So, I've been asked by a few people about whether Marie from the story is going to have a digimon partner or not...
The answer is: I'm not answering that.
That would be the equivalent of the writers of Digimon telling us (after the episode where Kari is hinted at being a digidestined) who Kari's digimon partner was eleven episodes before Gatomon/Tailmon is even introduced and thirteen episodes before it's revealed to actually be Gatomon/Tailmon.
Spoilers suck.
I ain't spilling any of these precious beans.
Chapter 10
*Marie's P.O.V.*
When we joined the other kids over a steep hill, none were (thankfully) shooting me looks or judging me for my previous reaction to Tai's question. Their attention seemed completely and totally focused on something else just ahead of us. Once Jojo and I were close enough, we followed their line of vision, where we both could see the aforementioned giant factory as promised by Tai and Agumon. It looked so industrial- straight out of a classroom history book.
"Whoa..." Jojo gasped, eyebrows raised as he reached up to fix his glasses and take the sight in. It was only a minute or less that passed by the time a determined look of glee flashed across his features.
"Well, Jojo, how do you feel about that?" Gomamon asked teasingly, vaguely reminding me of my therapist- only with a personality.
"I think... We're definitely going to find someone in there! For sure it's going to be a human!" Jojo exclaimed, taking my wrist and offering me a big grin as I hugged Gomamon closer to myself. "Come on, Marie, let's go!"
I squeaked a small noise of surprise when he ran on ahead of the others, dragging me along with him before I had the chance to even give Koushiro his laptop case back. I nearly tripped over my feet several times, attempting to get Jojo to stop- or at the least- slow down. Somewhere in the background, someone seemed to find my current situation cute, cause I heard a high pitched squeal of, "Cuuute~!"
I didn't even have to guess who that came from...
It was when we were nearing a path between two large cylinder structures that something had me applying the brakes on our running. I forcibly dug my feet into the ground to stop us from going any further, but unfortunately due to my lack of actual reliable strength, I only managed to slow us down a little bit when the insufficient force caused me to stumble. Despite that, I pulled at Jojo's hold in the opposite direction, and after a minute he finally noticed it when I opened my mouth.
"Joe, stop!" I blurted out.
And he did.
Jojo slowed to a stop and glanced back at me in confusion, blinking wide eyes at me as he adjusted his glasses from all the running we did. "What? What is it?" Jojo asked, releasing my arm and turning to fully face me. He sounded concerned- probably because of my use of his actual name rather than his nickname.
"What's wrong, Marie?" Gomamon asked in my arms, looking up at me as I fixed my grip around Gomamon and curled the fingers of the same arm tighter around Koushiro's laptop case. "You're tense."
"I sense... Something," I hesitantly began, only because I felt eyes begin to laser in on me from behind. All I really wanted was for that sense of tranquility I'd had previous to my earlier anxiety attack to return, but it seemed like it was too much to ask. Still, I didn't like their attention on me, but it was better than them all ending up...
...Dead.
"Hm? What are you sensing?" Agumon asked, stepping forward behind me so that I was forced to turn and face the others. Just like I'd thought, they were indeed all staring at me. Waves of comfort drifted my way from the digimon, so I gathered the guts to continue talking.
"...I sense something. It's not very strong, but it's definitely there. All I ask is that we be careful," I spoke up timidly, hugging Gomamon a little tighter.
"Is it a digimon you sense?" Sora queried, a frown on her face as he crossed her arms and shifted her gaze downwards to her sneakers. She kicked a small rock aside with a troubled expression. "I hope it's not a bad thing..."
I shook my head. "No, it's not a digimon... At least I don't think so. I don't sense any digimon around except for these guys," I clarified, biting my lip and looking down at the laptop case in my hand. Upon remembering its existence, I turned to Koushiro and promptly shoved the case in his arms after shifting Gomamon to my other arm. Before he could say anything, I spoke again, leaving the red head standing there at my side with a look of embarrassment when I made my attempt to ignore him obvious by turning to face Sora pointedly. "I can't tell what it is, or whether it's hostile or not."
