Chapter 8: Animal I Have Become
"Whose idea was it to steer near the trees again?" I moaned as I wriggled free of the remnants of the boat.
"I think it was JP's," Takuya mumbled (he'd fallen on his head when we crashed, it had been hilarious, and I could hear in his voice his head still kinda hurt). He gave a bit of a groan-squeak sound as he tried to pull himself out, but got stuck. He looked up at me, an expression on his face that doubted I would help him out as he asked, "Toshiku, can you give me a hand?"
"Fine," I turned and stood in front of him. I could see the surprise in his face. "Give me your hands."
He lifted his arms up, and I grabbed his wrists. I gave him a hard pull, and he came out pretty easily. I doubted that he'd needed my help really in the first place, but it was Takuya, and he wasn't what you'd call smart.
He stood up from the ground, smiled at me and said, "Thanks Toshiku."
"Whatever Takky." I replied, turning to start walking away. But I stopped before getting very far, since I'd heard a small grunt come from the boat.
I turned to investigate as Takuya walked past me mumbling, "To-ku? Tosh-chan? Man, nicknames are hard."
I walked back over to the boat to see Koji trying to drag himself from the debris. He watched as I walked over to him.
"…Uh, do you want…help?" I asked, looking down into his deep, unfathomable eyes. I smiled as Weregarumon's fluffy head popped out from under his bandana.
"No, I don't need it." Koji grumbled as he pulled at the ground again. I watched from a few feet away as he struggled against the rubble.
"…Koji?"
"What?" He looked up at me, stopping his struggle for a moment.
"You're stuck," I stated, knowing that I was right, even if he didn't want to admit it. "Here," I wrapped an arm around his back to help pull him out, but he suddenly flinched and looked at me funny.
I was a little confused for a minute why; I almost laughed when I realized I'd poked him in the rib cage. "I'm not going to tickle you again."
"Koji's ticklish?" Tommy asked from a few yards away. Zoe heard Tommy's question and giggled.
Koji blushed with embarrassment. "No, I'm not." He grumbled, he didn't sound too convincing though.
JP didn't think so either. "But Toshiku just said she wasn't going to tickle you again?"
I cleared my throat. "No, no. I said I wouldn't try to tickle him again. It…it didn't work the first time."
Zoe giggled again, smirked at me and asked in an annoying, girly, I-think-you-got-a-crush-on-somebody voice, "Why were you trying to tickle Koji, Toshiku?"
I blushed a bit, but shrugged and replied calmly, "Got bored, I guess."
Zoe looked a bit surprised at my answer, then she got a bit angry-looking and walked away unsatisfied. JP and Tommy walked away after her, who was now walking next to Takuya, who'd run into a tree even though it was broad daylight.
I returned my attention to getting Koji unstuck. I wrapped my arms around him—trying not to tickle him by accident (or on purpose)—and gave him a swift tug. It took a bit more effort to get him out than it had Takuya, but I wasn't really even sure if Takuya had been stuck, or if he just didn't feel like getting out himself after landing on his head—even though there really wasn't anything important in there.
Koji stood up after I finally did help him get unstuck. He turned and looked at me, his face still a slight embarrassed pink—probably because first, he'd needed my help getting out, and second, almost everybody thought he was ticklish. Which he was.
"…Thanks," He mumbled, but then his voice grew a bit brighter. "…Toshi."
I blushed a sparkling crimson at his words. "…Uh…Toshi, Koji?"
He shrugged. "Just a little nickname for you." He walked around me and headed after the others, leaving me in a daze.
As I followed after everyone, my mind was entirely concentrating on the fact that Koji had given me a nickname. I mean, Takuya had tried to give me one—who knows why, I would figure out eventually—but it just didn't seem like Koji to give a nickname to me right out of the blue.
"What are you thinking about?" I nearly jumped clean out of my skin when Neemon spoke up.
I sighed with slight relief that it was only Neemon as I answered, "It's nothing."
Even though his brain had been possessed by that of a rock, Neemon could still tell that I was lying. I didn't know how, but he did. "It's not nothing. You wouldn't be so deep in thought about it if it were nothing. Nothing is nothing because it's nothing, and nothing is nothing so…what were you thinking about?"
