Author Notes:

Tobiisagoodboy here. It's been have an enternity since I posted something, starting college and ending military time took quite some time.

But I hope that I'll be able to post a bit more from now on... once all the college stuff for this semester is done...(pls kill me )

Chapter 7

Just me, my monkey and well, those other people

"So what are we gonna do today, Arashi?" Koemon and his human partner strolled through Cloud City's great streets, it had been two weeks since Haruka had left and Arashi's mood had not lightened up much since then.

He was quiet most of the time and stayed in their room, so far they've only did one small mission for John and Koemon was getting tired of doing nothing. They had been buying some winter clothes, a thick jacket and a scarf, but now Koemon wanted to do something now that they were outside.

"Maybe John has something to do for us?" The human boy mumbled, without really caring about it.

"Nah, lets do something fun! What about some sparring in one of the dojos we saw yesterday?" Koemon was right, Matt had showed them these Dojos which were used by many people for training purposes.

"You can already digivolve without problems, so why training much?" Arashis excuse started to test Koemons patience, so he gritted his teeth and simply dragged his partner behind him. But it seemed like the weather matched Arashi's mood, within half an hour the sky darkened and the two barely made it back to Babamons hotel, before it started to rain. So for today, Koemon gave up and they spent the rest of the day in their room, doing nothing, just like they did for the last few days.

The next day, it still rained and it didn't seem like it would stop soon, so the two of them sat in the dinner hall, alone like always and while Arashi was still sad and didn't care about his surroundings, Koemon noticed that his partner wasn't the only sad person around.

"Are you also sad because Haruka left, Babamon?" Koemon asked. The aged digimon's head had been lowered the whole time, but now she looked up to the little monkey, who looked at her with a slightly troubled face, something very unusual for him.

"It's not only Haruka, Koemon. I opened this hotel to help humans and their partners, but nobody comes here, because nobody knows about this. They go to the large places in the center and never notice me and my hotel, actually, you two, Haruka, Coronamon, Menma and Guilmon were my only guests until today, it just makes me sad to be alone and to see everybody leave." The grandma like digimon explained sadly while gesturing to the emptiness of the dinner hall.

For a few moments Koemon looked at Babamon and it seemed like he was thinking about something, but then he jumped up and got an idea.

"Take your rain-coat, my stupid, depressed human, we're going to C-Sec." Koemon announced lifting his slingshot in the air. For a moment, Arashi looked at him and it seemed like he wanted to object, but Koemon was too determined, or too stubborn, to accept any negative responses.

"We're going to C-Sec, now," The monkey commanded again and the boy didn't want to argue, so he stood up and a minute later they were heading towards C-Sec's HQ.

"So what are you planning to do and why do we have to run through this shitty weather?"

Arashi asked, nearly shouting to be heard against the rain and the wind, but Koemon only grinned, showing his white teeth and mysteriously said:

"You'll see..."

They were dripping wet when they reached the HQ, but Koemon simply stormed into the building, making everything dirty and wet in the progress, plus infesting the secretary with wet monkey smell, which was mix of wet dog smell and a banana that got drenched in mud.

"Hey Anton! Are Ellie or Matt here? There's something I got to talk with them about something," Anton and his Agumon shared a look of confusion at the monkey's demand before coming with a reply.

"First, hello Koemon. Second, could you please tell me why I should bother the Commander with your hair-brained ideas?" Anton had recovered from the initial surprise and bad smell, his reply however, only annoyed Koemon slightly.

"I got a plan on how you can avoid Ellie bringing people to your place, like she once did with us," The green furred monkey said and it seemed that had the desired effect on Anton.

"Please, go on Koemon." Anton told him, and Koemon, for once in his virtual life, did as he was told.

"Matt for sure told you about the place Arashi and me are staying at, Babamon's hotel, Babamon is super nice but nobody seems to find the place. You could directly send them to us, Babamon is always happy about new guests and her hotel is a really sweet place!" Koemon advertised the kind digimon's hotel. For a moment, Anton was silent, he was heavily considering it, then he told his partner to get Matt and Agumon did as he was told. It only took a minute before the little dinosaur came back, with Matthew and Bitemon following him.

"Matthew, do you remember the hotel you once brought Arashi and Haruka to?" Matthew seemed to turn white instantly, he had completely forgotten about this. Anton had never liked the fact that Ellie and other C-Sec members always brought travelers to their HQ, so having a place where they could always bring them to would have been some valuable information for him.

"Yeah, but I forgot about it, didn't really think about that place." The blonde german took a deep breath, he was still sitting on his chair when Anton told him of Koemon's idea.

