A/N: Chapter 9! Read it to find out what happens! Thanks to Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967 for reviewing my last chapter! :)
Disclaimer: Me no own digimon.
The Warrior of Hope
Chapter 9
Can't Keep a Grumblemon Down
We walked in silence through the forest. I was afraid to ask, but I had to know, "Koji, why do you still want me around? It's not that I don't want to be around you, but I attacked you, twice in one day." He raised his eyebrows at me, "Didn't you say that you couldn't control the beast spirit? That you couldn't even remember your own name?" I looked at him in surprise, "You remember me saying that?" I remember my shouts at Zoe last night. I could tell that she wasn't processing what I was saying, only that I was yelling. I shook my head; she only caught the last part about me never coming back. "Of course I remember, you were telling us important information. I bet that I won't be able to control my beast spirit any more than you could." I pictured Lobomon going evil and attacking me and shuddered. "Well, at least we won't have to worry about my beast spirit anymore, because I'm never changing into it again." Koji looked up at me in shock, "Why? You're more powerful in your beast spirit, you might even be able to beat Grumblemon." I stopped at a pool of water in front of us to get a drink. After I had gotten my fill, I heard talking coming from behind us. I spoke without turning around, "I know that you're there, so you might as well head back to the others." Koji glanced up in confusion, and then looked behind us to see Bokomon and Neemon on the hill above us. "Stop following me!" He ran into the tall grass next to the pond. "Quickly now, follow him!" I heard Bokomon say as I followed Koji. I saw him stopped ahead of me, so I came up beside him, only to see that we were at the edge of a cliff.
I heard Bokomon and Neemon coming up behind us, and they jumped on Koji's shoulders, causing him to lose his balance. He grabbed my arm to try to steady himself, but only brought me down with him. We fell down to a grassy hill, where we started to roll. Koji was still holding my arm, and it was really starting to hurt. Suddenly, giant rock was in front of us, and we rolled over the top of it, into the air. Only to land on a rock that was shaped like a person. Koji stared at it, and it stared back, they jumped apart, and Koji finally let go of my arm. I sighed in relief, but when I looked down I saw bruises in the shapes of his fingers. "Ouch." I frowned. "What is that?" Neemon asked, pointing to the living rock. "That is a Gotsumon, they can be real troublemakers, let me tell you." Bokomon explained. "What do you want?" Koji asked it. "Nothing, so what do you guys want?" "Nothing, why do you care?" I sighed, this was getting us nowhere. "Do you think that you could tell us how to get to the Forest Terminal?" I smiled sweetly at him. "Yeah, I could tell you, but I'm not going to." He laughed and started running away. "You're just a little brat! I was trying to be nice to you!" I yelled as I chased after him. "Follow them, come on, chop, chop." Bokomon really loved ordering Koji around. "Don't tell me what to do." Koji said as he followed us.
We followed him through the tall grass, pushing the long strands out of our way. Gotsumon climbed on top of a rock, and then disappeared. "Really, are you going to play hide-and-seek now?" I was sick of his childish behavior. "Look kid, we aren't going anywhere, so you might as well come out." Koji said in no particular direction. "Alright, but I'm still not going to tell you anything." He appeared on the rock, right where I had last seen him. There was an explosion, and a tall hill exploded, making dozens of Gotsumon scatter. "Slide Evolution, Grumblemon!" I heard coming from out of the dust. "It's Grumblemon!" Way to state the obvious, Koji. Gotsumon jumped off the rock and started running towards Grumblemon. "What are you doing?" I asked. "He can't get away with this!" Gotsumon replied. "Leave this to us, you can't fight that guy!" Koji got his D-Tector out, and I did the same. "To you?" Gotsumon was obviously confused how a couple of humans could help. "Yeah, just watch this! Execute, Spirit Evolution!" Koji turned into Lobomon. He looked down at me, "It's okay Jade, just use your human spirit for now." I sighed in relief before yelling, "Execute, Spirit Evolution!" I felt myself change. "DeviAngewomon!" I flew beside Lobomon, focused on where I could hear Grumblemon laughing.