I struggled to quickly find something to use as a comeback, but I just couldn't think of anything.
Neemon took the opportunity to ask me about his own theory. "Was it about Koji?"
"What?!" I squeaked, making everyone turn around and stare at me.
My face lost all its color, and all of it was replaced by my embarrassed blushing. I moved away from Neemon and walked quickly past everyone.
I saw Zoe start to ask me what the squeaking was about, but I answered her before she got the chance to ask. "No, it's nothing. Now can we just keep going already? I want to get some kind of distance in before the end of the day."
JP was the only one who was against my plan. He panted as he complained, "I can't walk another step—"
"Then I'll leave you there." I interrupted, turning back to look at him. He glared at me; I wondered if he knew I was being serious.
JP instantly looked at Zoe with pouting eyes that sent a chill down my spine. "You wouldn't let her leave me, would you?"
Zoe glanced at him before smiling, and replying, "Maybe I would, and maybe I wouldn't. I don't know."
I opened my mouth and made a gurgling sound. Takuya laughed at the sound effect as I said, "Zoe, you're gonna make me puke."
Zoe growled in annoyance of my statement. She glared at me as she asked in an angry tone, "Why am I always the one you aim your mood swings at?"
I turned around and raised an eyebrow at her. "Mood swings? What are you blah-blah-blah-ing about?"
She didn't seem to mind explaining it at all. I guess it was just like a volley of insults to her or something. Or maybe it was giving her the chance to come up with something awesomely perfect to hit me with. "Because! When we first met you, you wanted nothing to do with us! Then you wandered off somewhere, and then when we got to Breezy Village…" She trailed off, a smirk crossing her face. She'd struck gold. "You know, I've never heard you snap at Koji…why do you think that is?"
I snarled at her, something flowing through me I'd never felt before. I mumbled, my voice gnarled in growls, "You wouldn't—"
"Awwww!" She smiled as she snickered to herself. "You two are so cute!"
I glanced at Koji to see his reaction. He looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face. I was glad that he didn't quite understand.
I scowled back up at Zoe, my face a mixture of red anger for her and a scarlet affection for Koji. I closed my eyes, hung my head and grumbled, knowing she had the higher ground here, "There's nothing 'cute' about it. Now can we keep going?!"
Zoe smirked, happy to have been the triumphant one in the fight. She walked past me and continued on the trail. "Sure Toshiku. Let's go."
When I figured that everyone else had gone on ahead of me, I opened my eyes and let out a sigh. I slightly cocked my head to the side when I saw a pair of white and blue shoes a few feet in front of me. And there were feet connected to them too.
"Toshi?" I looked up to see Koji standing there.
"Koji? I thought you went ahead with the others?" I pointed behind me in the direction everyone else had gone.
He shook his head. He stared deep into my eyes, making my face turn a bright hue of pink. There was an intensity to his gaze that I'd never felt before.
"What was Zoe talking about Toshi?" He asked, his voice a tender hush my ears had never heard.
"I…uhh…it's…it's…complicated…Koji…" I put a hand behind my head as I tried to think of something to tell him. I cursed myself for allowing Zoe to go as far as she had.
I couldn't be so careless about it. Sooner or later, Koji would put two and two together.
I was afraid to know what his reaction would be. But then again, maybe…he…maybe…
I was still searching my mind for some kind of an explanation when some thing puffy whacked me in the back of the head. It was bigger and slightly less squishy than a marshmallow, so that couldn't have been what hit me.
"What the…?" I turned around and stared at the ground. "…Not you guys again…" I mumbled, one of the hundreds of Pogumon sitting there on the ground in front of me.
"Guess who's back!" It shouted as about a hundred of them plummeted out of the sky, half of them digi-volving into Raremon right off the bat.
"I don't wanna know!" I shouted back as both Koji and I spirit-evolved into Lobomon and Raveamon. "But let's crush 'em into Pogu-paste! You with me Koji?"
"Let's go!" He shouted, leaping forward at one of the Raremon. "Lobo-kendo!" He slashed the cerulean light-sword into the purple sludge's head, just like he had the first time we'd encountered the Pogumon.
