Chapter 2

Kouji stood in a trailmon station trying to find a train to take him home. If this was where he had gotten here, then this was the place that could take him back right? His mind wandered to the little pinkette he had traveled with when he came.

That stupid girl, but if she wanted to get herself killed, fine.

Though he would be lying to himself if he said that he wasn't worried and hadn't gone out to look for her after reading that note. He searched for about an hour before giving up, in that time, she could be long gone.

His D-tector's screen came to light with a weird symbol on it.

"Kouji Minamoto, commence your search."

"Search? For what?" He questioned.

"The spirit."

"How do you know my name?" He scowled at the weird device.

"Find the spirit and you will find the answers to all your questions."

"Not good enough. I'm not some lap dog you can just order around you know."

He waited for an answer, but there was nothing.

"What is this spirit anyway?"

Nothing.

"I mean, how do I know where to look for it?"

The screen went black. He growled in frustration. Just then, a map popped up. It was more like a green and black sphere with a pink dot on it.

"Huh? This gets weirder by the minute."

He started walking around, trying to figure out if he was getting closer or farther away from the pink dot. What was the pink dot supposed to be anyway? Was this the spirit that he was supposed to find? With nothing else to do and no way to get home (for now0, Kouji resolved to find the spirit and figure out exactly what it was and what it did.

He turned to his left. A little boy with a giant hat and a bigger kid in a blue jumpsuit ran by the narrow passage he was walking down.

"There goes an accident waiting to happen." He mumbled to himself. The two kids hadn't even noticed him.

A little while later Kouji stood in the middle of the forest. The map continued to make a weird beeping sound, but he still didn't understand anything about it. Was this thing even a map?

"This is getting old." He complained. As soon as he said it, the map disappeared. He looked around, stoping when he noticed a hole in a wall with branches and vines leading into it.

"It's probably better to stay away from creepy holes in the wall." He warned himself.

"But I didn't come all this way to play it safe." He reasoned, a sense of adventure kicking in. Grumbling in frustration with now having no map, he made his way over to the tunnel and started walking down the path.

"This better not be someones idea of a joke."

He was walking down the same path that Dahlia had entered 20 minutes earlier. She was resting behind one of the pillars when she heard his voice.

"Anyone here?"

Dahlia jumped up in surprise. Kouji.

This was one of those rare moments where she was glad she was mute, because other wise she would have given away her location. Cried out in shock or just gasped really loudly. Dahlia pressed herself up against the column she was hiding behind, praying that he wouldn't see her.

"Okay, I suppose not."

She sighed in relief.

Kouji looked down at his D-tector in confusion. Where was it trying to lead him?

Stupid thing.

Dahlia saw a path. If she was fast enough, she could make it through without Kouji noticing. Maybe if she went down there she would find a way out. She had a better chance of avoiding Kouji if there was distance between them.

With a deep breath and a mental pep talk, she ran for it.

Kouji heard the footsteps. So someone was here after all. It only took a moment of hesitation before he ran after them. Maybe this person could help him out or at least explain what a spirit was. "Hey! Hold on!"

Dahlia heard the footsteps behind her and Kouji calling out. The young girl guessed that he didn't know who he as chasing yet. She cursed silently, forcing herself to go faster.

When she emerged from the tunnel, she was at a ledge. Two kids were at the bottom getting attacked by these weird. . . things. One of the kids was a little boy in a big hat and an older boy in a blue and yellow jumpsuit. She completely forgot the Kouji was right on her heels and decided that she needed to help them.

Dahlia jumped off the ledge, doing a flip in the air and landing perfectly on her feet. She punched away the nearest one to her, sending it smashing into a wall.

The two kids from were freaking out and flailing trying to get these weird gray digimon off of them. Dahlia was in the middle of it all, punching them away and trying to defend the kids as best as he could. The younger one was crying and the older boy was screaming something about chocolate.

Kouji emerged from the tunnel where he saw two boys and a girl fighting off these weird little grey things. Well, the girl was fighting, the other two were just running around and trying to get away. His eyes widened a little. He'd know that pink hair anywhere. It was Dahlia! What was she doing here?! Is that who he was chasing?

He jumped off the ledge, holding onto a huge pole and letting out a battle cry. Those weird things stopped attacking the kids and just stared, as did the three victims. He smirked as he landed, kicking the pole he'd just slid down on and braking it into a smaller one.

Several of the small digimon came charging at him. He smirked again before slashing at them with the pole. This was just to easy.

Dahlia couldn't help but watch in amazement as he expertly attacked and defended against the little digimon.

"Who's that?" The little boy asked.

"That guys serious!" The larger boy exclaimed.

They swarmed him, jumping on him like a huge pig pile. Dahlia's heart began to beat faster. Did they just. . . No, she had to believe that Kouji was okay and he was going to get himself out of there.

Kouji jabbed his pole up, knocking the top digimon of. Then, he started spinning pole in hand, knocking them all away. Dahlia had to dodge the one coming flying at her face.