"You, I have been looking for you!" Grumblemon said. "So what?" Lobomon asked. "You get away once before, if I defeat and get spirit, Cherubimon be much grateful to Grumblemon. Slide Evolution!" He turned into Gigasmon, and then jumped into the air, bringing his fists down on Lobomon and me. I was still slightly awake; I noticed that Gigasmon had made a canyon out of this valley. Lobomon was on the ground next to me, unconscious. I tried to shake him awake, but it was no use. I felt my power draining, and I turned back into myself. I passed out, my head falling onto his chest. When I woke up, I was in a building made completely of rock. I Koji was sitting at a table across the room, and there were Gotsumon everywhere. "Look kid, you just don't stand a chance." Koji was obviously continuing their conversation. "Maybe I don't, but at least I know that I can't do any worse than you. I know that for sure, some legendary warrior you turned out to be!" The Gotsumon left, off to face Grumblemon alone.
I stopped paying attention to the conversation, focusing instead on trying to stand up. Once I had accomplished that, I stumbled over to sit next to Koji. He looked up in surprise, "You should be resting." I squared my shoulders, "I'm fine, what I really need to do is help you find your beast spirit." He nodded, "We are going to some ruins, there is supposed to be an inscription that talks about a spirit." I smiled and stood up, once my legs were steady, I walked out the door. "Are you guys coming?" I turned around to see them still sitting in the same position as before. Koji was the first to get up and follow me. "So, where are these ruins?" I asked him. He pointed toward the top of a hill. I nodded and started walking, with Koji right beside me.
I looked at the three giant heads, two of them had jewels in their eyes, but the third one didn't. Maybe that has something to do with it. "Where is the inscription that the Gotsumon mentioned? But, that's the same mark as Lobomon's, maybe that means that Koji's beast spirit is here somewhere." Bokomon examined the side of the third head. Koji got his D-Tector out, pressing the buttons to see if it could sense the spirit. I got my D-Tector out; it wouldn't hurt if both of us were searching at the same time. We sat there for twenty minutes, walking around and trying to find the spirit with our D-Tectors. Suddenly, there was an explosion from the fields of long grass. "Not Grumblemon again!" I started running towards the field. "Maybe he's fighting Takuya and the others." Bokomon said. "Come on." I heard Koji say. "But what about the beast spirit?" Bokomon yelled after us. "We'll come back for it later." Koji yelled back.
I pulled my D-Tector out when we got close to the field, "Execute, Spirit Evolution!" I turned into DeviAngewomon, and saw that Koji had transformed at the same time as me. "More tasty spirits for me!" Grumblemon was saying. As far as I could tell, he had already taken Zoe's spirit, and he was about to take J.P.'s and Takuya's. "Why don't you taste this first? Howling Laser!" Wow, Lobomon's sayings sure were cheesy. His lasers hit Grumblemon directly, and he held Grumblemon up by his shirt, "How did you like that?" Grumblemon just laughed. "What's the matter? Don't want my spirit anymore?" Lobomon was really enjoying this. "Still got double tricks up my sleeve!" Grumblemon pulled two hammers out of nowhere and tried to bring them together on Lobomon's head. He leaned back just in time, "Here's some magic for you!" He kicked Grumblemon away from him.
I came up behind Grumblemon, "Heaven's Wave!" I opened my arms, and Dark angels came out, attacking Grumblemon. They were doing pretty good damage, "This is getting annoying, Slide Evolution!" He turned into Gigasmon, "Quagmire Twister!" He hit my angels away and hit me back to land beside Tommy in the grass. He then chased after Lobomon, who was running for the ruins, taunting Gigasmon along the way. I turned back into my normal self, "Ouch." I rubbed my back where I had landed on my wings. "He's gone now, are you okay?" J.P. was talking to Zoe. "I guess so; it's just, what good am I to you guys now that I don't have my spirit?"