I slammed my hands together, the Moon Beam sword reappearing as it had before. It felt good to have the pulsating energy in my fist again.
"Acid Sludge!" One of the many Raremon—there had to be at least six; I didn't have the time to count—coughed up a round of the rotten-smelling, acidic flem.
I flicked it away with a bat of my wing before propelling myself at it, sword swinging out in front of me like a helicopter's rotor.
I hopped into the air, sword above my head and ready to come down in a swift strike. But my attack was forcibly paused when Takuya—technically Agunimon—came flying through the frickin' air, and smashed into the only thing that was actually in his way—me.
He hit me head first, the horns on his helmet digging into my armor. I expected to just hit the ground, but no. I collided with Koji (a.k.a. Lobomon) and then we all hit the tree. Most times when Takuya came flying out of nowhere because he got whacked by something much bigger than him and rammed into me, who rammed into Koji, who ended up hitting the tree along with me and Takuya (that's a mouthful), we usually stayed in spirit evolved form—not that this happened that often.
I don't know why, but for some reason we did return to our vulnerable human bodes. Koji was situated at the base of the tree behind me, and Takuya was laying on my lap, trapping me underneath him.
I struggled to move him off of me and spirit-evolve, but something was keeping me from the power of my Digimon spirit. It was like some kind of undetectable force was tapping into my strength like it was some kind of fuel.
I tried to figure out which of the six legs were mine as the series of Raremon and Pogumon inched closer and closer to us. I didn't know if either Koji or Takuya were actually conscious, but I knew that even if they were, they might not be able to spirit-evolve either.
"Acid Sludge!" The Raremon imploded slightly on themselves before sending the giant globs of bottle green glop at us.
The Pogumon ran after the attack; I could hear their teeth gnashing as they shouted, "Bonsai! Get 'em!"
I let out a yell as I watched them run forward in terror. I'd never felt this weak since…
I stopped yelling and watched in terrified awe as the Pogumon jumped at us, but were kept away by something I couldn't see. There were distortions in the air around me, but I didn't understand it. The crazed Digimon suddenly looked at the distortions in fright, let out their own little shouts of disbelief, and fled.
"What's going on…?" I thought aloud. A strange sensation tickled the back of my mind, making me think that these things that were trying to help me…weren't…trying…to help me. I didn't understand it, but I felt that they were just keeping us alive so they could have their share of our data.
I leaned forward towards the distortions and growled, for whatever reason knowing that I was right, "What are you?!"
I felt weak again—almost as if something was sucking out all of the strength I still had—as I fell back against Koji. I watched in horror as one of the three distorted air masses moved towards me, stopping right at my feet. I knew I was looking into its eyes as a voice invaded my mind.
"You cannot hide Toshiku…we see you…"
"Get away!" I shouted, swinging a fist at the air, but achieving nothing. It was air after all. But last time I checked, air didn't send me threatening messages, and couldn't protect me from psychotic Pogumon that were addicted to chocolate.
I fell against Koji again as all of the distortions moved away, not before sending me more messages though.
"Linger in the good moments while you can child…we won't protect you for long…just wait…"
A demonic laugh rocketed through my head, resounding and ringing in every crevice of my brain. Chills slithered down my back as the alterations steadily crept away.
Fear took hold of my consciousness, and my sight was swept away by darkness before I could see them leave for sure.
"Is she even breathing?"
"Yes, why would you think she wasn't?"
"Do you think she needs mouth-to-mouth?"
"No, and even if she did, I don't think she'd want it from you."
"What do you know—will you stop twitching?!"
"I'm not twitching, that's my heart beat! I can't exactly stop you know!"
"Is it like, ten times the size it should be or something?! Are you the Grinch?"
"…Am I green? When did I ever try to steal Christmas?"
"I don't know, maybe you plot about it in your spare time."
"Shut up, I think Toshiku's waking up."
I slowly opened my eyes to see Takuya and Koji; they both smiled when they saw me open my eyes. I groaned and touched my aching forehead. I was surprised to feel a wet rag there.
"Where did you find the rag?" I asked curiously, glad to see that they'd escaped the Raremon pretty much unharmed. But then again, we hadn't even been the one's to fight them off.