Tai nodded in what seemed to be understanding beside Sora, though his eyes were lasered on the factory behind me. Was he even listening...? "Alright, we'll be careful, Marie. Thanks for the heads up," he said rather dismissively, reaching over to pat my head. Rather than melt under his attention like I usually did, I stared ahead at nothing when the other kids moved around me to continue on, making me turn and look after them with Jojo, Gomamon, a still stunned Koushiro, Tentomon, and Agumon. My cheeks puffed in annoyance, and I glared dangerously at the kids backs- this not including TK since he was looking back and shooting me an apologetic look when Yamato had taken his wrist to tug him along.
They're not taking me seriously... I thought to myself, before catching movement in the corner of my eye, belonging to Koushiro, who was turning to face me to probably thank me for bringing his laptop case to him. Considering I was still not on good terms with the kid, I cruelly started to power walk after the others, practically leaving Jojo, Agumon, Tentomon, and- of course- Koushiro biting my dust.
Gomamon obviously noticed, chuckling lowly in my arms with amusement. "Why do you dislike Izzy so much?" He finally asked, to which I simply puffed my cheeks more at the mere mention of his dumb, fuzzy nickname.
"Koushiro is a deceitful sneak who's already violated my trust..." I paused to raise a hand, mentally counting all of his atrocious misdeeds on my fingers. "...A total of three times."
Gomamon grinned in my arms, like he knew something I didn't. "Aren't you being a little tough on the poor kid?"
I rolled my eyes, slowing down once we were close enough to the other kids and I had situated myself to walk next to Sora.
"Oh, come ooonnn, Marie, show some mercy," Gomamon continued to talk, causing Sora and Piyomon to look at us with interest when they heard what Gomamon was saying. At this point though, I could sense that getting Sora's attention was exactly what the aquatic digimon wanted, as a way of teasing me. "I'm sure if you spoke to him right now, Iz-"
I cut Gomamon off by clapping a hand over his big mouth. "Stop talking," I grumbled quietly, hearing Sora giggle under her breath at our weird behavior.
Gomamon was laughing quietly under my hand, but made no move to make me uncover his mouth. Sensing that he was done teasing me for my so called "cruel" behavior towards Koushiro, my thoughts returned back to the other kids that obviously didn't believe me.
...I want them to believe me. So that they're ready if anything dangerous catches us off guard! How can they do that if they just brush off my warnings? I don't want them to get hurt...
We all slipped through the structures in the factory entrance, the digimon and myself glancing in every direction in case there was trouble. I was almost envious at the relaxed kids around me, but when I realized that Jojo was looking around discreetly as well, my heart swelled up.
I knew he was my favorite cousin for a good reason, I thought, glad that he at least believed me along with the Digimon.
When we crossed a section where gears and conveyor belts were in function, our group paused to examine our findings for anything of interest. At the sight of them, I shivered a little. If they were black gears that I was currently looking at, I'd surely drag at least Jojo, Sora, TK, Mimi, Tai and all the other digimon back out by their ears (or some other body part, if they didn't have ears).
To keep my mind off of what happened yesterday when we first encountered a black gear, I tore my gaze away from the machinery and instead focused my gaze on a conveyor belt opposite of the gears. I was shivering a little, so I hugged Gomamon a little tighter to comfort myself. He was warm and cuddly as always, making no comment on my chills other than giving me a curious glance. I was thankful for his silence on the matter.
It was while I was hugging Gomamon tighter that I blinked when I saw the weirdest looking objects being transported along the conveyor belts I now faced. The metal objects resembled small sewing machines, the kind Jojo's mom- my aunt- would use to repair our clothing or any other household fabrics.
TK, Gabumon, and Patamon were lined up along the conveyor belt beside me at a safe distance from the mechanical devices, looking on at the automated pincers and other machinery that were attaching parts to the sewing machine-like objects. There were several of the robotic arms that were ready to attach more parts as the objects travelled further down the belt, and watching the process was... Almost hypnotizing in an odd way.
I didn't even realize we were stupidly staring until Gabumon spoke up, snapping me out of my stupor.
"What... In the world are they making?" Gabumon asked, eyeing one of the sewing machine-like objects as it passed by him.
"They look like... Sewing machines," Mimi commented from the other side of the conveyor belt with Palmon, moving to gingerly poke one with an extended finger before changing her mind and recoiling seconds after.
"Yeah, maybe it's best not to touch the strange machinery," Yamato suggested with an almost indiscernible hint of sarcasm. He was standing right behind me from the sound of it, and due to the fact that he'd snuck up on me so easily, I jumped and put a little distance between us out of anxiety.