I turned towards her, man I really hate that I'm a nice person. "It's okay, we'll get it back. You'll be back kicking butt in no time." I smiled at her, but she just glared at me. I rubbed the back of my neck, "I get it, no being nice." I gave her a thumbs up to show that I understood. Suddenly, everyone was looking at me, specifically at my hair. "What?" I asked, and then put my hand on my head only to feel that there was a crown there. "Wow, when did that get there?" Zoe's mouth dropped open, "How can you not notice a solid gold crown sitting on your head?" I blinked, solid gold? I took it off my head and saw that she was right. It was a thin crown, more of a tiara, really. There were flower patterns on it, with emeralds at the centers of them. I placed the tiara back on my head; it felt nice there, like it belonged. Wow, I was really starting to sound like a princess.
"Why did a crown appear on your head?" Zoe glared at me as if I could make one appear on hers too. I looked at her, "Actually, it's a tiara, and it's there because I guess I'm finally acting like the princess that I should be." She stared at me, "What do you mean, you should be a princess?" I blinked at her, "Don't you remember when Bokomon told me that I was the warrior of hope, aka the princess of the digital world?" She gave me a blank stare, "No." I sighed. "I remember, but I didn't know that he meant a real princess." Tommy stared at me with awe. I smiled down at him, "Yeah, and the ten legendary warriors were her closest friends. They were sworn to protect her along with the entire digital world." Takuya looked up at me, "Does that mean that you're going to try to take my spot as leader?" I laughed, "No, I like everything just the way it is."
I stood up, "Come on!" They gave me blank stares and Takuya muttered, "What happened to not taking my spot as leader." I sighed, "We have to go help Koji!" Everyone stood up and started running, except for Zoe. I looked down at her questioningly. "What can I do to help? I don't even have my spirit." I sighed and grabbed her hand, pulling her up. I started to run, and she was dragged along behind me. She didn't complain, just started running so that she wouldn't trip. "Koji!" I heard everyone yell as they got to the edge of the forest. We caught up to them and watched as a spirit started coming from the ground. It was in the shape of a howling wolf. "Koji's beast spirit." I whispered. "Beast Spirit!" Koji yelled.
The spirit flew towards Koji, into his D-Tector. Around his hand, multiple rings of blue light circled it. "Execute, Beast Spirit Evolution!" Koji transformed. He turned into a mechanical wolf that had gold, blue, and white armor. He had golden wings on his back and wheels on the back of his feet. He was, "KendoGarurumon!" "I could have done that!" J.P. said. "Stay there, nice doggy, sit!" Gigasmon tried to order KendoGarurumon. KendoGarurumon brought his wings out and put his wheels on the ground. The wheels started turning, and he rolled along the ground, right into a tree. "He can't control it!" I was panicking. "Look like things not so bad for me after all!" Gigasmon was smug. He started running towards KendoGarurumon. When KendoGarurumon saw this, he started running towards Gigasmon. "We're leaving!" Bokomon said. He started running towards us, and away from the inevitable collision.
The ruins crumbled, into the ocean below. I ran forward, "Koji!" I saw KendoGarurumon put his front leg over the side of the cliff, and then turned back into Koji. "That spirit sure takes a lot out of a guy." He fell back, no longer able to hold on. "No!" I ran even faster, but Gotsumon had already reached out and grabbed Koji's hand. As soon as Koji was back on land, I fell to my knees beside him and pulled him in for a hug. "Ouch." He complained. "Sorry!" I pulled back, afraid to hurt him. He smiled and grabbed my hand, "Well, you were right." I looked into his eyes, "About what?" He grinned at me, "Those beast spirits are hard to control." I stood up, pulling him to his feet, "Come on, we have to get to the Forest Terminal." He smirked at me, "As you wish, Princess." I rolled my eyes at him but started walking towards the others, dragging him with me.
A/N: Rika's Voice: "Looks like Koji's attitude is getting better, will it last? Find out next time on The Warrior of Hope!"
Haha, sorry I just really wanted to do that. Review, please!
