Thanks for reading the first chapter. As a Christmas gift, here's the second one. Please review. Merry Christmas everyone!

Chapter 2: The Next Day

I woke up the following day feeling a terrible pain on my back. As I sat down and stretched my arms, I realized that I completely forgot what it was like to sleep on the ground. I was getting near the end of the cave we spent the night at and saw Mimi sitting by the lake. Did she really wake up before all of us?
"Good morning." I sat down beside her.
"Hey."
"Are you alright? You are usually the last one to wake up."
"Yeah." She picked a small rock from the ground and threw it in the lake. "I just wish Tanemon would remember me, you know? It's hard having to live with the fact I know everything we went through and she doesn't."
"Mimi, sweet, I'm sure we all have the same feeling. It's hard for all of us."
"Oh, I know. I didn't mean to dim your pain."
"It's okay." I smiled warmly at her.
"Do you think they will ever remember us again?"
"I surely hope so. There has to be a way to get around it."
The ability of changing humors so quickly is something that always surprises me on Mimi. This time was no different. When she turned to face me she had a huge smile on her face.
"So what happened in the woods?"
"What?" I knew I couldn't keep it from her; my face gave it all away.
"Don't play dumb with me. I saw you and Yamato talking in private."
"Mimi, can we talk about this later?"
"No, I want to know. Are you two together again and didn't tell anyone?"
"We're not together. He's been asking me for another chance, but I'm not sure about it yet."
"Why not? You love him, Sora."
"But love isn't everything, Mimi." I sighed. "You know me, I don't heal from hurting that fast."
"Yes, I do. But come on, it's your happiness we're talking about. He makes you happy."
"Making someone happy isn't always enough. You'll know that once you start dating someone for real."
"You know you can really hurt a person with your words."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."
"Maybe you shouldn't be so hard on Yamato. He said it's all a misunderstanding."
"I'm not sure. It seems too accurate not to be true."
"You have always been so understanding about everything and everyone. What happened to you?"
I shrugged. "I guess I lost my innocence."
"You should really think about everything you've been doing to him and you two. In my opinion, you are throwing away a chance to be with the love of your life."
"Okay, I promise I'll think about it."
"It's better than nothing."
"Hey." I and Mimi looked up when Hikari's voice echoed. "We were looking all over for you. Is everything okay?"
"Yes, it's all fine." I stood up and cleaned the dirt away from my clothes. "We were just going back. Is the rest up already?"
"Yeah, we are ready to leave in fact. Taichi and Yamato got in an argument just now."
"Go figure." I rolled my eyes. "These two will never change."

Me and the girls returned to the cave and could hear the heated argument between Taichi and Yamato. Jou was trying to calm things down, as usual.
"What's going on here?"
"The same old thing. These two are fighting over where we should go from here."
"And the Digimon are scared of it. It's bad enough already that they don't remember us."
"Enough, you two!" I raised my voice as I stepped ahead everyone, causing my best friend and my ex to stop arguing right away. It feels so good to have this power over them. "You're not eleven anymore! So grow up! Look around, you both scared our partners! We should be creating bonds with them, not scaring them. You should feel ashamed."
"You're right."
"I'm sorry, Sor." Yamato looked down and saw his partner on the left side of the cave. He bent down and tried to smile. "I'm sorry, Tsunomon. I didn't mean to scare you. Please, forgive me."
I couldn't help but smile when I saw the in-training Digimon's expression softened a little bit. I could swear I saw a smile trying to come out of his mouth, but he held back. Yamato saw it too, from the way he dropped his head in frustration.
"Give him some time." I said as I placed my left hand on his right shoulder. "He will come around, I promise."
"I know." He looked up and smiled at me. "Thanks."
"Alright." I turned to Koushiro. "What's the plan now?"
"Well, first we need to know what's new here. It seems a lot has changed since we last came here. And we also need to watch out for enemies. We have no way to defend ourselves right now. Basically, we are powerless."
"What's wrong, Hikari?"
"I'm still not getting a good feeling from all of this." She said as she rubbed her arms. "There's something really weird going on here."
"I have the same feeling." Koushiro closed his laptop and stood up. "But we have no choice than to continue walking. Maybe we can find something on our way."
"That sounds like a plan."
"But what if we run into Jesmon again? We can't fight him."
"Let's hope this won't happen."
"Tokomon, will you give me my whistle back now?"
"I'm still playing with it."
"You should give it back." Takeru spoke. "You played with it long enough."
"You have no right to tell me what I should do or not."
"Don't be so mean, Tokomon." Tanemon said as she jumped near him and Nyaramon. "I think they are good people."
"We don't know them."
"But I believe we can trust them." She glanced at Mimi, who had a mix of surprise and happiness written on her face. "Something tells me we all have a lot of memories with all of these people."
"You're so weird."
"She's not alone. I feel it too."
"I think their memory loss isn't forever." Taichi whispered to me.
"Now we just need how to reactivate them. But how?"
"My best bet is to talk about moments and see how it goes."
"People, we need to go."

I let everyone leave before me and looked at my partner with sadness. She didn't even look back at me and it didn't help the fact I watched Tanemon jump on Mimi's arms with a smile on her face.
"You said we have been friends for six years. Is that really true?" She finally spoke, causing me to jump with surprise.
"Yes, it is. We fought a lot of enemies together."
"Then how come I don't remember all of this?"
"Because you were rebooted. You and the others were trying to stop the infection. We are about to find out if it worked or not."
"And if it didn't work?"
"I don't know." I shrugged. We never really talked about the possibility of their sacrifice being in vain. "I'm sure Himekawa will come up with a solution if that happens."
"We trust she will." Koushiro echoed my thoughts.
"Hey, guys! Look what I found!" Taichi exclaimed and pointed towards the end of the forest.
As we entered the region by the lake, we saw the same bus who took us back to Japan after defeating Apocalymon.
"This bus seems familiar to me." Mimi said as she tried to remember where she had seen it before.
"This is the bus we slept on our first night here. It's the same night Gabumon turned to Garurumon for the first time."
"Is that true?" Tsunomon looked up at Yamato.
"Yes, it is." The blonde bent down next to him. "Taichi and Agumon pissed a Seadramon off and we had to fight him."
"It wasn't our fault." Taichi said defensively. "We had no idea that leaf was his tail."
"That's right."
Suddenly a loud scream echoed around the place. It could have come from only one person.
"What happened, Mimi? Is everything okay?"
"I heard a noise coming from the woods."
"What kind of noise?"
"Like someone or something was spying on us."
"Okay." Taichi approached her. "Where did you see it?"
"Right over there." She pointed to her left. "Be careful. I don't want you to get hurt."
"Don't worry. Nothing will happen."
As he was approaching, he was greeted by two yellow eyes that were too familiar to us.
"What the hell?!"
"What is it?"
Before he even had the chance to reply, the animal jumped towards him and made him fall to the ground.
"You have got to be kidding me!"
"Meicoomon?!"
She ran away as fast as she appeared, into the other side of the forest.
"Isn't she supposed to be in her in-training level as well?"
"Technically, yes."
"Then what is she?"
"I have no idea."