Yamato seemed to notice, and shot me a funny look in misunderstanding... Or maybe in complete understanding, considering I didn't like him to begin with anyways. Whatever it was worth, I shifted my gaze elsewhere to keep my mind from going sour.
"Are we going to explore?" TK thankfully interrupted, looking at both Yamato and I with a large grin.
"...Yeah. Most likely, TK," Yamato replied, a soft smile appearing on his face as he regarded his younger brother.
I'd stared at the machines on the conveyor belt for long enough, so I started walking over to Jojo again with Gomamon lazily snoozing in my arms. I could tell Yamato was leering at me again even though he was behind me- I mean it was obviously him. Who else would have a reason for sending burning glares at my backside?
...Come to think of it, why did Yamato dislike me so much anyways? I mean, I knew why I disliked him, so what had I done for the reciprocation of those feelings? Did Yamato just really dislike that I didn't like him? Or maybe it was my personality that he disliked?
"This place is huge, guys! There's no way that there aren't any humans in this factory!" Jojo exclaimed to the other kids when I approached him, letting my cousin have his moment of hope rather than correcting him and crushing his dreams.
"We could probably cover more ground if we split up into groups to look around the factory..." I heard Sora suggest as soon as I deposited Gomamon back into Jojo's arms. The aquatic digimon was still snoozing away despite the way Jojo gathered him into his arms clumsily, with the digimon's head lolling back against Jojo's arm like a doll.
"Uh, isn't that a bad idea? Isn't that what you aren't supposed to do in a situation like this?" Tai spoke up dubiously while I left the circle of our group to walk around the room and inspect the other mechanical processes in the area.
There was still that odd thing I was sensing- hanging in the air like a curious smell I couldn't identify. It wasn't intensifying as I started moving towards the deeper areas of the factory, but it also wasn't as reactive as maybe a digimon or a gear might have been.
We should have... This place seems like a bad idea to explore blindly. I mean, look at all these mechanisms! They're dangerous! One wrong move and we could fall into them and get seriously hurt or... Or...
My thoughts trail off when I register the situation at hand. I gape at the room I've managed to happen across, staring at the door for a second and then spinning around in all directions in confusion. Everyone is gone- I had spaced out and gotten separated by wandering off too far.
"Crap," I grumble, massaging my temples and starting my empathic search for the digimon. I could sense that in the time I'd accidentally wandered off, the group has- as promised- split up into groups of two.
The closest digimon are... Patamon, Palmon, Tentomon, and Gabumon. It's a no brainer that their respective partners would be with them, so I lean my back against the room door and cover my face with a groan. Great, Yamato isn't going to hesitate to chew my head off for this. He already hates my gu-
The door swings open behind me and a small squeal flies out of my lips when I fall back into the room following the lost support.
"Marie!" I hear TK call out from afar as I attempt to pick myself off the ground and wince from the blossoming pain that erupted from the sustained bruises I'd gotten from Meramon.
"Ow..." I mutter, only to pause and freeze dead when I look up to see the room I'd landed in.
It was incredible.
Breath taking.
Lights in different patterns- unfamiliar and familiar symbols alike- floated around the empty space of the room, danging along the sides and edges of what looked to be maybe the world's largest battery to ever exist. Every bit of fluttering light makes up a symbol as I look closer, gaping in awe with my jaw slightly adjar.
What do those symbols stand for? Why are they just... floating around here? How are they-?
"Marie? Marie!"
"Wake up, Marie, why do you have that funny expression on your face?" Palmon and Patamon are in front of me and once I've completely snapped out of my trance, I gather the willpower to look away from the lights and at my confused group mates.
"Ah! I-I'm so sorry! I didn't realize I'd wandered off! By the time I noticed... Sorry..." I apologized profusely upon turning towards the humans of the group.
Mimi and Koushiro looked visibly startled for my apology, but Yamato just sighed and shook his head at me. Surprisingly, he didn't... actually look as mad as I assumed he would be. In fact, he didn't really look mad at all.
"Stay close, you know better than the rest of us that it's dangerous here," Yamato merely scolds me, looking around at the room I'd come across. Despite not looking angry, he still says the words as if everything I've been saying I've felt and sensed is just a joke.
