The Ancient Curse

Part Four: Questions


Standard Disclaimer Thingie: Digimon, all related characters, money, etc, does not belong to me. Plot, however, does, however pathetic it may be. In short, don't steal, don't sue, don't forget to moo.

Moo. Hope you enjoy. Feel free to comment or email.


The sun was shining brightly, with nary a cloud in the bright blue sky. In the center of Yagami, sheltered in the valley beside the palace, the capital city was a bustling hub of shoppers and merchants doing business.

It was midday, shortly past noon, and the warm spring weather had inspired many to leave their homes and head out to do some shopping. Merchants, taking advantage as well, had obligingly headed out to do some selling. With the snow now melting away from the roads, traders were able to travel from different parts of the kingdom, and now goods were available once more. Fresh fish came from the oceans, meats from the north. It would be a few more weeks before fresh vegetables of any kind were available, but there was still fresh food to be had, which was a welcome relief after a long, cold winter of dried things.

Mimi loved shopping of any kind, and had taken the opportunity of the weather to do what many others were doing. She and Palmon were wandering through the streets together, peering over the fabrics and jewels brought in from outside places. Ordinarily, she might have been at work, thinking much about spring wardrobes and what fabrics needed to be bought, but today she was strolling along at a much more leisurely pace, her thoughts elsewhere.

"There's no point in worrying about it," Palmon said suddenly, apparently motivated by nothing but the thoughts in her own head. "If it's happened, then I'm sure you'll know soon enough."

Mimi said nothing to this for a moment, for she was distracted by a bit of pink fabric at a nearby store. "I'm not worrying about it, exactly," she said, "I'm simply concerned that if they wait until the last minute, then there won't be time to plan things."

"I am sure that it won't be quite that spontaneous," her partner replied sensibly. "It isn't as if it's going to be spur-of-the-moment and secret, you know."

"I know," came the answer. "I suppose I should confess that I don't like to be out of the loop. That's probably most of it."

"No one's in the loop!" Palmon reminded her. "Even Taichi doesn't know for sure, and Sora's only guessing. You don't know any less than anyone else does."

Unsurprisingly, this didn't do much to reassure Mimi, who went on frowning as she had been before. They had entered into the part of the marketplace in which fresh fish were for sale, and though quite a bit of them did look appetizing, Mimi quickened her pace so that she would not soon smell like seafood. They turned to the right, heading toward another section of the town.

"I don't understand why there has to be all this secrecy anyway," Mimi muttered quietly, half to herself. "What would be the harm in telling everyone?"

"I don't know," Palmon answered with a shrug. "I'd certainly want to tell everyone if I was…."

"If you were…?" Mimi echoed, for her partner had broken off mid-sentence, and for no apparent reason. They were walking down a rather deserted section of road. There were neither stores nor people nearby, and so it was not clear what had stolen the plant digimon's attention.

"I thought I saw something over there," Palmon said, pointing upward, toward the top of a nearby building. "It looked like a person."

"What would a person be doing on top of a building?" Mimi wondered, looking upward as well. "Are you sure it couldn't have been something else?"

"No, it was a person," her partner replied, shaking her head emphatically. "I guess it's not that unusual for people to be on the roof of a building if they live there, but…," and she glanced toward the door of the building in question, "that's a bank."

For a moment both stood silent, heads tilted upward. "I suppose," Mimi said, rather reluctantly, "that we ought to go up there and see what's going on."

Palmon glanced briefly toward her partner, and then pointed toward the top of the building with both hands. Her vine-like fingers stretched to longer vines, and then even longer vines, until the ends of them were firmly attached to the end of the building.

"Are you ready?" she questioned. Mimi nodded, still without much enthusiasm, and grabbed hold of her partner. Within a moment's time, they were atop the building where Palmon had seen the stranger.

There was indeed a man there. He was dressed entirely in black, with a black, wide brimmed hat atop his head and a black cape attached to his shoulders. Though the brim of his hat shielded his eyes both from the sun as well as onlookers, he clearly saw them, and then, before either Mimi or Palmon could say a word, he was gone, vanishing over the side of the building.

"What on earth?" Mimi questioned, and Palmon hurried across the space to peer over the side of the building.

"He's gone," she reported, disappointed.


The rumbling halted after a few moments and, although there were bits of wood and stone on the floor surrounding them, Daisuke and Hikari were miraculously untouched. When he was certain that nothing further was going to happen, at least for the moment, Daisuke straightened himself and looked around at the once empty room.

