Beast Spirit of Earth

by Windfighter

Kouji's missing from school, and Takuya decides to figure out why. The answer to that question shocks him.

Taking part in a game of Digimon Fanfiction Bingo, I found myself with the prompt: Enormous.

My first thought was about Miyako and Koushiro building a giant computer, but I tossed that out once I got my next thought: "Finally, my first Ben10 fanfic! Sure, crossover with digimon, but never the less!"

Problem was - it didn't happen. The Ben10-part never came. And I wanted Takuya to turn into Humungosaur, simply because it'd be awesome! (Also that's one enormous alien!)

Instead, I ended up with this story. Luckily enough it also works with the prompt, so I'm satisfied!

---

Takuya was biting on his pencil. It tasted like crap, but he didn't have anything better to do. He could feel Izumi sending him an irritated glare, but he simply shrugged as an answer. The irritated glares were usually only sent from Kouji so he guessed he must have done something particularly irritating today. Or maybe it was because Kouji wasn't at school today. Takuya wasn't sure why, but he had decided to go over to Kouji's house after school to ask him about it.
He looked at the other raven-haired boy, who was sitting with his face deep in the book, trying hard to keep up with the teachers pace. He had asked Kouichi about Kouji's absence, but he knew nothing. At least that's what he said. Although, Kouichi was exceptionally bad at lying, so he was probably telling the truth.
"And if everyone would pay attention..."
Takuya stopped staring at the ceiling and looked down into the book. If the teacher asked for it he could at least pretend to concentrate. He took the pencil out of his mouth and put it to the paper, pretending to write relevant stuff down, but in the end he simply doodled. Mostly stick figures, reliving the time in the digital world. Sometimes he woke up and though it had all just been a dream, because how many people get to visit an alternate dimension? Those thought wouldn't leave him until Kouji greeted him on the way to school, because if it had never happened he would never have become friends with Kouji. He wasn't stupid, he knew that much at least. Kouichi and Izumi, sure, he could easily see himself befriending them even without the life-threatening situations in the digiworld, but Kouji... No way whatsoever.
Kouichi poked him in the side and his mind wandered back to the classroom, at least for a little while. Long enough for him to realize that he didn't understand a word the teacher was saying. He put the pencil in his mouth again, staring at the book and his doodles. If he could just focus enough to doodle about whatever the teacher was talking about but no, of course he couldn't.
Although Takuya always had difficult paying attention in class it was rarely this bad. He knew it, and the glances Kouichi and Izumi sent him told him they knew it as well. But why was it so hard today? What was different from any other day?
Takuya glanced at Kouji's empty desk. That was different. During the two years he had known Kouji the other boy had never missed even one day of school. He just didn't get sick. Was it really only thanks to Kouji he was able to focus? And why?
"If Takuya would be kind enough to explain..."
Takuya shifted in his seat and stared at the teacher.
"I'm... sorry? Explain what?"
Whatever the teacher answered it was pure greek to Takuya, who could do nothing but continue staring.
"I would love to, if I could just understand what you just said."
Snickering were heard throughout the classroom and Takuya blushed, while the teacher glared at him as if he had just given him the worst insult ever. Kouichi put his hand up in the air and the teacher nodded at him, indicating that Kouichi could answer the question instead. Takuya knew he should pay attention, but there was a fly trying to exit through the closed window that caught his attention instead and Kouichi's voice faded away. Izumi poked him in the side this time, but he decided to ignore it. It didn't matter anyway, he just couldn't focus today.
It took way too long time until the bell rang. Takuya quickly threw his books into the backpack and left the classroom, Kouichi and Izumi not far behind him.
"What's wrong with you?"
Izumi had that stern voice she always had when trying to lecture any of them, but Takuya simply grinned.
"Granted, you rarely pay attention, but it's never this bad. Takuya, it's not funny. Are you even listening to me?"
"errr... Yes?"
"What did I say?"
"That... err... A walrus shouldn't try to mate with a pineapple?"
Kouichi laughed, but did his best not to after a glare from Izumi, and Takuya decided to just ignore the girl and turned towards the twin instead.
"You sure you don't know where Kouji is?"
Kouichi shook his head.
"I'm as curious as you are but... Well, there's nothing we can do, is it?"
"I'm heading over there after school, you're coming with me?"
"If he's sick he probably need to rest, Takuya. You should stay away until he asks you to come."
"But what if he can't? What if he's lost his voice or something like that?"
"He can always text you. Hey, Izumi, what's the next lesson?"
"Art."
Takuya groaned. He did enjoy art because it was pretty free, but it was still a stupid subject he'd never have any use for. And without Kouji it'd probably be even more boring than usually. Kouichi hit him in his head, not as hard as Kouji would, but still hard enough for him to snap out of his thoughts.
"It'll be fun, Takuya."
"Yeah... probably. So you're not coming with me after school?"
"I already told you to leave it be."
"Yeah, alright, I'll tell you tomorrow what's wrong with him then."
Izumi let out a sigh.
"He's probably just sick. Maybe he's gotten the flu. That's still going around, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but he's never sick."
She shrugged.
"Sometime would have to be the first. Beside, no one can go through their whole life without getting sick, can they?"
"No... I guess not..."
Takuya kicked an invisible stone. It didn't matter what they said, he was still going to visit Kouji once school ended for the day.