It hurts...
But I refuse to let it get to me right now. With the digimon awake and around, they'll just crowd me and make a scene by trying to help me feel better. That's not what I want or need right now.
Thankfully, a good distraction makes itself known in a small bit of detail as TK steps up beside me to watch Mimi, Koushiro, and Yamato examine the room with their digimon partners at their sides.
None of them look surprised...?
My eyes jump around at the glowing symbols of varying familiarity and then back at the three older kids searching around for clues of human influence or presence.
Can they not see it? I wonder in surprise.
"...TK? Patamon? Do you see anything... Odd about this room?" I asked discreetly, making the duo turn to blink owlishly at me in confusion.
"Anything odd? Well... That's one big battery..." TK supplies, making me hum in agreement. It's not the thing I wanted him to point out though, so I press on.
"...See anything glowing? Like for instance... Floating lights?" I ask cautiously, hoping not to alarm the other six persons as I observe the symbols floating past me with the eyes of a hawk.
"...What do you mean?" Patamon inquires, landing on TK's head and staring at me eye to eye. At this point, I don't know how else to describe the anomaly, so I raise a hand and poke one of the symbols directly as it moves to pass me by.
"I mean like thi-" I cut myself off when my finger makes contact with the symbols, prompting a small shock of something that felt oddly like electricity to charge through my body. It was short, and lasted for half a second as the symbol stuck to my finger. Curiously enough I felt a lot better after touching it!
This is so weird, I think as I move my hand and watch the symbol follow as if now glued to the end of my finger. TK is gawking , eyes pasted to the tip of my index finger.
"What is that?" He asks, surprising me when both he and Patamon are staring at the end of my finger with me. It's obvious they can see it now, but why only the one attached to my finger?
"Wha... You can see it now?" I question them in bewilderment, just before the symbol suddenly detaches form my skin and leaves me hanging as it floats away.
"Oh... It disappeared," Patamon states somberly, as if sad that it wasn't around to marvel at anymore... Even though I could see it continue to float upwards with several other symbols. I raise a brow at the two, but I already know that my confusion would persist since I was the only one apparently able to see the floating symbols.
"It's only one of many. I can see hundreds of them floating around the room," I explain smoothly and quietly to at least let TK and Patamon in on what I was experiencing. TK rightfully gasps in awe, but before he can turn to call out to the others and shout out what I had discovered, I grab his arm in a panic. "No, don't say anything, please!"
My friend blinks back at me in surprise with a small puzzled sound, but fully turns to face me so I can elaborate. "Why not?" He asks me, tilting his head slightly much like I sometimes did when confused.
Ah, I can see why Mimi thought it made me adorable now that TK was doing it to me...
"...None of them will believe me..." I murmur in embarrassment, clinging to his sleeve and staring down at his hanging hand somberly. Eventually, I gather the wits to finally release his arm and look up at him, giving the boy the option to either refuse and tell the others... Or to simply keep it between him and myself.
"...Alright! My lips are sealed, right, Patamon?" TK asks his partner with a smile, making the bat digimon nod in excitement and flutter over to hug me despite clearly not understanding why they weren't telling anyone about what I was seeing.
"Doesn't look like there's much here other than the battery and the motor... No people, just a power supply. Shall we move on then?" Yamato inquired, walking up to Koushiro while he examined the exterior of the battery curiously from end to end.
"Hmm... Actually, I think I'd like to take a closer look at this room. You guys feel free to go on ahead without me," Koushiro says almost absentmindedly, already completely engrossed with the object of his element- that being technology.
With that, Yamato sighs and begins to head towards the exit, Mimi, Palmon, Gabumon, TK, and Patamon following. After examining the floating symbols one last time and burning their image in my mind, I turn away to continue exploring the factory with the others.
I stop when Yamato steps directly in my path with crossed arms as he looks down at me. Again, he doesn't actually look like he's angry or annoyed, but I can already tell that he has a problem with me when he sighs heavily to himself.
"Marie, I think it would be best if you stayed here with Izzy," he states directly to me, not even asking whether I wanted to or not. Apparently without Jojo, Tai, or Sora around, that automatically made him the boss since he was the oldest in the area compared to the rest of us.
Which really sucked for me, since he disliked me so much.
