"Shinya," Takuya looked at him.
"Hm?" Shinya tore away from watching the people in the Shibuya Station to look at his brother.
He was wearing the same clothes he wore on Shinya's birthday. Lately, the older boy was wearing that outfit as much as possible. It was one of the many weird things that he was doing since Shinya's eighth birthday.
"I have to do something quick, so stay right here," Takuya said, pointing down as to emphasize 'here'.
Shinya furrowed his eyebrows and said, "why?"
"I'll be quick, I promise." Takuya said to soothe his younger brother.
Before Shinya got to say anything, Takuya ran off into an empty elevator.
The reason why the two Kanbara brothers were at Shibuya Station was because Takuya apparently had some errands to do over at Shibuya, or at least the station, and their mother wanted Takuya to take Shinya with.
"I think it would be nice for Shinya to get out for a little bit. And besides, didn't you say that you wanted to spend more time with him?" Their mother had said to Takuya, and her word was law.
It had to be at least one minute later when an explosion went off nearby. Or it felt and sounded like an explosion.
A scream yanked itself out of the eight year old's mouth as he dropped himself to the floor, frightened by what had happened.
The building around him shook, people screamed, some falling to the floor like Shinya, and strange sounds were heard from the electronics.
A light appeared from one of the elevators, and with a speed that was faster than any normal animal, it set off into one direction and disappeared. Another light, this time slightly bigger, came the same way, but left into another direction.
So much was happening all at once.
The child did not notice this, like everyone else, since he was too busy thinking of the following: the building was going to collapse on him, he was going to die, and one more thought that nearly made his heart stop.
'Is Takuya okay?' He was afraid of what the answer could be.
With a speed that could almost rival Takuya, Shinya shot up and ran over to the elevator. He jumped over people, ducked under arms, and in between legs. Unfortunately he tripped and fell. He gave a small cry before getting back up and continued his run.
He was in front of the elevator.
Hurriedly, he pushed on one of the buttons, not caring which one, to call the elevator. He ignored the fact that the shaking stopped and continued to push the button until the moving metal box finally reached him and opened its doors. The child practically flew into it, spinning around to face the open doors and wall of buttons. Unfortunately, Shinya didn't know where his older brother went, yet for some reason, he felt like he had to press the button that led to the lowest floor.
Shinya watched as the windowed doors closed, and felt the jerk that indicated his descent. He tapped his foot against the floor. His fingers fidgeted. Brown eyes glued to the light going down all the way to B2. Suddenly, the elevator started to go faster, the light somehow going past B2 until it disappeared from the wall. He looked behind him, towards the window, and saw darkness instead of concrete and metal. When he looked back to the windowed doors he saw pitch black darkness as well. Then, a little light started to appear. This triggered the elevator to slow down, or it was very convenient.
When the doors opened, Shinya couldn't help but walk out, staring at everything in awe. It was a train station, underneath a train station. Shinya took a quick glance at one of the large clocks that was up around the circler station and saw the time.
'10:58 am,' he thought, biting his lip. It was getting close to lunchtime. Although Shinya tended to eat lunch at 12:00, he knew he would start to get hungry around now.
Brown eyes went to see the only train still at the station. Slowly, he walked towards it.
"Will… will this lead me to my big brother?" He spoke to himself.
He gulped and nodded to himself, strengthening his resolve. It wasn't even a second later after the kid got on at the caboose did the bell that signified that it was time for the train to depart.
With a strange whistle that sounded more like someone saying 'honk' or something similar, the train began to move.
Shinya looked around. It looked like the only person there was him. But he wasn't sure so he decided to continue throughout the train to see if truly was the only one there. He opened the door that led to the next compartment, and saw no one. The third one was the same. He saw the fourth compartment, and gulped.
Nothing. Not even another door that would lead to another compartment.
Shinya was alone.
With a heavy heart, the young boy went to go sit down, hand gripping on a pole.
He was nervous. He was scared. He was alone on a train headed to who knows where and his brother could be hurt for all he knows.
A memory came forward.
Shinya sat at the dinner table, eyes narrowed, staring intently as if he looked hard enough all the universe's secrets would be revealed, at his brother.