"You were feeling warm," I looked up at Koji; my face reddened as I realized my head was resting on his lap. "So Takuya went out to find some water, and came back with it."
I sat up and gave Takuya a questioning look.
He smiled at me before saying, "I have my ways."
"…Do I wanna know what they are?" I asked, removing the rag from my forehead; whatever fever I'd had a moment ago was gone now.
Takuya shook his head, the smile still on his face as he said, "I wasn't going to tell you even if you did want to know."
"…Well, that's an interesting thing to keep in mind…" I mumbled before standing up.
Koji stood up as he spoke. "If you're thinking what I'm thinking, that's something to keep out of the mind."
I snickered at his statement; Takuya simply glared at him.
I started walking again as I said, "C'mon, we should catch up to everyone before JP gives more chocolate to the Pogumon."
Koji smirked, and as he walked beside me he added, "It's like a drug to them."
I grinned. "Yeah, we get there, and JP's gonna be rolling around in money. And I'm just gonna go ahead and shout, 'Oh my god, he sold it all!'"
Koji and I both burst into laughter at the mental image. It was after we stopped laughing that I noticed Takuya was gone.
"Koji, did you see where Tak—" I abruptly stopped when I turned my head to see that Koji had disappeared. I changed my question. "Koji, did you see where Koji went?"
I stopped for a moment and prodded where Koji had been standing; making sure that he hadn't been made invisible to the human eye. He hadn't.
I looked around once more, before shrugging off both of their disappearances. Takuya was Takuya, and would show up eventually, more likely than not duct taped to a tree. And Koji was smart, and a good fighter. He could take care of himself. But I worried about him a little anyway.
While I walked on, waiting for them to return, my mind wandered back to a few hours ago. The distortions had known my name. I'd never even seen their faces—or even those distinct abstractions of atmosphere—before. I grinded my teeth together, for some reason I was losing control of my temper; I didn't understand why they'd protected us, and then gone ahead with a threat. If they wanted me dead eventually, why not kill me now?
I knew what they meant by 'good moments', there wasn't much that they could mean by that. I was supposed to savor my time of freedom while I still had it. At least I knew a few things about them: one, they knew who I was, two, they wanted me dead, three, they planned to wait and let me suffer before they killed me.
How frickin' pleasant.
But there were still so many things that puzzled me. How did they know me? What did they have against me that compelled them to save me so they could kill me themselves? And why did they choose me in the first place? What was so special about me? Maybe it was because of how Raveamon and I were connected as one person.
"Toshiku! Toshiku!" I turned my head just in time to see Takuya run past me with an uprooted tree. And not just a sapling, the thing was a little bit taller than he was, and a little wider than him too. I couldn't help but wonder how he'd gotten it out of the ground in the first place. "I brought you flowers!" He exclaimed, his face a light pink but still beaming as he handed the tree—er, flower over to me.
"…Uhhh…thank you Takuya...This was…unexpected…" I know I'd expected to find him duct taped to a tree, but this was a little…different.
I heard Koji clear his throat, and I turned around to see him holding something behind his back. His face was a bright cherry red, and a sweet little smile adorned his features. "I got these…" He shifted his arm around so I could see what he had. "Actual flowers for you…"
I flushed as he handed me flowers. I took them carefully, being sure not to drop any of them. I looked back up at him and smiled at his red face. "Thank you Koji…they're really pretty."
I hated the words I chose, but I was kinda drawing a blank. I could've assumed as much to come from Takuya, but from Koji…it was like predicting a blue moon with nothing more than a piece of paper and half a Popsicle stick. "…You're welcome…"
For a minute it was silent, and I just stood there smiling and blushing at the flowers Koji'd handed to me. I broke the silence as I mumbled, my voice not allowing me any more than that, "We…we should keep going now."
Takuya's face suddenly changed from glaring at Koji to a beaming smile as he grabbed my hand and pumped it up with his into the air, nearly tearing my arm out of its socket. "Well then, let's go!"
He was about to charge off with me being dragged after him, when I felt a light pressure embrace my other hand. I looked back to see that Koji was holding my hand, an uncomfortable but persistent expression on his still cherry hued face. "Back off Takuya…" Koji growled to him, but his face kept the same expression.
