Sorry for the kinda long wait (though it is a short wait for my usual timeframe) but after years of searching, I finally found my favorite song of my childhood: Shouri (Zen no theme). For those of you who don't know, it's the music from the Digimon adventure anime, the one that can be both happy and sad depending on the situation. Check it on youtube, it's beautiful music.
Why am I telling you this? Because when I listened to it, I felt like shit for killing off Kari in this story. It honestly brought tears to my eyes that in my story she's dead, and I fought with myself for days over deleting this story or not. In the end, I decided to continue it, but it took me a while to get the inspiration back.
That said, I feel the need to warn you of one thing: the first seven or eight chapters will be pretty much how each chosen child gets their crest to glow, and they will be dialogue heavy and with very little action. Also, I'm deviating heavily from the anime, though the main plot will remain the same (more or less).
That said, read and enjoy.
"Hey Sora?" asked Tai.
He, Sora and their digimon partners were walking trough the forest, having picked a random direction after waking up that morning.
"Yeah Tai?" replied the girl.
"Yesterday you said something about how your crest is connected to love. What's that about?" the boy asked.
"Guess I forgot to tell you" she replied "but while me and Biyomon were traveling alone, we found this strange little digimon, Demidevimon, talking trough some kind of shadow to someone else. And they were talking about the crests. From that I learned that each crest represents something. Yours is the crest of courage, while mine is the crest of love. And to activate a crest, you have to personify the emotion or concept it represents."
"So that's why it glowed back then" said Tai, remembering the events inside Etemon's pyramid; "What about the others? What do their crests represent?"
"Well," started to list Sora "Matt has the crest of friendship, Izzy has the crest of knowledge, Mimi has the crest of sincerity, Joe the crest of honesty and T.K. the crest of hope."
"I can sure picture Izzy having the crest of knowledge" said Tai, some mirth in his voice.
"You and him go way back, uh?" asked Sora.
"Yeah, met him a couple years after I met you. I surely consider him my best male friend." Tai paused for a moment, then added: "I hope we find him soon. He's incredibly good at planning in advance, but thinking on his feet is not his forte. I don't want him getting into some sticky situation and being unable to get out of it."
"I'm sure he'll be alright, he has Tentomon with him after all" reassured Sora.
Neither of them really wanted to acknowledge the elephant in the room.
After a little more time walking, the four reached a beach, and decided to move along it. Soon they noticed what looked like an amusement park a little way ahead of them. They also noticed their digivices starting to beep.
"Uh, look at that" said Tai, "Apparently one of our missing companions is there."
"What do you mean?" asked Sora, confused how the beeping of the digivice could relate to that.
"You never noticed? If we get separated, our digivices show each others locations, but only in a limited range. It's how I was following you yesterday." explained the boy, showing her the screen of his digivice, where two dots could be seen in the center, with another dot some distance away.
"Useful… come on, let's go see who it is." said Sora, walking faster towards the amusement park.
It was in a short time that they found Tokomon, asleep on the beach next to a digivice and the crest of hope. It took just a little prodding to get the little digimon awake.
"Tai… Agumon… you came back", were his first words upon seeing the four.
"We did," confirmed Tai, "now can you tell us what happened? Why are you here alone, where is T.K.?"
Tokomon appeared to grow angry; "T.K. got angry at me and threw the digivice and crest on the beach. Apparently his brother left him behind because he was tired of him, and T.K. took it bad".
"Matt abandoned T.K.?" asked Tai, shaking with rage. As far as he was concerned, someone who abandoned their siblings was worse than the worst trash.
"That's what we were told. To me it sounded strange, but I guess T.K. would know best".
"Who told you?" asked Sora.
"A digimon went the direction Matt had gone towards after telling T.K. to wait for him in the amusement park. When he came back, he said Matt had told him to tell T.K. what I just told you. The digimon was called Demidevimon".
"Him again", commented Tai, "This is the second time he's given bad advice to a digidestined. I wonder if he's doing it on purpose".