It would be impossible for him to take more than a step or two in any direction without having to maneuver around something that had fallen from the ceiling. A few of the candles had fallen over, but had luckily extinguished themselves rather than starting a larger fire.

"Well," he said, partly to himself and partly to Hikari, in case it was possible that she could hear or understand anything he was saying. "That was lucky."

It was undoubtedly a good idea to try to get out of the building as soon as possible, for it seemed that it was likely to collapse very soon. Exactly how he was going to accomplish that, Daisuke did not know, however, because he had no way of breaking the chains or disentangling them. Once more he now crouched down beside the stone table to examine the way in which they were attached.

He saw now that the metal loop which was connected to the stone table had been screwed in, and that the hole into which it was driven was slightly larger than the metal piece itself. Feeling relieved (though at the same time surprised that he had not noticed this before), Daisuke grabbed hold of the loop and twisted and pulled until he managed to free it from the stone table.

It still was not clear to him how it was going to be possible to remove the chains the rest of the way. As he was thinking about this, a few small bits of stone fell from the ceiling above him.

"I say we get out of here first," he said, noticing that a rather large hole had appeared in the ceiling directly above his head. "Maybe Takeru will have some idea about how to help."

The rumbling sound began again, and so he now moved quickly, adjusting chains and fabrics and then taking Hikari in his arms. She was lighter than he expected her to be, even with the weight of the chains added to it. It was therefore without much difficulty that he carried her across the room, even having to maneuver around rocks and debris and felled candles. The ground began to shake as he reached the doorway, and he stopped in the middle of it, waiting for the quake to pass before he moved on.

He had only taken two steps into the hallway when he heard a loud crash behind him. Turning back, he saw that the beam that had been directly over head had fallen from the ceiling. It had landed on the stone table where Hikari had been, and had broken in half upon impact with the stone.

"See?" he said, trying to calm himself. "That was a good idea."

There was still quite some distance of hallways to travel through, however, and these, too, had obviously felt the effects of the earthquakes. Parts of the walls had fallen down into the hall, and large patches of sunlight appeared on the floor, having poked through gaps in the ceiling.

Daisuke took a deep breath to steady himself and began to walk down the hallway as quickly and as slowly as possible. He walked slowly enough that he would not trip over the rubble, but quickly enough that he hoped he would be able to escape the halls before another quake happened.

When he had reached the space where the hallways had separated, the ground began to quietly rumble beneath his feet once more. Aware of this, he hurried a bit faster for a few steps. If the ceiling decided to cave in, there wouldn't be any place to take shelter in the corridors. After a short distance, he saw that the walls were shaking. He looked upward and saw that a large chunk of ceiling was about to dislodge itself from the roof and crash to the floor.

There wasn't time to think. It wasn't possible to think. After staring at the shaking hunk of stone for a few seconds longer than was probably smart, Daisuke hurried down the hall at an even quicker pace than before. The shaking of the quake increased in intensity, so that the walls around seemed as though they might fall.

There was a rock in his path and his feet unexpectedly stumbled over this tiny obstacle and he lost balance. With the extra weight he carried in his arms, it was not easy to steady himself, and so Daisuke found his legs give way beneath him and his knees collapse. As he hit the floor, the shaking grew even stronger. He pulled Hikari in closer to him and ducked his head lower, once more hoping to shield her from the worst of the damage.

The shaking went on for a few minutes before it subsided. Though he could hear crashing behind him and all around him, Daisuke was surprised to find that he did not feel rocks hitting him as he had expected to.

When the ground was steady beneath him once more, he looked up and saw, for the briefest of seconds, a reflection of light surrounding him that quickly faded. It was a sign that someone had raised a magical shield around him, thus explaining why he was not buried under debris from the walls and roof.

Who had raised a shield? He looked around, half expecting to see Miyako standing a short distance away, to hear her scolding him for having put both himself and Hikari in danger, for having to save him yet again. Yet Miyako was not there; there was no way she could be there. He saw no one else nearby. There was only himself, Hikari, and an empty corridor filled with rubble.

The quiet sound of Hikari taking in a breath caused him to look down. Briefly, he saw that her eyelids flickered, as though she were attempting to awaken, but then they were still once more.

"You'll exhaust yourself if you do that too much," he said then. She didn't respond, didn't move again, and he wondered if he had imagined the entire incident.