Takuya glanced back and glared daggers at him, but Koji didn't let go of my hand.
I could hear my heart beating in my ears like nuclear bombs going off every second. I'd never held Koji's hand before; it had almost heavenly warmth, and gave me the remembrance of feelings I'd tried hard to look over, but I found now that it was impossible.
My face turned even redder than it already was when I noticed how well Koji's hand fit mine. But I struggled to convince myself that my mind was just playing tricks on me. Though, no matter how hard I wanted to try, I couldn't stop myself from blushing.
"…W-we should…walk now…" I stuttered weakly before pulling both of them forward. My legs felt like Jell-O as I strived to move onwards. I didn't know why my legs were being so pathetic, but I had a good idea. My psyche was pretty much scrambled; first, I didn't understand what or who those three distortion things were, and second, I didn't really understand my mind's reasoning for making me act so stupid when it came to Koji.
We all walked hand in hand—me being in the frickin' middle—in silence for a while, before Takuya exclaimed out of the blue, taking his hand away from mine and flexing the muscles in his arm, "Wanna feel my bicep Toshiku?"
I face palmed with my now free hand and tried hard not to start laughing. I was able to keep a straight face as I answered, so he wouldn't keep asking like the annoying little goggle-head he was, "…Sure, why not?"
I actually had a million reasons why not to, but it wasn't like he was really going to listen to them. I reached out with my hands and felt his muscle. He was warm like his element, but he had a lot of work to do before they were out of the ordinary.
After I let go, he added to his previous statement, "Feel Koji's bicep too, even though I'm stronger than him, you should know that for yourself."
"Wha—" I stopped and thought to myself, "Kami-sama…these people are trying to kill me."
I looked at Koji, hoping that he had some kind of an idea of what to do now. He noticed my glance and said, "Takuya, we don't have the time for this. We have to keep going and get to the Forest Terminal."
"C'mon," I agreed, beginning to head forward, happy that Koji was smarter than me in more ways that one. "Koji's right, we've gotta get there soon."
Takuya let out a bit of a groan and ran to take my hand again as he said, "Yeah, I guess you're right, but I am stronger than Koji."
I blushed as Koji took my other hand again, ignoring Takuya's statement completely. I wondered why he was being so determined about all of this. And then the flowers; I couldn't help but consider what he would've done if Takuya hadn't…uhh…given the tree to me.
I saw something move out of the corner of my eye, and I reacted during that second. "Get down!" I shouted as I threw both Koji and Takuya to the ground.
I was about to hit the deck along with them, but something slammed into my head, knocking me head over heels backwards. I couldn't have been certain, but it had claws on its feet; maybe even talons like Raveamon.
As I struggled to get back onto my feet, the distortions reappeared in front of me.
"You!" I growled as I spirit-evolved into Raveamon. I flexed my wings, trying to give myself the appearance of the strength I knew I didn't have.
"Ahh, the angel of darkness in the flesh. Finally, I get to see the face I've heard so much about," The voice this distortion had was different than the others. It sounded more feminine, but I knew it was one of the three distortions that had come before. I gasped in pure horror as the twist in the ambiance faded slowly into color.
The Digimon was almost exactly like Raveamon in appearance; the wings had the same feathery texture, but were a bright lemon-color like a fair amount of her armor. Her hair was brown and short, only barely reaching to her black armored shoulders. There was a large golden circle with small spikes jutting out of it on her back; it reminded me of the sun. Her eyes were the same scarlet as Raveamon's, but she didn't have the blood-red tear stains beneath them. But there was a ruby molded into the armor protecting her head, and the symbol of her element was etched in black in it.
I was right; she was the warrior of the sun.
"No my dear," She said, gesturing to herself, and then to me. "I am not one of the ten. I am like you; a protector. Or, at least, slightly like you," She clenched her fists, and bright yellow flares flew out from them. One of the flares made it all the way over to me and burned my face. I let out a cry as she continued. "I am Sentimon, one of the three causes of death; emotion,"
She turned her head and looked at Koji and Takuya, both of them had gotten up off of the ground and now were in their spirit-evolved forms. She smirked before lashing the tip of a long serrated whip at them.