"Alright, then I'm sure that you will have no problems with bringing every stranger we pick up from now, to Babamon's hotel, since we can't afford to give everybody a free bed." Agumon's partner told him. Matthew only nodded in reply and directly headed away as fast as he could, while the vice-commander turned back towards Koemon and his stupid human.

"That was a good idea Koemon, I have to admit that I didn't expect some much thought from you, well done. You're really making our job easier with this, thank you." Anton thanked the green monkey.

"No problem, I mostly did this because Babamon was so sad about being alone, but it's good if it helps you, too," Koemon told him cheerfully.

"Ok then," Anton didn't really care and Koemon seemed to be satisfied, so he walked away from Antons desk, towards the door.

"Why did I have to come with you for this?" Arashi asked his partner and the monkey replied with what was becoming his signature grin.

"First, because you need to get out of the bed more often and second because my plan is not done yet. The second phase will start once we got some people in the hotel. Then we'll pick those we like and form a guild with them." Koemon told Arashi of his master plan.

"WHAT!?" They had yet to leave C-Sec's HQ so Anton nearly fell of his chair, surprised by the shout and three heads, Matthews, Bitemons and Agumons, peaked out of a nearby door to see what was going on.

"Yep we'll build a guild, so stop screaming like a little girl and come with me." Koemon replied without even caring about Arashi's outbreak and finally left the building with him.

"You want to build a guild, why? Who put you up for this? And why didn't you tell me before? Are you insane? Why should anybody want to form a guild with us? And why should I even be remotely interested in this?" Arashi rambled loudly, but Koemon didn't really care about it, he had his plan and he wouldn't get stopped by anything.

"Why not? We're all alone at the moment and you're turning into some anti-social, sad dude and I won't watch it." Koemon replied, surprisingly having a serious moment.

"I'm turning into what?" Arashis anger had disappeared a little, had Koemon just said that he was doing this for him? Was his partner truly this nice? What was next? Free cake? Actually, he wouldn't mind if Koemon actually gave him some, unless he cooked it himself, then he'd die from food poisoning.

"You've been depressed and moping since Haruka went away and I can't stand it anymore, so now we'll find more friends and form a guild with them. If idiots like Artur and Sho can build one, than we can build the greatest guild of all and we won't even need a demigod of craftsmanship to build us a guild house." Koemon stated matter of factly. Unaware to them, in two different corners of the Digital World, Artur and Sho sneezed, coincidence? I think not.

Arashi now gave up, he knew quite well that he wouldn't be able to change Koemon's decision and he knew that nothing could be done to stop it now. In fact, Arashi was pretty sure his green partner would probably try to build an guild even without his partner.

"But we still need to tell Babamon about it, we can't just turn her hotel into our guild house, right?" Arashi reminded his partner. Turning someone else's property into their own place was too much like stealing.

"She'll like the idea, as long as people come to her hotel more often," The digital monkey replied with an large grin, he had won and now everything would go in the way of his master plan. Babamon nearly dehydrated completely from crying after Koemon and Arashi had told her about their plan, happy about the fact that they cared about her and that there would be a growth in visitors for her hotel.

The following day, Arashis mood was also finally getting more positive, and they went on a small, two day escort mission with an elderly Agumon, both Arashi and Koemon were amazed that it had a long, white beard. The elderly rookie wanted to go to his old flower garden which was outside of the city.

Nothing really happened, they brought him to the field, slept there and then went back. Quite a contrast from their last escort mission, not only it was far more peaceful, but they were the only ones accompanying the elder reptile.

"Since when are you this nice? You even rejected the money Arashi " Koemon and his stupid human were standing in front of the hotel discussing their completed mission.

"Sometimes even I'm just nice, demanding money from an elder for helping simply feels wrong."

Arashi shrugged as he replied. Koemon smirked now and replied sharply with his usual attitude.

"If only Haruka could have seen it, she would have given you many kisses..." A powerful slap on the back of the monkey's head was his punishment for the comment. They were surprised to find several of the hotels rooms occupied, it was already late and they could see light in at least four other rooms.

"Hmm, seems like Babamon really likes us now, we don't have to share our room with any of the new guys," Koemon commented as they entered their room and they soon went to sleep, they were not really tired, but it was already dark, so they called it a day.

The next day, they went to breakfast, and they were surprised that nearly everything had already been eaten, since they had slept until 10am, like always. Seems like the early birds got most of the food already.

"Oh Arashi, I'm so sorry. I'm simply not used to making food for so many people, next time I'll make more." Babamon apologized to Arashi, but he assured her that it was no problem, all that was left was a bit bread, an boiled egg and some bananas for Koemon, but it could have been worse, oops, now they're jinxed. Arashi now looked for his partner, who had already sat down at a table with 4 other people, two humans and their partners and began socializing.