The door was unlocked. That was unusually. The Minamoto family always made certain that the front door was locked in case someone tried to break in. Something that happened from time to time. Takuya stared at the open door for a while, before putting a foot inside the house. Perhaps someone had broken in. He swallowed.
"Kouji?"
"Takuya? Is that you? Thank the gods! Come up, now!"
He could hear something breaking and there was something weird about Kouji's voice. It didn't sound quite right. Takuya quickly kicked off his shoes and rushed up the stairs. There was a hole in the wall next to Kouji's room and he peeked through it.
"Kouji?"
The room was a total mess. Everything laid broken on the floor and in the far corner of the room he could see an extraordinary big dog crouching. It looked towards Takuya and there was something familiar about those eyes. Takuya continued and walked through the door, his eyes still on the large dog-like creature.
"Is that you?"
The creature nodded, panic clearly visible in its eyes. It tried to get up, but for some reason its feet didn't want to grab the ground and it slipped again, breaking the bed even more in the process. Takuya did his best to hide a laugh, because he could clearly see the distress his best friend was in.
"How did this happen?"
"I don't know, I woke up and went out of bed and then my feet just wouldn't work and suddenly the bed was broken."
Takuya went closer. The creature took up almost half of the room, making it hard for it not to move without breaking anything. He stopped about a feet away from the creature and looked at it.
"I guess the real question should be why did this happen, and not how."
He was silent for a moment, while studying the creature his best friend had turned into. He'd recognize that shape anywhere. Garmmon. He went even closer and poked something on the back of the creatures feet.
"Maybe you'd be able to get up if you brought those wheels back up?"
Garmmon lifted his head to see what Takuya was talking about and Takuya was certain that the dog-like creature would have blushed had it been able too. Garmmon took a deep breath, Takuya could see his form relaxing, and slowly the wheels went up and the creature slowly tried putting his feet down again. The floor creaked under his weight, but didn't break.
"I guess this is why you didn't come to school today."
"Yeah..."
"You've calmed down at least."
"But what should I do? What if dad sees me like this? Or mom?"
"Can't you just make it go away?"
"You think I haven't tried?"
Okay, Kouji was starting to panic again. Takuya quickly shut up before he made it worse. A panicked Kouji was never good, especially since it was usually he who kept his head cool and came up with the solutions. Granted, they had never faced this problem before.
"Alright, well, we should at least get you out of here before you destroy the whole building."
"Forget that, I've destroyed my whole room just by trying to get up on my feet, I'm not risking the rest of the house. I'm staying here until it fixes itself."
"But you've gotten control over your feet again now."
"Still not risking it!"
With that, Kouji simply laid down back on the floor again. Takuya let out a sigh and left the room, locating the phone on the lower floor. He wasn't sure that the older twin was home already, he had a longer way to walk, but it was the best he could come up with. Four signals went through before someone picked the phone up on the other end.
"Moshi moshi?"
"Kouichi?"
"Takuya? Didn't I tell you to let Kouji rest?"
"Yeah, well, we've got a situation over here..."
"Is he hurt? What have happened? Have you called an ambulance? He's not dying, is he?!"
"And I thought he was the only one of you guys who was overly worried about the other."
Takuya looked back towards the stairs, in case Kouji had changed his mind, but it was awfully silent on the upper floor.
"Any way, it's nothing like that. I just don't know what to do with him, so could you please come over?"
He could hear something breaking on the upper floor, the floor creaking and a loud thump, followed by a low whimper.
"Takuya?"
"I have to go, Kouichi. Please hurry."
He put the phone down and hurried up again, and had to put a hand in his mouth to prevent himself from laughing. Kouji was stuck halfway out of the door, not daring to go neither forwards nor backwards since it could break the wall.
"It's nothing to laugh about!"
The normally calm twin was still pretty much in panic mode. Takuya swallowed the laughter, he needed to do something to calm his friend.
"Sooo... where's your dog?"
"I don't know, I almost squished him when I fell out of the bed and I haven't seen him since then. Now get me out of here!"
Okay, that didn't work. Takuya bit his lower lip, his brain working hard.
"Kouichi should be on his way, think you can... hang in there until then?"
Takuya couldn't contain his laughter anymore and had to jump out-of-the-way for the big metal paw that almost hit him.
"It isn't funny, Kanbara."
Yeah, when Kouji used his last name, stuff was serious. Takuya backed away so Kouji wouldn't be able to reach him, and settled down on the floor, looking at Kouji while the dog-like boy tried to get out of the door frame without wrecking it completely. Needless to say it was unsuccessful. After looking at Kouji's failed attempts for two minutes Takuya was unable to stay silent any longer.
"So you have no idea why this happened?"
Kouji ceased his attempts at escaping the door frame and looked at Takuya.
"No idea why and no idea how."
"The how never really mattered, you know. We all transformed over and over again in the digital world and no one ever questioned it."
"I did."
"You don't count. Hey, where's your cellphone?"
"I've been too busy demolishing my room to keep track of it. It's probably somewhere among the rubble in there."
Kouji motioned towards his room with one of his front paws and Takuya got back up on his feet, climbed through the hole in the wall and started shifting around in the debris. Kouji tried unsuccessfully to turn around so he could see what his friend was up too.
"Had any weird dreams during the night?"
"What does that matter?"
"I just thought maybe that triggered your evolution."
"Takuya, please don't think."
"I can't find it."
"What?"
"Your phone, I can't find it."
"Of course you can't, it's a mess in there."
"No, I mean... it doesn't ring."
"What are you talking about?"
"I tried calling it but it doesn't ring from anywhere in here. Did you turn it off?"
"You know I never do that in case Kouichi needs me."
"Well then, either the battery died or..."
"Takuya, you are aware that we still had our digivices even in our evolved forms, right?"
"Oh, right."
Takuya fell silent again while continuing to look through the debris that once had been Kouji's furnitures. After a few minutes more he heard the door frame creaking as Kouji moved around again.
"Takuya, there's someone in the yard."
"Enhanced hearing in that form?"
"Sense of smell. You really should change your socks."
Takuya stuck out his tongue at Kouji's back, but left the debris. It was no use trying to find anything in it any way.
"It's probably Kouichi."
He climbed back through the hole and hurried down the stairs to open the door. Not that it was locked, but still. Kouichi was just about to knock when he opened the door.
"Great, I thought you'd never get here! Kouji's getting all cranky!"
"That's because you're being stupid!"
Takuya could see the look of confusion on Kouichi's face, and hurried to pull the boy inside, not even giving him enough time to take off his shoes. When they had almost reached the top of the stairs Kouichi abruptly stopped, staring at the creature that was stuck halfway into his brother's room.
"What? How?!"
"I..."
The creature looked to the ceiling, as if the answer could be found there, but apparently didn't find what it was looking for and looked back at Kouichi.
"I woke up like this. I don't know what to do. And thanks to Takuya I'm stuck here!"
"Hey, it's not my fault you have a big butt!"
