Warning: This chapter hasn't had a beta reader. Expect mistakes and bad writing.
Chapter 10
Ranamon pointed at me.
"He's the one I want! The one who almost marred my good looks!"
"You aren't getting him," Wolfmon said as he and the others took defensive stances.
"I wasn't talking to you," Ranamon snapped as something wrapped around me, binding my arms to my sides, something that felt like a giant vine, lifting me into the air. I shrieked as unpleasant memories of our encounter with the Woodmon went flashing through my head. I could distantly hear the others yelling my name, as the vine...no, it wasn't a vine, it was a vine-like arm, complete with a hand at the other end. I found myself lifted over a squat, brown, Digimon which reminded me of a strange combination of machine and some kind of native American wood carving.
"He doesn't look like much to me," the booming male voice came from the new Digimon. "I guess big things come in small packages!"
"Kouji!" Wolfmon charged at the newcomer, only to be knocked down when the Digimon's foot detached on another vine and whipped out, kicking him in the face. I struggled to break free. There had to be something I could do! My Spirit! If I could move my arm a bit more, I could barely touch my Digivice in my pocket. No, what was I doing? If I Evolved to Duskmon I would hurt the others, too. Or worse. The Digivice felt colder than ice in my pocket, and I knew that I couldn't give in to Duskmon, but the others had no chance against Ranamon.
"He doesn't have much in the looks department, but he's a real powerhouse." I could almost hear the smirk in Ranamon's voice. "Meet Arbormon, the Legendary Warrior of Wood."
"Like I always say, brains before beauty," Arbormon said
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Ranamon's voice suddenly had an edge to it as she glared at him.
"Huh?" Arbormon didn't seem to have facial expressions, but if he did I'm sure it would have been stunned confusion at that point.
"Are you saying that I can't be beautiful and smart? This was my idea. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have the first clue where to find those humans."
I managed to struggle so that my hands were in front of me, rather than pinned to my sides. Then I began pushing up on the vines that held me, essentially pushing myself out of them. I hoped the fall wouldn't hurt too much.
"Hey, I'm not that stupid." Arbormon held up his other hand, pointing it up at me. "Besides, I got that kid you wanted."
Ranamon made an insulting face at him. "Whatever. Just remember, you can have the others, but that one is mine."
I pushed the vine far enough that I started falling out. I was expecting to hit hard ground, but instead I fell into a pair of arms. Fairymon's arms. I heard Ranamon's indignant shriek as she flew away with me, and the sounds of the others attacking as what had been a hostage situation quickly became a running battle.
"Brezza Petallo!" Fairymon turned long enough to shoot wind out of her hand at our pursuers. Unfortunately, she had to slow down to do so, and one of Arbormon's fists on a stretchy arm clocked her in the wing, barely missing my head. She yelped as her flight turned into a barely-controlled dive, then somehow managed to pull something resembling a landing out of it.
"Run, get out of here!" She cried as she put me down. "I'll hold them off as long as I can."
I gulped, and took off running. As bad as I felt for not being able to help, it would have been much worse if I'd been stuck in the middle of things. A moment later, I heard Fairymon grunt in surprise and the sound of wood snapping in a big crash. I had to find somewhere to hide, someplace where neither Ranamon nor Arbormon would find me.
And leave the others helpless against two strong opponents, one of whom had taken them down almost single-handedly.
No, I wasn't going to Evolve. I would never let Duskmon take me over like that again!
But, what was I supposed to do, I asked myself bitterly. Ranamon was stronger than all the others with that Beast Spirit of hers, and she had help now. Were my choices really either to hide and let the others get killed, or use my Spirit and take the chance that Duskmon wouldn't kill the others? There had to be another way, but I couldn't think of one. I arrived at a break in the dense jungle where a river ran through and slumped against a tree long enough to get my breath back.
Kouichi…I hoped he was all right. The others, too. What could I do?
The water in the river started to bubble ominously. I staggered back from it, but it was too late. A blast of water knocked me down. I looked up to see Ranamon standing over me, grinning menacingly.