Kouji smiled in victory.

"Oh yeah human? Don't smile yet!" One of them yelled.

This weird blue data stream started to surround the young digimon. Everyone's eyes widened in surprise. What was going on?

A big giant monster took it's place. It was slimy and purple with weird tubes coming out its body and pavement around his eyes. If sewers could walk and talk, that's what they would look like.

The two boys near Dahlia shrieked in surprise and fear.

It roared something at the children that they couldn't understand.

The D-tectors started talking in unison.

"Raremon, the sewer digimon. If the smell of it's rotting flesh doesn't knock you out, It's acid sludge attack will."

It snapped is head towards them with an expression that Dahlia could only suggest was supposed to be a smile. She didn't stick around to find out. She and the other two boys took off running. It launched a bright green acid attack at them.

Kouji tackled the little boy out of the way, narrowly avoiding the attack.

The acid left giant holes in the ground. Kouji and the little kid had tripped and were now realizing what would have happened if they had been hit.

"Acid sludge" It yelled again. Kouji jumped up off the ground and ran around with the little boy in his arms, trying to dodge. Dahlia was trying to find something, anything that she could use to help.

Two other kid's emerged from a pipe next to where the jumpsuit kid was sitting in fright.

"Eww it smells!" A blonde exclaimed. She was all dressed up in a pink skirt with a blue and white stripped shirt, pink vest, and a pink hat.

"Spirit, wake up I need you!" A boy yelled at his D-tector. He wore a brown hat backwards on his head with goggles on it. On his upper body was a yellow shirt with a red unbuttoned one on top of that and brownish grey cargo pants.

The device lit up in response, but nothing else. The kid started pressing all sorts of buttons.

"Come on, I'm not kidding here!"

A round of sludge came flying towards Dahlia. She jumped back in shock as a hole appeared in the place she once stood. If that kid was going to do something, he better do it soon.

The kid was pressing all sorts of buttons in frustration.

"Uh hey Takuya, no pressure, but you might want to think about Spirit evolving before stinky there turns your friends into goop." A little digimon informed him.

Kouji was backing up as Raremon loomed over him. Behind him was a large hole. Dahlia wanted to scream at him to watch out, but she couldn't.

Sweat started to fall down the goggle wearing kid's face as he jabbed at the device. "Come on come on!"

A weird symbol lit up on his screen.

Kouji stumbled a bit as one foot went backwards to hit nothing. No ground. He leaned and fell forward. It was all he could do to keep from falling backwards into nothingness

The beast roared at him. Kouji brought the kid closer to him, ready to defend him in any way possible.

"Spiiirrrriiiiiiitttttt" Takuya yelled. A blue data strip started circling around his hand. He slashed it past his D-tector, scanning it.

"Execute, Spirit Evolution!"

His body glowed and started to change.

When it faded, he was much taller. His body was dressed in a red armor and on his face was a mask. His hair had grown out and was like a large blonde mane flowing behind his back.

He jumped forwards, smashing into Raremon and slamming him against the ground. He then jumped backwards as the sludge monster fired more acid. Takuya simple knocked it out of the way with a wave us his hand.

"Nows your chance, run!" He yelled back at Kouji.

Everything started glowing and suddenly the heroic digimon was back to being Takuya.

"What's going on, I turned back into me?!"

"Still here!" Raremon bellowed, letting out another round of Acid.

"Watch out!" Takuya yelled. He jumped over to protect the younger kid knocking Kouji over the ledge in the process.

Dahlia wanted to call out to him. Her eyes were filled with tears.

No! Kouji...

Kouji yelled as he fell. Dahlia wanted to do something. Why was she so weak?! Why couldn't she do anything?

Kouji was suddenly enveloped in a bright light. He noticed what looked like the top half of a suit of armor in the middle. He felt as though it was calling out to him. All of the fear that he had from falling was gone.

"What's going on here?" Kouji asked.

A sudden feeling came over him. He grabbed his D-tector.

"Spirit!" He yelled on instinct. The armor absorbed into his device.

"It is time"

The data circle appeared on his hand. He scanned it with the D-tector

"Execute! Spirit Evolution!"

Dahlia felt a tear stream down her face in relief. She wiped it away quickly. Floating over the top of the crater was a warrior dressed in a wolf like armor. He had bits of blond hair sticking out from the mask on his face and a scarf around his neck. Even though he looked different, Dahlia could tell right away that is was Kouji. He was okay.

"Lobomon." He announced his new name.

Everyone gasped in amazement.

"Wow!" The kid in the jumpsuit exclaimed.

"Man, did I look that cool?" Takuya asked. The kid next to him nodded.

"Yeah but different!"

Lobomon landed on the ground with a soft thump.

"That's the legendary warrior of light. Lobomon." The little digimon from before announced.

"I've never seen anything more beautiful in my life!" The blonde exclaimed.