"That's my partner Arashi, Arashi these are Takara and Veemon and Andrew and Hackmon." Takara was a girl around his age, with slightly maroon hair and big smile on her face, just like her partner, a blue and white dragon with a small yellow V on his forehead.

Andrew was probably a little bit younger than himself, maybe a year or two, he had short black hair and was talking with his partner, who was small metal dragon wearing a red cape. Koemon seemed a little bit out of place, after all he was not a dragon but just a monkey wearing some fur cloth and carrying a slingshot.

"Nice to meet you Arashi. Koemon said that you guys know how to get along here and you would help us. Vee and me just came here and Andrew and Hackmon have been wandering around for weeks without having any idea what to do." Takara told them. For a moment, Arashi looked at his partner, whose face was in an angle that hid the fact that he was grinning widely and Arashi immediately knew what his partner was up to.

"Yeah, of course. I could help you with some missions, maybe even a caravan if you guys would like to." Arashi gave in to Koemons idea, but he was surprised by the others reaction. Takaras eyes started to sparkle and she nearly freaked out as she thanked Arashi and hurried off with an also freaking out Veemon, to get ready for future missions.

"Is she always like that?" Arashi asked after a minute, but Andrew only shrugged his shoulders, since he met her just yesterday.

"Any plan already what kind of missions we could do?" Andrew then asked and now Koemon took charge again.

"Guardromon said that there will be a really large caravan which needs as many people as possible, since its super important and needs to be guarded tightly." The green monkey informed the boy.

"Yeah Caravans are pretty well paid and they always take everybody they can find. But they always take a lot time, even the short one we did last time took a week," Arashi said, but Andrew didn't really care about it, since he and Hackmon agreed to the idea. So an hour later they were standing in front of John's place, where Commandramon greeted them.

"Oh hello Arashi, are you and the others here for the caravan job Guardromon talked about?" The cyborg dragon asked and invited them inside, making them some tea.

"So the caravan is gonna be pretty important for Cloud City. It will be made up of at least three dozen carriages, guarded by C-Sec and many others. It's gonna get supplies at the Western Plains, mostly food and some spices from the Agumon village in the south. Then it goes to the chromed mountains to get ores and metals we need for construction. Here is the deal, John, Guadromon and myself are in need of a lot new ores and metals, we're already low on nearly everything we need. So John has rented a large carriage, quite comfortable one, too and you guys could escort it. I should take a bit more than a month and we'll pay you pretty good for it." Commandramon informed them of their mission.

"Sounds like something important, shouldn't you let somebody else do it? You know better than us?" Andrew asked humbly, but Commandramon simply smiled, showing his sharp teeth.

"Oh, I know Arashi and Koemon, they may be a little bit crazy and lazy sometimes, but they're ok. So if those two bring you guys here, it's good enough for me." Commandramon insulted and complimented them. Koemon didn't care about his comment, while Arashi blushed a little bit, which made Commandramon chuckle a little bit. The caravan would set out by tomorrow, so the group quickly left afterwards to get ready for it.

"Alright, I'm right if I assume that you guys don't have any money with you, right?" Takara only had some Yen with her, which were worthless in the Digital World, and Andrew only had like 10 $, so they passed by the hotel and Koemon went inside to get their cash reserves.

"We saved up some money from our missions, we can lend you some for the basic stuff if you want to." Arashi offered kindly and the others agreed, Andrew simply nodded, while Takara nearly freaked out and thanked Arashi like he had just saved her life. Yes she really seemed to be a little bit hyperactive.

"Alright, it's getting colder, so you guys need some winter clothes, rain coats, sleeping bags and some blankets. Food is normally provided by the Caravan so that should be enough." Arashi explained as they walked towards Cloud Citiy's shopping district.

It didn't take them long to get everything, neither Andrew nor Takara cared about how the clothes looked, so by afternoon, they were back at Babamons hotel. Then, after storing away the stuff for now, the group sat in the diner hall again and Babamon had just started to cook one of her delicious soups and Koemon was getting bored now.

"We should train a little bit while Babamon cooks, after all we need to know how strong you guys are," The green monkey offered their new friends a chance to show off. Takara and Vee-mon directly agreed and charged outside, leaving comical dust in the air as they ran. Andrew and Hackmon simply followed Arashi and Koemon at a calmer pace.