Once again Takuya had to jump out-of-the-way for Kouji's paw, but this time the wall no longer wanted to support Kouji's weight and it crumbled, making him fall over and his other leg to fall through the floor, efficiently securing him to the spot. Kouji let out a low growl as Takuya once again started laughing. Kouichi slowly walked up to his brother's side, kneeling in front of him.
"You really don't know?"
Kouji shook his head, the panic slowly fading from his eyes. With his brother there he felt calmer at least. Kouichi grabbed him and tried to get him loose from the hole his paw had made, but to no avail.
"Speaking of nothing..."
Both Takuya and Kouji turned their heads towards the older twin.
"You guys felt the earthquake this morning?"
Both boys shook their heads, neither had noticed it. Kouichi continued talking, still trying to pull his brother up.
"Sure, earthquakes are pretty common, but something felt... off with this one. Like it wasn't... it wasn't real."
Takuya turned towards Kouji, who looked back. Their eyes widened as a thought struck their minds. Takuya opened his mouth first.
"Gigasmon..."
Kouji managed to pull himself loose, making his way down the stairs. It creaked under his weight, but he got down without breaking it. Takuya and Kouichi were right behind him, causing them to run straight into Kouji's hind legs as he stopped in front of the door.
"Alright, I'm done caring."
He focused, took a deep breath and light radiated from his mouth.
"Solar laser!"
The door blasted away, leaving burnt marks where it had just been. The hole was big enough for Garmmon to go through and Kouji made his way out. People stopped on the street to stare at him, but he didn't care, he simply motioned for Takuya and Kouichi to get on top of him. When they were secure on his back he dashed out of the yard. Kouichi pulled himself closer to his head, so he could be heard over the wind.
"You know where you're going?"
Kouji growled. He didn't have time to think on little details like that now. Kouichi hit him right between his ears.
"Baka. I'd expect this behavior from Takuya, but you should now better."
"I heard that!"
Kouji slowed down, and came to a halt in the middle of a street. Kouichi smiled and gave Kouji a light pat.
"Good boy."
Kouji rolled his eyes as Takuya and Kouichi jumped off him again. Kouichi spared no time for explanations before putting his hands down Takuya's pockets. Takuya blushed ferociously, tried to protest, but before he was able too Kouichi pulled back with Takuya's cellphone in his hand.
"You've got the best one of us."
"A warning next time you feel like molesting me would be nice..."
Kouichi stuck his tongue out towards Takuya, before turning his attention to the cellphone again.
"If we can find out where the epicenter of the earthquake was, we know where to start our search at least... C'mon, google, don't fail me now."
He tapped his foot waiting for the cellphone to load.
"There, alright, I've got it!"
With that he jumped back on Kouji's back, Takuya just mere seconds after, and Kouji took off again, this time guided by Kouichi. As they got nearer to the place they could see the destruction left by the earthquake(s?). Kouji slowed down, no longer running, so he could take it all in. Takuya jumped off him again, walking beside him, but Kouichi stayed on Garmmon's back.
"Seems like the attacks work differently in our world than in the digital world."
Kouji nodded to Takuya's words. There wasn't much to say. He could feel Kouichi gently tapping on his shoulders to indicate in which direction he should turn, and almost knocked Takuya over when he turned left. As they got closer to the epicenter the destruction got worse and they noticed that some buildings had collapsed completely. Then, Kouji stopped mid step.
"Found you."
Kouji turned towards the voice, while slowly backing away and leaning down so Kouichi could jump off him. The two humans hurried away, in hope to find a safer place, as Kouji glared at Gigasmon.
"What are you doing here?"
"I came to collect that spirit."
Gigasmon pointed towards Garmmon.
"But while I'm at it, I might as well get the others as well."
"We don't have the spirits anymore!"
"Then how do you explain your form?"
Kouji didn't have an answer. Ever since they came back from the digital world he had been sure the spirits left them, went back to where they belonged. Meaning that he shouldn't have been able to evolve into Garmmon, but yet he did. Would it be possible without the beast spirit of light? No, he was certain of that. In that case he had been wrong the whole time and they still possessed their spirits, but why had they not been able to evolve before this incident?
"Earthquake!"
Gigasmon's fist collided with the ground, causing it to shake and shatter. Kouji lost his footing, but regained his balance in time. He turned around to see if Kouichi and Takuya had made it out okay, but was rewarded with a fist square in his face from Gigasmon, and he flew right into the closest building. It only took a few seconds for him to get back up again.
"This was not how I wanted this day to go..."
He took a deep breath, he could feel the energy gathering inside his mouth and opened his jaws to let out a bright beam.
"Solar Laser!"
Gigasmon barely dodged the attack, and it disintegrated a door instead. The troll laughed at Kouji, but got knocked down by a tackle. Kouji's paw pressed Gigasmon firmly towards the ground.
"This isn't fair!"
Kouji let out a low growl, which shut the troll up, for the moment. He took a new deep breath, gathering energy in his mouth to blast the monster to where it belonged, raising his paw so that he wouldn't hit himself. The split second between him lifting the paw and attacking was all it took for Gigasmon to get away and the force from the attack forced Kouji into the air, before he slammed down right next to Takuya and Kouichi. Gigasmon jumped into the air, raising his fist.
"Get back!"
Kouji rolled over, grabbed the other two with his front paws, and pulled them closer, shielding them from the attack. Gigasmon's fist hit the ground, shattered it, and Kouji could feel rocks blasting into his back. He clenched his teeth, and when it stopped raining rocks he slumped down on the ground, letting Takuya and Kouichi loose. Kouichi turned around and looked at Kouji as Garmmon's form disappeared and the digital code became visible around him.
"Kouji!"
The spirit floated into view, but the beast spirit of light wasn't the only spirit showing itself. Kouichi stared at them, then slowly reached out towards them. Two of the spirits broke loose, slowly making their way towards him. Gigasmon got up from the ground, his eyes widening when he saw the four spirits and he leaped to catch them before Kouichi got them, but Takuya jumped in the way, his foot shifting Kouji's position in the process, and he and Gigasmon landed on the ground. Kouichi screamed as the spirits reached him, he could feel them poking about in his whole body and his scream intensified as he started to glow and the form of Löwemon overtook his body.
When the transformation was complete he turned his eyes towards Gigasmon and Takuya, only to notice that digicode had started circling Takuya as well. He gathered energy, before releasing it towards Gigasmon.
"Endlich Meteor!"
A stream of dark energy hit Gigasmon, who flew away from Takuya. Löwemon caught Takuya just before the boy hit the ground.
"Takuya? Takuya, wake up!"
Takuya slowly opened his eyes, the digicode around him going back into him again. Löwemon let out a sigh of relief.
"You scared me there, Takuya."
"Sorry."
Takuya scratched the back of his head before breaking loose from Löwemon's grip.
"How's Kouji?"
Löwemon gestured over his shoulder and Takuya looked over it to see Kouji still out cold.
"Keep an eye on him, okay?
Takuya nodded, and Löwemon got up again, rushing after their opponent. Takuya looked after him until he disappeared behind a broken building, then went over to Kouji's side. Gently, he shook his friend, trying to wake him up. He heard Kouji draw a sharp breath, but outside of that there was no reaction. Slowly he pulled off his jacket and put it over the blue-haired boy, settling down beside him.
"Please don't die, Kouji..."