"No! Don't touch him!" I grabbed at the edge of the whip; sharp, jagged pieces of something that felt like glass dug into my palm, exceeding past my armor with ease, but I didn't let it go.
Sentimon merely grinned, tearing the whip from my hand as she taunted me, "Aw, and here I thought you had a core of steel, I would never have guessed that you had a soft spot…" Her eyes darted to Koji for a split second. "But he found a way to your heart nevertheless," She flicked her arm and slashed the whip across my face. "Now I've got something to aim for!"
Sentimon dropped the whip back into the pouch at her side, smacked her hands together, and as a loud echo sounded, and started to pull them apart as she shouted, "Astral Flare!"
As her hands moved away from each other, pure energy surged away from her and formed a little ball. But it wasn't little for more than a few seconds. After barely even five, the orange power was much bigger than all of the trees around us.
With a grunt and flick of her wrists, she sent the attack spiraling towards us. I pressured my wings to expand as far as they could, but as the attack got to us, it simply passed through me and unleashed its fury upon Koji and Takuya. They were both flung backwards and crashed into the trees behind us.
"Koji! Takuya!" I called out their names as they returned to their unprotected human bodies.
I slowly turned back to Sentimon, anger boiling up inside me, surging to the point of overflowing. I let out a yell and lunged at her, the moon beam sword once again in my grasp as I slashed an arm at her. But she simple leaned back and avoided decapitation without any effort at all.
I skirted away from her as she flicked the whip at me again, the saw-like edge colliding with my wing, ripping at the unarmored appendage. I turned to send another attack her way, but she slammed a foot into my face, the force knocking me off of me feet and into a tree.
I looked up wearily as the figure moved steadily closer to me; a face that showed her evil soul adorned her head. I didn't know what to do now. I wasn't strong enough to beat her; I wasn't even close to that kind of strength.
"Mama! Mama!" I looked to the side as Weregarumon ran up to me. He pushed my side, trying to help me up onto my feet again. "You have to keep fighting Mama! I know you can!"
I turned my head away from Weregarumon so he wouldn't have to see my scratched face. "I can't…I…I don't think I'm strong enough…To win this time."
"Then…then…then…oh! Come with me, hurry! I found something that belongs to you!" He told me, immediately taking off at a high sprint.
"Were are you going?!" I called to him, jumping to my feet and running quickly after him.
I wondered what he meant by 'something that belongs to you'. I didn't lose anything, and I'd never been here before. But then again, maybe he was talking about something that could help me keep going.
But I didn't have the time to ponder it. I jumped over a bush, my slight moment of silence letting me know that either I was keeping up well with Weregarumon, or Sentimon was gaining on me faster than I'd anticipated. When I saw a bright orb completely demolish a tree along side me, I guessed that it was Sentimon I'd heard.
"It's here! It's here!" Weregarumon called to me as I reached an open area where the trees receded from something. It had to be some kind of special, trees didn't do that for just anything.
"What is it—" I let out a yell as one of the Astral Flares hit me from behind, knocking me forward to where Weregarumon was. I struggled onto my hands and knees as my pain forced me back to my human figure.
"See? Look there!" I shifted my gaze to where Weregarumon was looking, and saw Raveamon's symbol imprinted on a small stone pillar.
I got to my feet and moved over to it, Weregarumon running at my side. "But…if you're right, and it is mine…what is it?"
"Maybe it's your beast spirit Mama. Or a Lego made out of moon rock!" Weregarumon stated happily as I bent down to get a closer look at the delicate carving of the symbol.
As I tried to figure out what it was, I shoved the pillar back. I lunged back in shock as a spire of pale blue light shot out from the ground. I sat in the dirt and watched in awe as a little figurine appeared inside the beacon of brightness; it was of a large black dog—a little voice in the back of my head led me to think it was a werewolf—standing over something and howling.
I instinctively pulled out my D-Tector and held it out to the figurine. I closed my eyes and called out as Sentimon emerged from the ocean of trees and Weregarumon ran off to find some place to hide, "Spirit!"
The minute figure rushed over to me, and was enveloped in a white beam emitting from the screen of my D-Tector before being consumed by it. I was surrounded by data, and sparks of electricity rippled through me as I let out a deafening bellow.