"Eh?" I ask in astonishment, even though I don't mean to question him out loud. I know better than to argue with my elders, but it just slips out on accident. His eyes narrow on me and I visibly shrink back a little because of the look. For a second I think I see his eyes soften a little, but the moment is fleeting.
This was like Jojo and the streetcar all over again! Only with Yamato this time!
I can only recuperate with a small squeak of understanding, as attempting any type of verbal coherent reply would probably make me explode into a million pieces of anxiety.
"Mar-" Palmon steps over to me, as if sensing my discomfort, but before she can say anything to me, Mimi is marching around us to get in Yamato's face. I can tell that the other digimon in the current area are worried about me, so I plaster on a small fake smile and neutralize any negative emotions wafting off of me. Despite my attempts to hide my feelings though, Palmon takes my hand and offers me a comforting smile.
"What?! Why can't she come along?" Mimi surprisingly complains, obviously taking the news harder than I was. Mimi's back is to Palmon and I, but we can see Yamato visibly frown at her.
"If we encounter another digimon, it might try to attack her like Meramon and Shellmon did before," Yamato explained, but from the look on his face, I felt like that wasn't the entire story. I had this inkling that he also just didn't want me to get in the way of things.
...Like I was an annoyance. A burden to the group.
What, he thinks that the rest of them are better set to handle themselves just cause they have digimon partners and I don't? The digimon don't exist to protect them, they just care about them enough to do so! Other than that, they're about as set to handle themselves as I am to handle my own safety!
"Or maybe they won't do anything to her! Seadramon didn't attack her, remember?!" Mimi objected, stamping her foot and refusing to back down despite the intimidating look on Yamato's face. How she stood there unwavering with the look he was giving her I may never know, but it made me respect the normally squealing cowgirl more than I did before.
"...She stays here," Yamato clarified with emphasis, glaring at Mimi as she returned the look. "End of discussion."
Before Mimi can start up again, I reach out and grab her hand to get her attention. If anyone can quell her anger, I think it's most likely me. "It's alright. I'll wait for you here, Mimi," I say to her calmly, causing Mimi to look at me and nod with a pout after a second of considering my words.
Yamato seems to notice and just stares down at me with an unreadable expression as I comfort Mimi. I don't wanna be left behind, but if Yamato was insisting and Jojo wasn't around... What was I supposed to do about it?
Once Mimi seems set to get moving, Yamato turns and leaves the power supply. As he leaves, Mimi follows and sticks her tongue out at him while his back is turned.
Taking this as her own cue to leave, Palmon gives me one last smile before she releases my hand and jogs after her upset partner. Patamon, Gabumon, and TK follow, with the latter giving me a curious look and pausing before he follows the digimon out. TK looks like he wants to say something to me, but he just shakes his head and then mouths to me, 'later'.
He wants to talk about Ma- I mean, Yamato 'later', doesn't he? I think to myself, sighing heavily and tugging my backpack off of my shoulders. I place the red pack on the ground near a wall, which I promptly lean against before sliding my back down into a seated position. Without much to do, I watch floating symbols travel across the room with little interest, my eyes flicking towards Koushiro every now and then to see how he is doing.
Koushiro is still circling around the giant battery, patting its exterior and muttering to himself. The sight of Koushiro being as much of a nerd as I sometimes was made me giggle a little, but didn't do enough to fully wash away the hurt of not being listened to. The hurt of being left behind. The hurt of being a burden... I didn't want to believe it, but it was most likely true... I probably was just getting in the way of things by being here.
I never should have let my aunt talk me into going to camp with Jojo... I bury my face in my arms and pull my knees up to my chest. I hate feeling like this- whining and feeling sorry for myself wasn't going to get me anywhere.
"Marie-han."
I snap out of my blue daydreams and pull my head out from under my arms, offering Tentomon my best smile when he walks over to me. His face can't really emote or display his feelings, but I can sense that he felt my fluster of emotions and my agitation with Yamato.
"Hi, Tentomon," I greet the digimon anyways, ready for him to ask me everyone's favorite question when speaking to me.
"...Are you well?" He decides to start off with, before he pauses and then touches his chin with a limb in thought. "No, wait. You get that one too often... Scratch that."
I blink in surprise as he taps his foot, assuming a pondering position with his eyes facing up towards the ceiling.