"Going somewhere?"
I tried to pull myself to my feet only to have Ranamon grab me by the collar of my shirt and lift me above her head.
"You really are an idiot. I can see out of any surface of water, you know. That's how I knew where you kids were in the first place. You don't seem to be using your Spirit against me, where is it? Tell me, and I'll make your death a swift one."
"Why should I answer you?" I croaked. "I'm dead either way."
It was sheer bravado, of course. To be honest, I would have given my Digivice to her if it took Duskmon and his nightmares and the freezing cold around me away, but Takuya was right when he said that if Cherubimon got his hands on my Spirit, he might have made it even worse. Ranamon pulled me down so that we were face to face.
"Because if you don't, you'll be too busy screaming for the rest of your short, miserable life to talk."
My Digivice felt very heavy in my pocket, and I found myself wondering if I could grab it and Evolve in time to take her on. As much as I hated to admit it, Duskmon was the only option I had left. Where were Kouichi and the others? How powerful was this Arbormon? My hand started sliding towards my pocket.
"Well? Are you going to tell me where your Spirit is? Or are we going to do this the fun way?" She waved her hand, grinning maliciously as a cloud of acid appeared over my upturned face. I could feel my skin beginning to tingle, but my fingers could barely brush the top of my Digivice. I was so close, I had to stall her.
"I…I'll tell you," I gasped. "Just answer something for me. What are the Beast Spirits? Why do you become so powerful when you use it?"
I nearly had the Digivice in my fingers when she grabbed my arm.
"Oh, no. I'm not falling for that. Your Spirit is there, isn't it?"
I cringed, and Ranamon's grin grew wider. Then a blue and yellow something slammed into her, causing her to drop me and we both fell to the ground.
"Kouji!" Junpei?
"What…" I managed to get out as he grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet.
"Just because I don't have my Spirit doesn't mean I can't do something, right? Let's get out of here!"
As we started to run however, an enormous blast of water knocked us over. Caught in the water's current, I could only struggle to keep breathing as the current brought us back to Ranamon.
"Oh, it's you again," she snarled furiously. "That was the last mistake you'll ever make, human! But first, the Spirit…"
The water around me turned, throwing me under and shoving me so that my side near the surface. I felt her hand on my leg, then there was a tremendous vibration around me and the water released me enough that I could fight my way to the surface. Coughing and gasping, I looked at where Ranamon had been only to see that there was a very large mallet there.
"Ranamon, you thief!" The creature that wielded the mallet was a squat, dusky-skinned, gnomelike Digimon. "You invited Arbormon to the party, but not me?!"
Ranamon jumped out of a nearby puddle. "Grottomon! How…! What are you doing here?"
"Don't play the innocent with me, traitor! I know those humans have the remaining Spirits, but I'll be the one to take them!"
"Go away, Grottomon. These humans don't have Spirits."
"Oh, don't they? A little Minomon told me they did. And a Piyomon told me about what happened to you in Foliage City. I could hardly believe it, Ranamon defeated by a mere human!"
"Shut up!" If Ranamon's glare could kill, Grottomon would have died a thousand times. "Get out of here Grottomon, before I make you!"
"You? You couldn't beat one human!"
"Oh, you think I'm weak?" Ranamon summoned her Beast Spirit. "I'll beat that smirk right off your face. Slide Evolution!"
The Digicode swirled around her, and she emerged as the squid-like creature once again.
"Calamaramon!"
Grottomon snorted, as he summoned a Spirit-statue. "Pathetic. Let me show you what a real Legendary Warrior is like! Slide Evolution!"
I couldn't see what the statue of his Spirit looked like, since Grottomon was standing at an odd angle to me. What came out of the Digicode however looked like a bizarre combination of a bodybuilder with the head of a mole.
"Gigasmon!"
I struggled out of the water as the two titans met in what would have been a fascinating battle if I had seen it in a book or on television. In person, it wasn't nearly as pleasant. Especially when Calamaramon spat acid in Gigasmon's direction, which landed a little too close to where we were.