Daisuke got to his feet once more, lifting Hikari in his arms again. Almost as soon as he had risen, he felt a quiet vibration beneath his feet, and so wasted no time in continuing on toward the exit. He was not eager to test the limits of magical shields against falling ceilings.

He was within sight of the exit now, and the quaking was growing stronger and more violent than ever before. Once more hurrying (though this time being careful not to trip) Daisuke made it safely to the exit and slipped through the doorway before another large piece of the ceiling flattened the corridor.

Scarcely two steps away from the exit, another loud crash caused him to look backward, but his view was nearly completely obscured by a humongous cloud of dust that rose from the ground. For a few moments, nothing could be heard but the sound of the collapsing building, and nothing could be seen but the dust cloud. Feeling as though it would be wise to get as far away from the building as possible, Daisuke continued walking toward where he had left Takeru.

He had forgotten about the barrier until this moment, and had forgotten completely about Tailmon until he looked back and saw that the building which had once stood there was no longer present. For a moment, his mind froze – had the feline digimon been killed? Was she in another room, down another corridor? Had he left too soon?

Before he could effectively process or act upon any of these thoughts, a voice he had never heard before said, "You were lucky."

He turned sharply at the sound and saw that a man was standing a short distance away. His hair, black and shiny, was pulled into a long braid that trailed behind his head and was tied with a red ribbon at the nape of his neck. He was dressed all in black but for a long white coat which was tied around his waist with a black belt. Over his shoulder, Daisuke could see the hilt of a sword which was strapped to his back.

"You did this?" he questioned, almost immediately feeling the beginnings of a powerful rage rising within him. "Why?"

The man smiled lightly, a playful smirk. He held out his right hand, which held a small red crystal attached to a long black cord. It glinted in the sunlight, and then glowed intensely for a brief moment.

Beneath the space where the crystal hung, the dust rose higher, swirling like a mini cyclone. After a moment, it abruptly vanished and the dust faded into the air. In the space where the dust had been lay a single white feline digimon, sleeping peacefully as her partner was.

"I wish her majesty no undeserved harm," said the man, and then he was gone, vanishing into nothingness as quickly as he had appeared.

There was a long silence for a moment. Daisuke stared at the space where the man had been, feeling his anger seethe beneath the surface. At the same time, he felt confusion and fear twist in his stomach. Who was that man? What did he mean by what he had said? Undeserved harm?

Before he could think any further on the subject, nor tread down the path which his thoughts would have taken him next, Daisuke heard a familiar voice behind him call out his name. He turned to see that Takeru, Patamon, and V-mon were heading toward him. Apparently, the barrier had fallen.

"Is she all right?" Takeru questioned when they'd come within speaking distance. He was out of breath; they'd run across the space between the barrier and the place where the building had once been. Noting that the building was no longer there, he added, "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Daisuke replied dismissively. "I don't know if she is. I think she might have raised a shield, which would suggest that, but she hasn't woken up either." He knelt down on the ground and set her down in front of him.

To all eyes present, Hikari appeared to be sleeping. There was, as Daisuke had observed earlier, no sign of blood or any other injury. She was breathing steadily. She was a bit pale, but otherwise appeared to be fine.

"It could be something magical," Takeru replied, kneeling down beside her. "In fact, if it's anything, it probably is. If that's the case, I don't think I'm going to be much help."

"Do whatever you can," Daisuke answered. His previous anger had abated, now slowly being replaced a sense of frustration, worry, and self-blame. He got to his feet and glanced toward Tailmon, who appeared to be in a similar state as her partner. V-mon and Patamon were looking over her.

"I don't know what's happened," V-mon stated, his voice barely hiding the emotions in his voice. "She's not hurt, but…she's not waking up either."

"Whatever's happened, it's probably not good," Patamon agreed.

Feeling suddenly tired, Daisuke sat down in the grass. "Now what?" he questioned.


The sun was slowly sinking in the west, and the palace was casting a long shadow over the path which led to its entrance. Mimi, walking up that path, carried a small cloth bag in one hand containing a few small purchases that she had made in the marketplace. Her mind, however, was not upon her shopping, but upon the stranger she had encountered in the town.

Some distant memory was tugging at the back of her mind, wanting to be recognized, but it was a distant memory and so not particularly clear. Something about the stranger upon the roof had sparked that distant memory to rise closer to the surface, but she could not determine what.

"I know we've never seen him before," she mumbled quietly, aware that she had been partly discussing this for the last few hours since it had happened. "I still feel like I should know him, though."