Everything was dark. Kouji looked around, trying to find out where he was, but nothing. He couldn't see a thing. He could hardly even see his own nose.
"Takuya? Kouichi?"
There was no answer.
"Please don't tell me I died or something. That's Kouichi's apartment."
"No, not yet at least."
Kouji recognized that voice. It was almost his own, but not exactly. But it had been so long since he heard it...
"Has it really been that long?"
A small light was drawing nearer, growing bigger as it came closer.
"Wolfmon!"
"Yo, Kouji. Have you forgotten already?"
"Forgotten what?"
"I mean, I know he defeated us once before, but that's because you couldn't control him."
Wolfmon pointed towards something on the other side of Kouji, and he turned around only to end up face to face with Garmmon. Garmmon growled.
"I do not need to be reminded of that time. And you can hardly blame me for testing my supposedly master."
Kouji's eyes shifted between the two digimons. He could not remember Wolfmon sounding so... casual, nor Garmmon so uptight. No, not uptight, more like... one of those guys in costume you'd see on british television. Cultural? Classy? Yes, perhaps classy was the best way to describe it. Either way it didn't fit.
"Where am I?"
Wolfmon smiled.
"You're in the part of your mind where we live on. Funny how it took a digimon knocking you out to find us again."
"I was found earlier today, mind you Wolfmon."
"True that. How did that happen anyway?"
"I am not certain, but my guess is that he felt the earthquake, although his conscious mind did not register it, and that awoke memories from our first encounter with Gigasmon and thus my powers awoke inside him."
"...How do I get out again?"
The two digimons looked at each other, but neither answer. Kouji found himself getting frustrated, mostly because he knew that every second in there ment another second where his brother was risking his life out there. Garmmon looked down towards him again.
"Perhaps you can will yourself to wake up?"
Kouji closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Wake up, wake up, wake up...
Slowly he opened one eye, Garmmon still looking at him. He let out a sigh and slumped down on the nothingness beneath him.
"It's no use, I can't do it."