I shook my head as the data around me faded. I looked down at myself; though a strange mixture of confusing colors had replaced my sight, I could see some armor with the symbol of my element fixed upon it, and black fur wherever there wasn't any armor. Instead of seeing Raveamon's talon-ed feet, I saw four—two in the back, and two in front. My feet—actually paws—each had a set of sharp golden claws.
I stepped forward towards the stunned Sentimon, slowly getting used to walking with four feet. With each step that I took, I could feel the new power chasing away all doubt of my strength.
I crouched low in front of Sentimon before throwing my head back and letting out an ear-splitting howl. I returned my gaze to Sentimon before belting out a werewolf-ish roar, and snapping at her with my white jaws.
As I continued to try and attack Sentimon, I started to feel at a loss for control of the spirit. I rammed my head into Sentimon, knocking her back a few feet. I locked my feet in place, and opened my jaws as I shouted, the voice emitting to Sentimon through telepathy, "Innovative Star!"
I could feel energy welling up in my open jaws, before I let it burst from me and shoot towards Sentimon, hitting her with a two-ton force.
I watched as she was flung backwards into a large stone. She slid to the ground and I rushed towards her, snarling and growling the whole way.
Sentimon let out a grunt as she pushed herself up into the air and flew high above and away from me. I stopped and jumped up, stretching my neck to reach her. But she was a few feet too high, and I hit the ground again with a boom.
I let out another bark and I watched in anger as she flew away and out of my sight. I growled and tried to chase after her, but after a while of running I lost track of her.
My black pointed ears suddenly pricked up; something was nearby. I growled, my spirit immediately thinking that it was an enemy. I tried to convince myself otherwise, but something inside wouldn't think in that direction.
I ran in that direction, easily jumping over all kinds of rocks and bushes. I stopped as I jumped onto the path, running along it to catch up to whatever had been making the noises from before. I knew that whatever it was, it couldn't be too far away; a strange scent was tickling my sensitive nose, making me sure of it.
I stopped at the top of a large hill and looked down over the rest of the area in my range of odd sight. There were little trails of color, all of them having their own specific scent to them. One of them really caught my interest.
It had a distinct sweet smell to it that made my mouth water. I rolled my head back and let out a howl before running again, this time with my nose stuck to the ground, carefully following the scent.
I started to wonder why I was acting so oddly when I glanced up to see a little group a little ways ahead of me. I pinned my ears flat against my head and let out an intimidating snarl, stopping to glower at the enemies before me.
"What Digimon is that? She looks like a wolf." One of them with a large hat-thing on his head asked, seeming to be afraid of the creature that was standing in front of him. I sniffed at the air for a moment; he wasn't the owner of the sweet smell.
"Werewolf at that by boy," A little white vegetable-creature pulled a rectangle out of his waistband and flipped it open before paging through it. "But there's nothing I can find in here about it!" It exclaimed, continuing to page through it anxiously.
"But what about this page? It looks like it's folded over." Another vegetable wearing red pants questioned, pulling at the book.
The white one suddenly exclaimed, after probably checking if the yellow one was right, "…Your right! That Digimon, dear warriors, is Wereraiomon, the beast spirit of Moon. I see that Toshiku's found her beast spirit!"
"Magnifico! She's so beautiful!" A bright colored thing exclaimed, the vividness of the color stinging my eyes. I inhaled the air again, this time the fumes from the individual before me bothering my nose enough to make me sneeze. The intensely colored thing before me laughed at my loud sneeze. "Toshiku, why don't you tell us how you got the spirit?"
It took a few steps nearer to me. I growled, pinning my ears back again as I let out a sharp bark and continued to let the rumbling sound echo from my barred jaws. She looked stunned and quickly hid from me behind another one of the creatures.
"What's up with Toshiku?" Another one of the creatures asked, this one with a strangely built head. He took a step forward, beginning to talk to me. "Toshiku, what's wrong? Why are you—"
I snapped my jaws, a clicking sound echoing out from them as my teeth collided with each other. I lunged forward at them, making all of them jump back in fear and surprise. I slowly ceased my growling as the sweet scent that had grazed my nostrils before entered them again.
