Chapter 4

Should have seen it coming...

NOYB sighed.

For as confident in his abilities as the fish was, he had never faced a dog before. At the very least, they could have let him actually see what the dog looked like. That way, an actual strategy could be made from observations.

"Oh well." NOYB whispered. "I'll just have confuse it with a whole bunch of directions then!"

That was the best thing he could legitimately come up with, sadly. I wish I wasn't making that up, but it's the truth.

.

Hailey barked in excitement.

It had been awhile since she got to fight someone. Even if it was a fish, that still meant the pug got a chance to be a badass for once.

"Ruff Ruff!" she shouted and howled towards the ceiling as her two partners looked on in disbelief.

"Do you seriously have to do that?" NekoGamblermon whispered as she turned to the wolf nun. "SisterGabumon, did you teach her this?"
SisterGabumon shook her head and sighed.

"No, NekoGamblermon." the wolf answered and took a deep breath. It was going to be one of those days, whether they wanted it to be or not. That was just how life worked out in the end. "Even if I did, she probably would just do it to me more than you."

"True." NekoGamblermon whispered as she motioned for Hailey and SisterGabumon to follow her our. Somehow, both competitors had managed to exit at the same time. Even then, this whole match-up seemed weird and straight-up silly. But oh well, we're doing it anyway.

On cue, Chaos appeared and took a deep breath.

"Let the match begin!"

With that, she teleported away and Hailey dashed towards NOYB. The fish only stood there, waiting for Hailey to attack. Only for the pug to just eat him.

"I'm not sure what he even expected." NekoGamblermon whispered as Hailey swallowed her meal.

Well that was anticlimactic. At least with the previous fight, Swaggy could have done something. But here, it was a total knock-out. Oh well.

With that, only eight competitors remain.

..

Victoria's Arcana's chamber was empty.

Which was odd, considering she had at least two digimon and a catgirl for a friend. For now, we can just check out the other chamber. Maybe there, we will find Chouko and her partners. I hope…

..

Unlike Victoria's chamber, there was actually someone there. Only the person in question was Mikan.

"Hey!" the undead healer announced and glanced towards the camera. "Can you please get this girl away from me?"

The camera then shifts to the right, where we find Chaos fawning over Mikan.

"Author, can please have one of these things?" the white mage shouted as the author took a mental deep breath.

Do I have to remind you of what happened last time when I gave you a scorceressmon? After all, I believe we all don't want a repeat of that at all.

"What made you think I would pull such a stunt again?!" Chaos shouted and shook her fist towards the air. "I learned my lesson."

Fine, you can have one copy of Mikan. Just one and that's it. You got that, right?

"Correct!" Chaos shouted and teleported away. Which, still leaves us without a confirmed sighting of Chouko and Victoria. If they're not in their respective chambers, where could they possibly be?

.

"Good. You made it."

Chouko took a deep breath as she and Veemon stared towards Victoria. Currently, the pair stood a towering library filled to the brim with books. Light blue marble tiles lined the floor which were complemented by towering oak-lined walls. They had decided to meet in the back, where it would take the author quite a bit of time to even remotely find them.

"What do you even want?" Chouko whispered as Victoria giggled.

"The more things change…" Victoria thought and smiled. "I just wanted to check on you, Chouko."

Chouko glanced towards her with a look of confusion, unsure of how to react to Victoria's answer.

"You were the one who sent the other package, didn't you?" Veemon accused as Victoria laughed and switched into her BlackGatomon form. "Of course she was."

Chouko made a quick glance towards her partner before refocusing it on the blackgatomon standing before her. While she did seem familiar, the tamer couldn't remember why or how.

"I get around." Victoria answered and switched back to her human form. "All I ask is that you make it out of this mess alive, okay?"

She then cracked an awkward smile as Chouko made a quick glance away, not at all noticing her friend walk away.

"Can I have a magic anti-drug?" Veemon added, even if the author wasn't sure at all why he would even need one in the first place. "Because that felt counter-intuitive."

"But what if she is telling the truth?" Chouko added as she stared towards her partner. "This could be one of the few chances we had at getting to the truth and we just blew it."

Veemon only turned away and headed off, not wanting to talk about the matter anymore.

.

Victoria took a deep breath.

For as bad as the reunion went, the black cat had accomplished what she need to do.

"Give it time and it will happen." Victoria thought and cracked a smile, pulling her butterfly swords out as she did. Afterwards, she made her way out into the arena…

.

It didn't Chouko and Veemon that long to return to their area.

They had spent the entire trip in silence, neither willing to break that self-imposed embargo at all. It was easier that way, giving one ample time to think about the exchange from earlier. Even then, they were still probably debating whether or not Victoria was even telling the truth.

"There you two are!" Mikan announced as the two reentered. "Some creeper wanted to take me away, but the author stepped in."
The undead healer glanced towards her companions and took a deep breath.

'Let's just get this over with." Chouko whispered as the trio made their way to the exit.

Outside, they found their opponent casually waiting for them.

"There you are." Victoria shouted and whispered something under her breath. "Let's get this over with, shall we?"

"Whatever." Chouko answered and pulled her combat knives out as Chaos appeared once more.

"Begin!" she announced and teleported away once more.

Veemon infusion digivolve too… Draoniamon!

In place of Veemon, stood the pink dragoness known as Draoniamon.
"Is that seriously all you got?" Victoria taunted as purple light engulfed her, revealing a taller version of her dressed in some sort of elaborate version of her usual outfit. "I'm not going to hold back."

Chouko didn't answer, instead charging towards her opponent and swung her blades in their direction. Victoria copied her opponent and the two met, blades locked in combat. Blow for blow, the two matched each other's moves. Neither was willing to let the other have the victory. It was a mutual feeling, one long thought to be lost in time and buried memories. What felt alien before now made sense in their minds, even if it was just fragments of events long past. For now, that would suffice.

Dark Fryer!

A fireball shot forth from Victoria's butterfly swords, immediately homing in on her opponent and knocked Chouko back a couple feet. Yet, the tamer charged back towards her and seemed even more ready to fight.

Dragon Slash!

Draoniamon charged towards the two girls as Mikan followed right behind. When she got there, she slammed her swords in Victoria's direction.

Luna Horizon!

Just as Draoniamon reached her, Victoria's butterfly swords gained a slight purple glow. She then kicked to Chouko to the ground and gave her a whole bunch of light slashes. The black cat then turned her attention to Chouko's partners and delivered the same treatment to them.

"Sorry about that." she whispered and watched as the two digimon assumed a similar state. "Maybe now, you can become stronger.

..

Jestery smiled.

It had been far too long since she had really gotten a chance to participate in combat.

"Jestery is going to have a lot of fun." she thought and cracked a massive grin. Things were going be quite terrific, if you know what I mean.

.

Unlike Jestery, neither Jack or Darren were in a state to even fight their opponent. Not that either you the viewer or the author really cared. As such, they were dragged out of their bay by Chaos and flung into an appropriate spot as Jestery exited her bay.

"Seriously, author?" Jestery remarked and took a deep breath, pulling her hat off in the process. She then began to rummage through it, pulling a dead body of Makoto Naegi out and proceeded to slap both drunks with it.

With that, six comp-

Before the author could finish his sentence, a large airship crashed into the arena, defeating four of the six competitors...