened.
Koh feels sick when he hears the rumours going around. People are calling him a kid, and it hits him like a truck. After all, he's been thinking that he's "all grown up" now.
It doesn't help when Chief Glare calls him a young child too during the awards ceremony, following his success on the battlefield.
"Let us thank this young child for his efforts in saving CITY. He has done the community a great service and we are undoubtedly in his debt now. I believe I speak for all of us when I say that we are very grateful for what you've done, Koh."
Ofanimon smiles, his Digimon smile, the crowd smiles and cheers—
He smiles too, and he smiles so brightly that he thinks his cheekbones are going to break soon.