But before I could get the chance to find the possessor of the sugary scent, I felt a surge of power and anger flow through my veins, making me ram myself against one of the trees, hurting my front left leg as I did.
"What's she doing?!" One of the things that was already backing away asked as I slammed into another tree.
The white thing began flipping through the book again as it answered, sounding quite worried, and slightly astounded, "Toshiku doesn't have control of her beast spirit! It's too powerful for her to handle now!"
"What do we do?!" The blindingly colored paint bucket asked as I steadied myself again, this time ready to fight them instead of the trees around me.
I raised my head, my mouth open. "Innovative Star!" I tossed my head back at the ground, hurtling the large ball of power towards them.
They all yelled as they leapt out of the way, hitting the ground so the attack wouldn't disintegrate their atoms. I charged at them, but ran right past their fallen group, and rammed into another tree head-on instead.
"I've got something!" The white creature called out, the others crowding around him to listen to the supposed plan. "It says here that there's one for sure way to help Toshiku—well, in this case Wereraiomon,"
"What? Do we have to go up and pet her or something?" A strong, somehow familiar voice asked, a hint of sarcasm becoming glued to his lips."
"…Yes Koji, you do. One of you has to find this certain spot—"
"Well, where is it? Does it say where that spot is?" The strange headed one asked, glancing over at me as I stood up from the base of the tree, turning around to bark at all of them.
"No, Takuya, it doesn't…good luck!" It shouted as it and the yellow one ducked behind a few bushes.
"I have to get a hold of myself…" I thought to myself as I struggled to steady myself on these four feet. "These are my…they're my…I think they're my friends. But…" I growled in their direction, my heart suddenly turning cold and ruthless. "I don't need friends! I'll destroy them, and become stronger!"
I crept back over to them, my sharp claws snapping stones beneath them as I approached them. I barred my jaws and snarled as they also walked towards me.
The sweet smell entered my nose again, and I stopped nearing them. I couldn't ignore the scent, but I tried anyway. The beings slowly got closer to me, being sure that they didn't make any sudden movements. Not that that would start or stop anything.
I took one step back as they kept coming. I barked at them, trying to get them to get away from me, but they didn't, and tried to pay no mind to my continual snapping and snarls.
I lunged back in pure surprise as they all jumped onto me at once. I shook from side to side as they all started to stroke and scratch at my fur, attempting to knock those clinging to my jet black fur back to the ground (two only made it halfway up my leg).
I slammed into another tree on impulse, knocking what I thought to be the last two from their grip in my fur. I stopped thrashing for a moment and stood still, my feet away from my body as I panted, trying to regain the power I'd had only moments before, at least enough for one more attack.
I ears suddenly perked up and my fur bristled as a little rubbing sensation behind my left ear flowed gently though my body. I dug my claws into the ground and let out a small, weak growl, but not an irritated one.
I was about to start to thrash again, but stopped when a soft voice said, "It's alright Toshi, don't be scared. It's just me, Koji. You remember, right?"
I let out a contented groan as I layed down on the ground, keeping myself upright though.
"…K-…Koji…" I stuttered, my voice coming to his mind through telepathy.
He jumped off of my back as data enveloped me, and I de-spirit-evolved.
I layed motionless on the ground, my eyes closed. I'd never felt so worn out in life. I groaned as someone flipped me over onto my back, or, at least tried to.
I opened my fatigued eyes to see that I had knocked Koji over and my head was now resting against him. There was a slightly uncomfortable look on his face, but it slowly faded the longer I was there.
I looked in the opposite direction of the way I'd been pushed to see JP and Takuya, both of them trying to figure out the flaw in their plan. I wanted to ask them why they'd even tried to move me in the first place, but my eyes shut on me, and weren't about to open for a while. I couldn't say I really cared.
I curled up close to Koji, pushing my legs up underneath his and wrapping my arms around him. I didn't mind; I was too tired to mind.
I was nearly asleep when I heard Zoe snicker and ask me, "Toshiku, you do know that you're cuddling Koji, right?"
I groaned before mumbling into Koji's side, "…Tired…Koji warm…"
…Not my shining moment…