"Something to investigate, but later. Right now we need to find T.K. and make sure he's not in danger. Without his digivice and digimon partner, he's defenseless!" said Sora.
It took them only about five minutes to reach the amusement park from where they had found Tokomon. The park itself wasn't large, just the basic attractions found in almost all amusement parks and a few empty food stands.
Because of that, it was fairly easy to spot the green wearing kid riding on a rotating cups attraction. However, he didn't look like he was having fun. His expression was downright downtrodden.
"T.K.!" called out Sora, getting the kid's attention.
"Sora! Tai!", the kid called back, "Agumon! Biyomon! I'm so happy to see you again!"
"It's great to see you as well", replied Tai, "What's this we hear about you and Matt?"
The kid grew more somber, and his voice was angry; "Matt said he didn't want to have me around anymore. That I was a crybaby. If he doesn't want me around, then I don't want him around either!"
"Did Matt tell you that?" asked Sora gently.
"No… he didn't even tell it to me directly! He had a digimon come back and tell us!"
"Demidevimon, right?" asked Tai, getting a nod from him, "And how can you be sure he's telling the truth?"
"Why would he lie?" simply asked T.K.
"He lied to me before", said Sora, "Had I listened to him, my crest would have never glowed and I would not be here now".
"Hey T.K.! I found something to eat!" exclaimed a voice from behind them, making them all turn around. What they found was Demidevimon flying towards them, his claws holding a chest of mushrooms.
As he saw who was there with T.K. however, he stopped mid air, almost letting go of the chest in surprise.
"Demidevimon… it's been a while" said Sora, a pleasant smile on her face.
"Hi-i Sora" stuttered the dark digimon, "I would not have expected you to travel with another digidestined. I was under the impression that you had decided to travel alone?"
"I did decide that, yes", confirmed the girl, "but then I met Tai and he convinced me otherwise".
"Oh, Tai did, didn't he?" replied Demidevimon, mentally cursing the boy for undoing a perfect work of manipulation. "I hope that was the right decision… hey, where is that Agumon?"
Indeed, while Demidevimon was focusing on Sora, Tai had signaled Agumon to move his way around the flying devil and, a strangely silent digievolution later, Blackgreymon snapped forward and trapped Demidevimon in his powerful jaws.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! What's the big idea? I was trying to help the kid you know..." Demidevimon trailed off when he noticed the distinctly sinister smirk Tai was giving him.
"Now, my little friend, here's the thing" said Tai, his voice the epitome of pleasantness, "You lied to Sora. And I'm pretty sure you lied to T.K. as well. I may not like Matt all that much, but him and I are similar enough for me to know that he would never abandon his little brother unless he had no choice".
Tai leaned with his arm on Blackgreymon snout, as the digimon had kept his head close to the ground after snapping Demidevimon.
"So you see, I believe you are a danger at best and an enemy at worst. So, the only way you get out of this alive is by telling me the truth and only the truth. Understand me?"
"And if I don't?" asked the little fiend, calling the digidestined's bluff.
The answer he got was Blackgreymon's jaws slowly applying more pressure, to the point that the dark digimon knew just a little more and he would be nothing but floating data.
"Alright! I'll tell you whatever you want, just make him stop!"
"Good", said Tai, motioning to his partner to stop crushing the little digimon, "First question: was what you and that other digimon saying about the crests the truth?"
"Yes" replied Demidevimon, "If you mean about what the crests represent, then yes"
"Second question: Was it true what you told T.K. about Matt?"
"No. I never even saw his brother. I just flew out into the ocean far enough not to be seen by land and waited enough time to be credible" answered Demidevimon after a little extra encouragement from Blackgreymon.
"Good, good. Now it's where it gets interesting for me. Tell me, am I right in believing that whoever sent you wants us to remain ignorant to the power of the crests and the possibility of going beyond champion level?"
"All I know is that I was tasked to make sure your crests never glowed" answered Demidevimon, giving as little truth as possible without outright lying, "I don't even know what the power of the crests is. Only that you guys have them and that I had to stop you from using them".