"What are you doing there, little buddy?" Takuya gave a small, slightly nervous, chuckle. He, too, was sitting at the dining table, waiting for dinner.
"Trying to figure out why you're acting so weird." Shinya simply stated.
If Takuya could, he would sweat drop like all those characters do in anime and manga.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
Shinya didn't answer right away, since he was gathering all the things he saw that was different from usual.
"You're acting like you haven't been with us for a long time, and…" that's really all Shinya could put it. There was definitely more to it, but the freshly turned nine year old just couldn't put his finger on it. Was it the way he started to treat their parents with more respect? How he spend more time with Shinya? Gave them a little more love? Acted… more dependable? Or was it the way that he gained mysterious new friends and called them from time to time since it looked like he wanted to be with his family.
"Oh Shinya," Takuya gave a sigh, "listen, remember how a friend of mine got hurt and had to go to the hospital on your birthday?"
The child nodded.
"Well… that was an eye opener for me," he rubbed his face not unlike that of an old man, "I thought 'what if something like that happened to me and I never got to see any of you ever again?' I didn't like it. So I decided to show my appreciation to all of you more."
Shinya blinked, not having thought of that. He never been in Takuya's situation nor was he ever been in his big brother's friend's situation. So he never gave thought of it.
"How is your friend anyway?" Their mom called from the kitchen after, obviously, listening to their conversation.
"Oh he's better now!" Takuya spoke with glee, "He's hanging out with his brother now!"
Their mother smiled, happy that everything turned alright in the end.
"That's good to hear." She said. Then off she went to continue making dinner for that night.
Shinya blinked harshly, trying his best to keep tears out.
'What if what happened to Takuya's friend happened to Takuya?' A traitorous thought came forward into Shinya's mind. The kid shook his head. 'There's no way that could happen! Right? Right!'
Shinya's older brother was strong.
Then out of the blue, the train moved jerked harshly and suddenly, making the boy fall to the floor. Thankfully, Shinya was holding onto the pole so he didn't move any further. He held on for dear life.
For what could have been an eternity or a second later, the jostling stopped.
Brown eyes opened, their owner not remembering when he closed them in the first place. Wide eyes wandered around, almost in a daze like state, only to focus on something… strange outside the windows.
Creatures that kind of looked like marshmallows with eyes and a mouth floated with a purpose to one direction. They had no wings, legs, arms, or anything that could keep them floating in any way, shape, or form.
"Just what on Earth are you?" Shinya couldn't help but whisper.
He was shaken out of his bewilderment by the strange whistle. Only this time it was much louder and sounded more like a creature than a train whistle.
Shinya blinked as he saw the train get closer to what looked like a strange metal town that had houses that blew fire out of the chimneys. The train slowed down to a stop, and the doors opened.
"Welcome to the Fire Terminal," said a strange voice that oddly sounded like the whistle.
"Eh?" Shinya looked around as he walked out of the train, trying to find who said that. It didn't sound like the voice came through a speaker. No, it sounded like a person was standing near him.
There was only him and the train.
"Who said that?" Shinya asked aloud.
"I did."
Shinya turned to where he heard the voice and saw the train.
"It can't be… the train?" His voice held confusion as well as his face. That couldn't be right. A train didn't talk. Did it?
"I'm no train! I'm a Trailmon, my name is Worm!" The train actually spoke! Eyes fell onto Shinya and a mouth with large, sharp teeth opened to make that weird whistle.
"What?" The child whispered.
"Welcome to the Digital World." It said before leaving. Shinya stood there for a few seconds, processing what had happened.
"H-hey!" He finally realized what was going on. "Don't leave!" But it was too late. Worm was gone.
Knees went weak, a head felt like it was full of air, a body felt like it was made out of lead. He couldn't believe it. Shinya was in some place called 'Fire Terminal' that's in a 'Digital World', was in some sort of train monster called 'Worm', and saw flying marshmallows.
With no Takuya.
He was alone is a strange place that could only be possible in a child's wildest dream. The young boy couldn't help but begin to cry.
"Takuya!" He sobbed out. The eight year old was so confused and frightened. He had no idea what to do.