The first little battle was between Vee-mon and Koemon, the little dragon was full of energy and directly charged at Koemon, who simply dodged the attack by stepping aside. Vee-mon kept on throwing punches at Koemon and for a moment the monkey had to grin, this really reminded him of his little dumb buddy Coronamon. But then he was surprised, for a moment he didn't look at Vee-mon, which the little dragon used, by attacking with his Vee Headbutt. In the last moment, Koemon was able to block the attack with his slingshot, which he used as a shield against the attack. Vee-mon was nearly knocked out by this and somehow the slingshot had withstood the attack, but the little dragon was now pretty dizzy and couldn't fight anymore.

So Hackmon was Koemon's next opponent and he directly proved that he was on a completely other level than Vee. He charged at Koemon with an incredible speed, the little monkey could hardly dodge it, at least the first slash, because the second attack from him hit him and threw him back.

'That's insane! He's faster than Witchmon, who was freaking Champion-level.' Koemon thought to himself angrily. But he wouldn't let himself get beaten this easy, so he fired several bananas at Hackmon from his slingshot, but the little dragon simply cut them apart in the air and even ate some of them with his thick metal jaws. What he didn't notice was that Koemon had also fired a single rock while he ate a banana, the hard stone hit the dragon right in the space between his yellow eyes. But it only took a moment to recover from this attack, then he only grinned and unleashed his counter-attack by spewing bright orange flames at the monkey.

"Mmmh, this smells good!" Koemon laughed as he evaded the attack, some of the bananas had been roasted and now water was gathering in the monkeys mouth. The hunger was now starting to take over his mind, so he had end this as quickly as possible. He charged at Hackmon and tried to hit him with his slingshot, but the dragon blocked the attack and hit him with the other clawed paw, which sent Koemon to the ground.

"I think that's enough, right?" Andrew asked, not wanting to really hurt Koemon. Arashi and Koemon were quick to agree, while Vee-mon and Takara were amazed by the battle. The rest of the afternoon they were busy talking and preparing for the escort mission tomorrow and Koemon grinned a little bit that night, while he observed his sleeping partner. Today Arashi had been happy most of the time, something that had not happened since Haruka had left.

The next day was incredibly cold, below freezing and very damp, terrible weather which didn't really help raising Arashis motivation, after he had been forced to stand up early. At least Commandramon had said the truth, their carriage was one of the more "comfortable" ones. It looked like one of those carriages from old wild west movies, with a white cover to protect them from wind and worse of the climate.

"Enjoy the first weeks of the travel." Koemon told them as they stored their equipment on the wagon, it would get funny once the carriage was full with it's supplies.

"Alright everybody, listen now, this is important." Anton's loud voice was heard by at least half the town, as he addressed everybody who gathered for the job.

"Each team is responsible for the security of their carriage, C-Sec will patrol during nightimes, but I still advice you guys to have at least one nightguard. I got only 10 humans and digimon to secure the whole caravan, so let me give you one advice, watch out and be ready to fight if necessary." The blond C-Sec member wasn't known for beating around the bush and he made it very clear what they would face, so everybody understood what they were supposed to do.

Arashi and his small team now turned back to their wagon, which was drawn by a friendly Monochromon, who told them that they didn't need to care about him, since this wasn't his first caravan and some rain and wind were no problem for him.

So they sat down on the wagon, there was just enough place for the six of them to fit on it and Arashi already wondered what it would be like once they loaded the ores and metals onto it, it would defiantly have less space for them that's for sure. But for now he was happy that the caravan slowly set into motion, he was relaxing and observed their surroundings, he had never seen this many digimon and people in one place all at once. The wagons cover at least protected them from the rain and most of the wind and it was at least a little bit comfortable on the hay that was covering the spot he sat on.

"Hey Arashi, how are you doing?" Matthew approached them, while the carriage was moving forward slowly, he could simply walk and still keep up with it.

"Haven't seen you for quite some time. Lets chat a little bit tonight, since Anton will tear of my head if I stay away from my post for longer than a few seconds." The young man told him in a friendly tone, after Arashi had nodded in reply, he hurried back to his station. For the first few minutes, nobody on the carriage said anything, until Takara finally broke the silence.

"So , we got a long journey ahead. You and Koemon can for sure tell us some of the adventures you two had until now." Takara asked them, eager to escape the silence that had surrounded them. Koemon and Arashi looked at each other, there were one or two things they didn't want to talk about, but why not? They after all had a lot of time to pass and telling some stories was a good way of getting to know people. Since it was still Koemons plan to recruit them for 'his' guild, befriending them was a pretty good idea.

Chapter 7

End

Well new ark starts,

Arashi has found a team and well lets see how everythings gonna work out ^^.

Tobi out