Kouichi barely managed to turn so his feet landed against the wall instead of his back, and the same second he had to jump out-of-the-way for Gigasmon's fist once more. He shot a glance towards Takuya and Kouji only to notice that his brother was still lying motionless on the ground. He called forth his shield and spear, bashing the troll digimon with the shield, pushing himself up in the air and landing on the other side, quickly turning around to face the troll again.
Gigasmon stumbled around for a few seconds, seconds Kouichi should have taken to pierce him with the spear, but found his footing after that, turning to face Löwemon with a smile on his face.
"Hurricane Bomber!"
Gigasmon started to spin before lifting of the ground, flying towards Kouichi with his arms outstretched.
"Endlich Meteor!"
The beam of energy split in two when it hit Gigasmon, and Kouichi had to jump away again to avoid getting hit. As he landed he lifted his spear and took aim at Gigasmon.
"Ewig Schlaf!"
Gigasmon avoided it with only a millimeter to spare, and Kouichi got a clenched fist in his back, causing him to fly again. He blocked the impact with his shield, turned around and noticed that Gigasmon had jumped into the air again, his fist full of energy.
"Earthquake!"
Gigasmon hit the ground, causing it to shake, break, and Löwemon fell down a crack. He managed to grab the edge and tried to pull himself up, but Gigasmon was there too quickly, stomping on his fingers. The pain made it hard to hold on, but he knew he couldn't let go.
Takuya got up when he saw Kouichi falling through the crack. He clenched his fists, feelings of worthlessness grabbing hold of him.
"Kouichi!"
Gigasmon smiled, and sprinted towards the crack and Takuya found himself taking a few steps forward before realizing it would probably only make matters worse. Instead he turned towards Kouji again.
"Kouji, wake up! Kouichi needs you!"