"How would you know him?" Palmon questioned sensibly. "You didn't even clearly see who he was."

"I don't know," she answered. "I don't know."

The guards were in the process of changing shifts as she neared the eastern gates. One of them recognized Mimi immediately and nodded at her. Barely noticing this, she passed through the tall iron gates into the courtyard beyond and then crossed the small gardens within.

As this was not the main entrance, the gardens were not as ornate as they were in the front, and the doorway through which she passed was not so tall and grand as it might be. The smell of sweet flowers still hung heavy in the air, welcoming spring after a long, cold winter.

"Do you suppose," Mimi said when she had entered the building and was a few steps down a long, tall corridor, "that Yamato might have some idea what I'm talking about?"

Palmon stared at her partner for a few moments. "I'm not sure that you have any idea what you're talking about," she replied dryly, "but you could ask him."

Mimi frowned indignantly at her partner for a moment. They turned right and began heading up a wide marble staircase. "I believe I will," she replied. "I'm sure he will have some idea of what I'm remembering."

"I wish you the best of luck with that attempt," Palmon answered with a shrug.

Snorting huffily, Mimi made the first left at the top of the stairs and made her way immediately to the room that Yamato called his sleeping quarters without stopping to set down her bag in her own room. She tapped a few times upon the door in a hurried manner and then waited impatiently for him to answer.

He did, after a moment, buttoning the top button of his shirt as he opened the door. His hair was still a bit wet, and she suspected he might have recently finished bathing. "Mimi?" he said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to ask you something," she replied, brushing aside pleasantries. "Do you have a moment?"

"A moment," he answered, "and not much more. I have to eat dinner with the ambassador of someplace or other, and if I'm late…."

"Why do you have to eat dinner with an ambassador?" Palmon questioned, ignoring her partner's impatience.

"It seems that someone, I don't know who, made an appointment for this ambassador to have dinner with the King and Queen some, oh, six months ago," Yamato began.

"Before Sora…," Mimi concluded.

"Yes," he replied. "Before she became pregnant and thus unable to attend important dinners with ambassadors." As he spoke, he was running a comb through his hair and examining it in a mirror that was hanging on a nearby wall. "Anyway, the ambassador made plans to be here for dinner, and so he has to have dinner, and, since everyone else was miraculously occupied, it seems it's become my job."

"I see," Mimi said, a gesture of politeness. She really wanted to ask the question she had come to ask, but years of etiquette training forced her to wait.

Turning around, Yamato held both arms out. "How does it look?" he questioned.

"Fine," she replied, "although it's usually customary to wear a jacket."

"I'm getting there," he replied, walking past her through the parlor toward his bedroom. "What did you want to ask me, anyway?"

"I was wondering," she said, speaking loud enough so that he could hear her from the next room, "if you had some recollection of seeing a man, dressed in black, with a wide-brimmed hat."

"A what?" he questioned, voice sounding distant since he was digging through his closet for an appropriate jacket.

"I saw someone in the market today," Mimi elaborated, and quickly told the story of the man atop the roof of the bank. "I keep feeling as though he's familiar to me, but I do not know why."

"Dressed in black, with a wide-brimmed hat?" Yamato repeated, stepping out of his bedroom with a jacket in one hand. "Well, when you describe him that way, no, but when you add on that story, I suppose I'd say it sounds a bit like the Dark Bandit. I don't know what he'd be doing in town on the roof of a bank, though."

"The Dark Bandit!" Mimi exclaimed, elated. "That's precisely it!"

"No one's seen the Dark Bandit in years," Palmon stated. "Not since Taichi became King."

"Not true," Mimi replied, her memory having returned to her completely now. "Sora saw him in Takenouchi-Inoue when it was attacked by Mummymon and his army, remember?"

"And that was the last of him?" Palmon questioned.

"To be completely honest," Yamato replied, adjusting the sleeves of his jacket, "I don't know that anyone's kept track of him as closely as might have once been done. If you want to know what the Dark Bandit is doing in town, I'd guess your best bet would be to ask Daisuke."

"That would be a good idea," Mimi replied dryly, "if he wasn't two weeks away in the north."

"Possibly the furthest away you can get without leaving the kingdom," Palmon added.

"True," Yamato agreed, shrugging. "It's worth investigating it if he's reappeared, though. It's possible that Daisuke doesn't have any clue what he's doing nowadays, especially since he's so far away."