"Good enough for confirmation for me" replied Tai, "Next, did your boss ever sent someone into the portal I disappeared into after destroying Etemon?"
Demidevimon looked at the boy strangely. For sure, his master had sent someone to the place where the digidestined of courage had disappeared, but the digimon sent had never reported back. He had been assumed to have been destroyed by one of the digidestined.
"Yes…" answered the dark digimon slowly, trying to guess why he was being asked this.
"Was that digimon a red Ogremon?" asked the boy, his fingers visibly twitching in anticipation.
"Yeah" replied the digimon, guessing that the boy wanted to know where the enemy he had probably been the one to destroy came from. If he already considered Demidevimon an enemy, then this information wouldn't change anything.
However, the moment the answer was out of his mouth, Blackgreymon snapped his jaws shut, maiming and destroying Demidevimon.
"Thanks, that was all I wanted to know" said Tai, almost mockingly, as he watched the data that once formed the small dark digimon float away.
"I didn't scare you, did I?" asked Tai as he approached Sora and T.K., who had moved a little bit away during the interrogation.
"That was brutal Tai" said Sora, "plus, you told him you would let him go if he told you the truth".
"No, I didn't" explained Tai "I just told him that the only way he would get out of it alive was by answering me. I never said that it was guaranteed that he would get out alive if he did."
"Was what he said about Matt a lie?" asked T.K.
"It would appear so, little guy" replied Tai, "Which means that your brother is out there, either still trying to get back here or in trouble. In both cases, it's better if we go looking for him"
T.K. nodded.
Learning that Matt and Gabumon had taken a small boat to traverse the lake, Tai proposed they wait until the day after, as it was getting dark, and use Birdramon to fly over the water. The others agreed.
They found some fruit on the trees around the park to eat. None of them even thought about eating the mushrooms that Demidevimon had brought.
As they were eating, Sora and Tai noticed that T.K. was barely eating anything.
"Hey T.K. everything alright? You don't like it?" asked Tai.
"No, no… it's good..." replied T.K., "it's just..."
"Yeah?" encouraged Sora.
"I'm worried… about Matt" finally revealed T.K. "Demidevimon lied, but what if Matt really is tired of me? What if he left me in this park because he didn't want to be with me anymore?"
"If, if, if… and if my aunt had mustaches she would be my uncle" replied Tai "Look, Matt is your big brother. Big brothers protect their siblings, however they can. If he asked you to wait for him here, he surely thought you would be safer here than with him… there's no way he would put you at risk..."
As he was talking, the boy went from cheerful to sober to downcast, thoughts of his little sister on his mind.
Seeing his dark look, Sora moved to his side and put a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him a little bit. T.K. looked on, confused, wondering why Tai looked so sad.
"Anyway," continued the boy, recovering, "if Matt is stupid enough as to be tired of you, then we'll just have to beat some sense into him and drag him with us".
"That's right!" exclaimed Sora, "I'll grab him by his ear and drag him straight to you to apologize if that is the case, don't you worry T.K."
The kid smiled at this, picturing his big brother being dragged by the ear by Sora, probably with Gabumon looking on, perplexed. It was a funny picture.
"Don't you worry" told him Tai, "no matter what, we will find Matt, and you will hear from his own mouth that he would never abandon you. You two are family, and family is at your side, always. Even if you don't want them to, they will still help you, because that's what a family does. So remember, it's his job to protect you… and maybe one day, you'll get to protect him."
T.K. nodded emphatically, a big smile on his face now. At the same time, the crest on his neck started to glow a soft yellow. He didn't notice it, but the other two did. Neither said anything though. There would be time to tell the kid what his crest meant, but for now, it was enough that his faith in his brother was restored, and with that, his hope was kindled once again.
I seriously hate how this site takes all the spaces I put in-between paragraphs and just puts it all together. I had to use horizontal separation lines to divide my paragraphs, something I don't like to do, but unfourtunately I can't find a way for the story to keep my formatting once it is posted as a chapter. Maybe I'll ask support one of these days.
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