"Kouichi needs you!"
Kouji looked around, he was certain he had heard Takuya's voice. He noticed that Garmmon and Wolfmon also looked around and then he saw it, a small light in the distance.
"I'm going."
The two digimons smiled.
"We expect you too."
Together the three of them started to run towards the light.

Kouji awoke with a scream that would have been able to wake the dead. Takuya jumped back in surprise, and the moment Kouji opened his eyes the digicode went back into his body and he started to glow. His scream got louder, but then he clenched his teeth and it died out, although pain was still visible in his eyes. Still glowing he got up on his feet and started running towards Gigasmon, his body transforming while he was running. Takuya could do nothing but stare as BeoWolfmon grabbed Gigasmon, pulling him away from Löwemon and throwing him into the tallest building around. The building collapsed and fell down over the digimon, and BeoWolfmon pulled Löwemon out of the crack he had fallen into.
"Thanks... Kouji."
Kouji smiled slightly towards his brother, but rumbles could be heard from the collapsed building and all too soon Gigasmon was over them again. Takuya stomped his feet in frustration.
"Mou ii!"
He grabbed a long stick lying on the ground just a few feet away from him and rushed into the battle. It only took a second and he found himself flying, unwillingly hit by BeoWolfmon's paw.
"Oh no, you don't."
He could feel warmth spreading throughout his body, flames surrounded him. His body got covered in armor and he landed on his feet, staring at his hands before a large smile spread over his face. He gathered as much energy he could, carefully aiming it towards Gigasmon.
"Burning Salamander!"
The energy released itself from his hands, flying straight towards its target. Kouji and Kouichi jumped away as it struck down on the troll, before gathering their own energies.
"Endlich Meteor!"
"Licht Angriff!"
Takuya didn't waste any time and fired a second round of Burning Salamander. The three attacks hit the troll simultaneously and he disintegrated, leaving only a string of digicode and the beast spirit left. Takuya was quick to take out his cellphone, aiming it towards the code. As he did so it transformed back into the shape of a digivice.
"Digicode, Scan!"
The digicode shivered before flowing into Takuya's digivice, the beast spirit of earth following along nicely. Then, Takuya smiled at his two friends.
"We did it."
Kouichi smiled back, but Kouji gestured towards the rubble around them.
"We should get going before we get blamed for this."
The other two nodded and with one last glance at the surroundings they darted away from there.