"... How is your current state of mind and how hungry are you?" Tentomon revised after a second, before his ridiculous statement makes me raise a brow at him in question. Did he just ask me how hungry I was...?
In a moment, I can't help but burst out laughing as the question continues to repeat over and over in my brain. What was that? It didn't even make sense to ask me if I was hungry!
Regardless, I continue to laugh until I can laugh no longer. My mood has greatly improved and I can tell that the other digimon- even though they're far away- have noticed it when I sense their jolly emotions running straight back in my direction.
Catching my breath, I look back at Tentomon and reach for him, pulling the digimon into a comforting hug.
"Thank you. I feel much better," I say with a grin, hearing Tentomon chuckle in clear embarrassment. "You're a little genius!"
"It was no problem, Marie-han!" He replies as I release him to stand up and observe the floating symbols again. "As long as you feel better, I don't mind anything to help you."
His words are so sweet I could get a cavity, but before I can give a reply, the third person in the room speaks when he finally notices my remained presence.
"Marie? You're still here? Why didn't you go with Matt and the others?" Koushiro asks, turning away from the battery to face Tentomon and I. Poor kid... Getting so lost in his own little world to the point that reality begins to fade away.
"Yamato said it would be best for her to stay here in case they ran into another digimon like Meramon," Tentomon speaks in my place. The digimon clearly understood that Yamato's orders made me upset, so he stepped in to save me from the stress of having to repeat it.
Koushiro raises his eyebrows in surprise at this and he looks like he finds it weird. "Here? With only the two of us? I think you'd have been safer with them since they have a bigger party... Well, if that's how he feels, then we'll do our best to take care of you in the meantime," he rationalizes half to himself and half to us, eyes shifting around at everything else... Except me.
I cock my head slightly to the side in curiosity, observing how he turns quickly to continue looking at the battery with interest. It's almost likes he's nervous or something. Kind of like the way I act around... Yamato.
...Do I intimidate Koushiro? Hmm... Well, considering I made no attempts to hide my irritation with him every time I felt like he wronged me, it was a possibility.
In the midst of gathering the courage to confront him about it, I notice something odd on the battery's exterior to the left of the computer kid. I take a couple of hasty steps closer, noting the way Koushiro turned when he caught my movement out of the corner of his eye and promptly stiffened up when he found me near.
Instead of him being the point of interest though, it was really the glowing symbols that had once again caught my attention. They were doing something rather strange to the battery, many of the characters going through small cracks in the battery. Tons were squeezing into what appeared to be cracks that made up the shape of a vertical rectangle; a door shaped rectangle.
I reach for the edge and pull, feeling the metal wobble enough to let me know that it really was an entry way. My fingers barely can squeeze through the cracks, so I have to use my nails to get it to move out enough to grab it with my actual finger pads.
Koushiro soon notices the door shape as well and seems to throw away any other anxious tendencies around me to grab the edge of the door with me and assist in propping the metallic rectangle open. Eventually, it swings open and the two of us fall back when our weight on pulling makes us lose our balance.
"Hey, are you two okay?!" Tentomon asks us worriedly as we pick ourselves up from where we'd landed, Koushiro dusting his shorts off and looking over at Tentomon and I.
"I'm fine. Marie?" Koushiro asks, though all I do is shrug at him and move to walk towards the new entrance I'd found. I can see Koushiro slouch and face palm behind me in despondence via the reflective battery exterior, but I say nothing and just sort of roll my eyes. Tentomon pats the kids back with an arm as a show of comfort, whispering something that I can't quite hear.
If it's advice on how to gain my approval, I'm sure it won't work. I just don't like him! He can't fix it- not even with Tentomon's help.
I looked around inside the battery once I pass the doorway, where everything is surprisingly as lit up as the rest of the factory outside of the room was. I'm not sure if Tentomon and Koushiro can see what I'm currently seeing as they follow me into the battery room, but for the most part I'm positive that the interior of the battery is curious enough even without being able to see the glowing symbols that swarmed around inside.
Every glowing character in the room finds its way to a matching blue, red, or black character on the inner walls of the battery, overlaying them several times over in succession like a never ending keypress of a typewriter letter on a paper that never shifts left or right.
"What is this?" Tentomon boldly asks between Koushiro and I.