"Me neither!"

"You can say that again!" Takuya yelled.

Dahlia nodded in agreement. It was amazing to say the least. She could understand the reason that the digimon in front of them was the warrior of light. Everything about him just gave off a feeling of Justice and his armor shined brightly.

"Acid Sludge!" Raremon yelled out, sending more green acid to attack the kids and digimon.

"Lobo kendo!" Lobomon countered. He ran forward, slicing through all the acid sludge attack.

Once in range, he jumped into the air. With a yell, he took his sword, which Dahlia thought looked more like a light saber, and stabbed it into Raremon.

The digimon screamed in pain. Data circles surrounded him, showing that he was to weak to fight anymore. Raremon had lost, and Lobomon had won.

"Now you talking trash heap, time to be recycled." Lobomon slashed his D-tector out.

"Fractal code, digitize!" The blue stripped was sucked into the D-tector and Raremon dedigivolved back into the little grey one from before.

The blonde yelled out something in a foreign language.

With the data absorbed, Kouji turned back to his normal self. Takuya and Dahlia ran towards him.

"Hey you okay? Let me help you up." Takuya offered.

"Don't touch me." Kouji growled.

Dahlia stood up in shock. It was like she heard this somewhere before.

"I don't need your help, or anyone else's."

Dahlia backed up, shaking. Now she remembered why this was so familiar.

*Flashback*

11 year old Dahlia walked through the park by herself. She was enjoying the sound of nature when she heard a crash. Curious, she ran towards the sound. There was a boy from her class sitting on the ground clutching his knee which was bleeding.

Dahlia walked towards him, wanting to help.

"Don't come any closer!" The voice growled. Dahlia stopped. Why couldn't she go closer? She wouldn't be able to help from where she was.

She held out her hand, silently telling the boy that she would help him up if he let her.

"Get away! I don't need any help! Especially from a stupid little mute freak like you!"

*Flashback over*

Dahlia didn't hear Kouji thanking Takuya and informing him that he would pay him back somehow because he always repaid his debts, or Takuya telling him that he that that's not why he did it.

She didn't stick around. Dahlia turned on her heels and took of running down the path she'd come from. She had to get away, she just had to. Her past was haunting her again, like it did every day, but seeing a similar situation just made it ten times worse.

After running for a few minutes, she came back to that open room of ruins that she had entered in. She could see the steps that lead to the outside world, but she wasn't ready for that just yet.

Dahlia curled up in a ball behind a pillar, letting the tears fall. She hated herself for not helping that boy, she really did.

Dahlia left, but stayed behind a tree to watch. A woman walking by with her child stopped when she saw the boy and called 911. The ambulance came and took him to the hospital.

It was announced to the class the next day that he had dislocated his knee and broken it and now he had to get surgery and go through therapy so he could walk again. The teacher said that if only someone had come sooner, called the hospital sooner, the injury wouldn't be as bad as it was.

It's been 2 years to that accident, and the boy was just learning to limp. Just now. If only Dahlia had helped him or had a voice to talk to the police, it wouldn't be as bad as it was now. She was just to weak that boy was paying the price. She would never let something like that happen ever again.

It was all her fault. Dahlia kept telling herself this over and over again. If only she could have helped, the injury wouldn't be that bad.

Had it been minutes or hours that she sat there crying? For her, it felt like days. She was glad she did though, because now she felt a whole lot better.

Dahlia pulled herself off the ground, wiping her tears again and the dirt off her back. She took shaky steps up the stairs and out the hole in the wall from which she entered.

Dahlia didn't notice Kouji leaning against a tree near the entrance, or that he saw her.

"Why'd you leave?" He asked. His voice sounded rough and angry, but also a bit sad. No. Dahlia decided that wasn't sadness, just more anger.

She ignored him and kept walking. Kouji growled in frustration. He launched himself of the ground and grabbed her wrists.

"I asked a question."

Dahlia looked at him, rolled her eyes and pointed to her throat.

"That's not gonna work this time."

He dragger her over to the tree he was sitting at, grabbed a stick, and pointed to the dirt. "Write."

She scowled at him, but snatched the stick anyway.

I'm weak. She wrote.

"I saw you attacking those digimon and saving those kids before I jumped in. You're not weak."

I'm a burden.

"How's that?"

You had to protect me.

"I didn't have to do anything. I chose to protect you." He pointed out.

And you shouldn't have had to.

"I wanted to."

Dahlia dropped the stick in surprise. Nobody had ever wanted to help her for the good of it since the accident. They either ignored her or helped because they were being paid to do so.

She picked up the stick again and wrote her next message.

I should get going.

Kouji glared at her. "Where do you plan to go?"

I don't know.

"Then come with me." Dahlia looked at him shocked.

You mean it?

"Yes. Now lets go before I change my mind." He stood up straight and started walked. With a smile on her face, Dahlia got up and ran to catch up with him.