Takuya nibbled on his pencil while pretending to listen to the teacher. It was something about earthquakes, but outside of that he hadn't heard much. He glanced at Kouji's empty desk, quietly wondering if the other boy had not managed to get out of his digimon form from the day before. He looked towards Kouichi, who simply shrugged and turned back towards the teacher.
Takuya was certain that Kouji wasn't sick. That boy was never sick, he probably didn't even know how to spell it. So why had he not come to school yet? Takuya's eyes caught a small fly trying to exit through one of the closed windows and forgot to pretend to pay attention to the teacher.
"It'd be wonderful if you felt like joining os, Kanbara."
"Huh?"
Takuya looked away from the fly and turned his head towards the teacher, who shook his head, before turning back to the whiteboard. A few of the other students snickered, and Izumi shot him an irritated glare. It didn't matter, Kouji's glares were the only one that was effective.
"I wonder why..."
He nibbled his pencil again, unaware that the teacher had turned towards him once more.
"What exactly, Takuya?"
"Huh?"
"Why do I even bother trying to teach you?"
Takuya shrugged.
"Must be my stunning good looks!"
Laughter erupted throughout the classroom, when the door suddenly opened up. Kouji looked a bit embarrassed, but made a slight bow towards the teacher.
"I'm sorry I'm late, I overslept."
Takuya was certain that Kouji was lying. It was something about the way he glanced towards his brother that made Takuya suspicious. The teacher looked at Kouji a few seconds before nodding.
"Don't let it happen again. Take your seat and turn to page 87."
Kouji nodded, hurried down to the seat beside Takuya and Takuya could swear the younger twin was paler than usual, something that could not be a good sign. When Kouji caught him staring he shot Takuya a glare, although it lacked some of the normal intensity. He'd have to ask him about it later.
Takuya actually managed to pay attention the rest of class. Well, at least some attention. He found that from time to time his eyes would shift in Kouji's direction, as if to make sure he was still in his seat. And every time Kouji noticed he would send Takuya another glare, making the brown-haired boy turn back towards the book or the teacher. Takuya wasn't sure why it worked, but since it did he didn't feel like questioning it.
When the bell rang the four of them went out together, Izumi studying the schedule for the next lesson, Kouichi with his eyes glued to his younger brother and Takuya spurting nonsense again. When they got to their lockers Izumi looked up from the piece of paper she had studied and looked at Kouji.
"Overslept?"
"I couldn't come up with anything better."
"So what really happened?"
"I got into a really big argument with my dad."
Takuya sensed that Kouji didn't want to go into any more detail, but he couldn't just let it be.
"Did he found you as BeoWolfmon?"
Takuya chuckled a bit at the thought, but Kouji slowly shook his head.
"No, I..."
A small blush was making its way over Kouji's cheeks.
"I got a concussion yesterday. The doctors told me to take it easy and rest for a few days."
Kouichi scratched the back of his head.
"So what are you doing here? Dad forced you?"
"I... No, I forced him to let me go. I just couldn't leave Takuya in his usual daze for another day."
Izumi looked at him, in that stern way she always got when she wanted to chew one of them out, but then she let out a sigh.
"We can't make you change your mind, right?"
Kouji slowly shook his head again and Izumi patted his shoulder.
"Alright, but we'll keep a close eye on you. If you get a headache..."
"Already have one..."
"...if it gets worse you have to tell us immediately. And if any other symptoms gets worse you have to tell us as well."
Kouji nodded.
"I kinda counted on that."
"Great, now that that's settled, what's this about finding you in BeoWolfmon's form?"
Takuya laughed, then proceeded to tell Izumi everything about the events the day before. The twins silently followed along as they made their way to the next class, Kouichi adding details to the story that Takuya missed and Izumi listening in awe.
Takuya could hardly wait for the next time they'd get to use their spirits!

---

Because digimons are enormous!