"...I think this is a computer program...!" Koushiro answers, peering carefully at every symbol his eyes landed on. I give him a look of confusion, wondering how the heck he'd gotten to that conclusion without much context or evidence to go by.
"How can you tell? These symbols are nothing like the programming symbols I've seen..." I speak up, making Koushiro suddenly blink at me in mild surprise. I cock my head a little to the side again at his expression.
"Marie-han is puzzled by your surprised look," Tentomon easily reads me, snapping Koushiro out of whatever stupor has befallen him.
"Oh, sorry! It's just I didn't realize you liked computers or programming like me," Koushiro says brightly, like just cause we had something in common, it meant that I would no longer find him annoying and I'd forgive him for his sneaky, mean agenda.
He must realize I'm still irritated with him (or maybe I was glaring at him?), because he soon diverts his gaze swiftly back to the symbols on the wall straight ahead of the doorway with a nervous smile. I really do intimidate him...!
"Do you see these two symbols at the top left and at the bottom right of this box?" Koushiro asks, though he doesn't turn to look at me again despite my blue eyes narrowing on the back of his head.
I look at the symbols he's referring to and make a hum of confirmation, but as my focus lands on them and my brain recognizes the pattern that he's managed to notice before me, my mouth pops open into a small 'oh' of realization. Noticing the dots connecting out the corner of his eye, Koushiro smiles at the wall.
"Oh, they're closing tags! Like the kinds I've seen in HTML language!" I say, while poor Tentomon looks from me to Koushiro and back in clear confusion. The digimon probably has no idea what the heck we're talking about...
"Mm-hmm... And look at these ones behind the door. They're in the English alphabet and number system. Some of the characters here aren't familiar, but if we study them enough, I'm sure we can solve what they mean together!" Koushiro continues, straightening up and grinning as he takes in all the symbols around.
Together? That word catches my attention. I can't help but feel a little accepted and appreciated- unlike the way the other older kids (Except for Jojo, of course) would brush me off.
Koushiro stares pensively at the wall, while I stand on the side with Tentomon and watch the kid begin to get sucked into his own little world again.
"...Marie-han, are you still bothered by Koushiro-han?" Tentomon asks now that I'm no longer speaking in computer language with Koushiro. I glance down at him, raising a single brow in question for him to elaborate. "I mean, you seem like you maybe... Like him a little. I'm hoping you can give him a chance to show you that he can be a good friend."
I bite my lip and look back over at Koushiro.
...Solving the characters... Together, I repeat to myself in my head, staring at the red head's back.
...
That's when I sensed it.
I flinch violently and spin around the room to search where it comes from. It seems like it's coming from the same area that Agumon, Piyomon, and Gomamon are at. Where Tai, Sora, and Jojo are exploring...!
"M-Marie-han?!" Tentomon seems to be panicking as much as I am, so I forcibly calm myself enough to keep from scaring any of the digimon around.
At that point, I sense that Agumon, Piyomon, and Gomamon have completely gone from how I first found them- upbeat, excited, and tranquil- to completely guarded and focused. Tentomon still looks at me in confusion, clearly 'listening' to my emotions and waiting for something to make sense to him.
"...I can sense a strong digimon and a gear," I finally explain after a second, touching my forehead to the mild wave of pain that had washed over me upon the gear's sudden presence.
Tentomon hobbles over to Koushiro, who hasn't noticed anything odd between Tentomon and I. His laptop has been turned on and he hastily types away on it, blissfully unaware of what was probably happening with Jojo, Sora, Tai, and their digimon partners.
While Tentomon attempts to explain things to Koushiro, a sharp pain forms at my right shin, like the time when Meramon had gotten infected with that black gear back near the Pyocomon Village. The intensity of my headache and the pain rolling over me isn't as strong as it was when I first encountered Meramon and his gear... So I assume I'm getting used to it now, which is pretty unsettling in itself.
The digimon I sense... At first, I wasn't sure whether it was hostile or not, but as the pain starts to settle down, I feel a strong hostility emanating from it that alarms me. It alarms me more than when I sensed that Meramon was going to attack me. This digimon is at a different level than Meramon- stronger than even Greymon, Garurumon, and Birdramon!
I think I'm panicking again, and I freeze.
...
The hostile digimon has noticed me.
Oh no...!
End of Chapter 10