"A human?" A strange voice came from behind the child. Shinya turned his head around, wiping away tears and snot, to see one of the marshmallow things on the ground. How it was able to stand, Shinya didn't know. Like how he didn't know how it could be able to fly.
"Uh… yeah," he sniffed, trying to get some of the snot back up his nose, "my name is Shinya." He probably shouldn't give out his name, but at that point, worrying about giving his name to a strange marshmallow thing wasn't at the top of his list.
The marshmallow thing blinked.
"What's a human doing in the Village of Flames?" The thing asked.
"I'm looking for my brother…" Shinya began to trail off.
"Hmmmm. I think I know who can help!" The thing said excitedly. The creature then turned around, began to hop away, and said, "follow me!"
Shinya scrambled up with a small "ah", and ran after the small being. They ran from the metal village, across a naturally made bridge, and into what looked like a forest. Or was it a village? For there were houses in the trees. Shinya looked around as he saw some big pink birds, gray ball things with ears, and these red creatures with purple stripes.
"Agunimon!" The talking marshmallow shouted.
A man with red, gold, white, and black armor turned around from talking to one of the pink birds.
When Shinya's eyes connected to the man's, he knew that this man felt familiar to him. He watched as the man's blue eyes widened for a moment before returning to their normal size.
The man, Agunimon perhaps, turned his head to speak the the living marshmallow. "Poyomon, why is there a human here?"
Shinya flinched, startled by the voice. The man sounded like Takuya! But he didn't look like him. This man was older, had blue eyes, red war paint on, and had what looked like fangs! Not to mention the long, blond hair.
"He needs help finding his brother!" The marshmallow like being, Poyomon, said.
Agunimon turned his gaze over to the human child.
"Your name wouldn't happen to be Shinya, would it?" He asked.
"Y-yeah. How did you know?" He didn't expect his voice to be that loud. He didn't shout it, but he felt like he should have spoke in a whisper.
Agunimon didn't speak. He only pursed his lips.
"Tell me, is your brother's name Kanbara Takuya?" He asked, looking as if he didn't know if he would like the answer.
Shinya's heart leapt. "Yes!" He then speedily spoke, "do you know him? Did you see him? He went into the elevator in Shibuya Station and then there was this explosion and-"
He was cut off by Agunimon saying, "slow down."
Shinya gulped, then nodded. "My brother, Takuya, took me with him on a errand over at Shibuya Station. He left to go into a elevator and then there was this explosion! I went to go find him and I found this weird train station that was way under Shibuya Station. It went past B2! I went on the train because…" Shinya trailed off, starting to feel silly. Or was he feeling embarrassed? He wasn't sure, and he wasn't sure if this stranger would understand.
"Because…?" Agunimon promoted. His voice and face showed a softness that seemed like it was completely natural on him.
"Because…" Shinya squeezed his eyes shut, "because I thought the train would bring me to my big brother."
All was silent. The pink bird from earlier took Poyomon away at some point in Shinya's explanation. The leaves on the tree houses swayed in the wind. Air was exhaled in and out.
"Well…" Agunimon began, "Takuya did come to the Digital World."
Shinya eyes shot open in surprise.
"He is?" He breathed.
"But I'm not sure as to where he is now." Agunimon told the boy. He watched as the child deflate before saying, "I'll tell you something, though."
The human tilted his head up, curious as to what it was.
"I can help bring your brother back to you."
Hearing this made Shinya hold his breath. His eyes were wide in disbelief. This man, this stranger, was willing to help him? A little boy who got lost and wants his older sibling?
"Do…" Shinya shifted his feet, "do you pinky promise?" He couldn't help but ask. Yes it was such a childish notion, but he was still a child. He needed all the help he could get in order to find Takuya and get back home.
Agunimon knelt down, put a hand over his heart, and said something that Shinya would never forget.
"I, Agunimon, Legendary Warrior of Fire, defender of the Digital World and the Human World, shall do everything that is within my power to reunite you, Kanbara Shinya, to your elder brother, Kanbara Takuya." He then held his other hand out, and took Shinya's pinky, linking it with his own. "I pinky swear it."
Within the fire pools of blue that was Agunimon's eyes, conviction held. It was then that Shinya knew that this man's words were true and he felt a seed of hope begin to grow.