"They're fighting each other?" Junpei's shocked whisper echoed my own thoughts. "But, aren't they on the same side?"
"Doesn't matter," I told him. "Let's get out of here, but stay away from any water. Ranamon said she can look out of any source of water to find us."
Junpei looked like he was about to say something, then thought better of it. He followed me as we both stealthily made our way off the battlefield, which was looking more like a wasteland than a jungle. I threw wary glances at the antagonists as they fought. From what I could see, Gigasmon definitely had the agility advantage over Calamaramon, since he had legs to move around with instead of tentacles. He also seemed to be a physical fighter, relying on what looked like boxing or wrestling techniques. Punches, kicks, and dodging her tentacles, like a boxer. Ranamon on the other hand had the advantage of sheer mass. She might have been too slow to avoid getting hit, but when she got hit it didn't faze her too much. In addition, those tentacles of hers hit hard, when they hit. Not that it mattered much to me; they could have Scanned each other, for all I knew. They were so preoccupied with fighting each other that they didn't notice Junpei and I slip away among the trees and when we were out of sight start running until I couldn't hear any sign of the battle.
"You okay, Kouji?" Junpei asked when we finally stopped to catch our breath.
"Yeah." That was too close, in more ways than one. "We need to find the others." And hope that Arbormon hadn't hurt them…or worse!
Walking through a jungle full of things that might, and two of them did, want to kill me was hardly the way I wanted to spend the day. Still, Junpei had saved my life back there. I might not be the most social person, but I owed him my thanks at least.
"Junpei…" I struggled to find the right words.
"Huh?"
"I need to thank you for saving me back there."
"Oh, that? It was nothing. You would have done the same thing for me, right?"
Would I have? If we'd been at home and not in the Digital World, I would have left it to someone else. Cold shivers ran down my spine.
"You keep away because the darkness within you can't stand the light inside them," Duskmon had said
"How do you know?" I asked bitterly. "I've spent my whole life running and hiding from my problems. If something even remotely out of the ordinary happens, I either freeze up, or run and hide." I couldn't even bring myself to talk to my own brother! The cold, forgotten in the chaos of battle and flight, swirled around me. I instinctively wrapped my arms around myself in a futile attempt to ward it off.
"How do you know I would have saved you?" I demanded through the edge of tears.
"You would have. Izumi told me about what happened with the Candlemon." Junpei's voice was soft, but his voice was confident. "You didn't freeze up or run away then, did you? And that time with the Woodmon, I didn't see you run away. In fact, you were the calmest one of the three of us, Kouji. Maybe it's only little things that make you run. When big things are happening, you're braver than most people I know."
"Junpei…" I felt the cold around me recede a bit. Not all the way, but enough.
"Besides," he added with a grin. "Kouichi would have killed me if I let anything happen to you."
I couldn't resist a shy smile. "That big brother instinct at work, huh?"
Junpei snorted. "I think he's worse than Takuya with Tomoki, and that's saying something."
"We still need to find the others though, any idea where they went?"
"Just a minute." He scrambled to a nearby tree and started climbing on to a low-hanging branch. "The trick is to get high enough so we can see stuff. If I can see over the tree tops, it shouldn't be too hard to see where they are."
"Especially since where they are is likely a smoking battlefield by now." I walked over to the tree and leaned on it as Junpei got higher and higher. "Any sign of them?"
"I think I can see smoke that way," he pointed in one direction. "It could be Ranamon and Gigasmon, but I don't think either of them produce smoke."
"Guess we're going that way then." I waited for Junpei to climb down. "We should at least try to stay out of sight though."
He hopped off the last branch. "I know, especially since they seem to be all going after you. You're a very popular person, Kouji."
I glared at him.
After perhaps twenty minutes of walking through the jungle in the appropriate direction, I started smelling smoke.
"We must be getting close," Junpei said.
"Yeah." I hoped Kouichi and the others were okay, and that we could get out of here quickly before anyone noticed…
A vine-like tendril wrapped around my leg, pulling me upside down into the air before I could do more than gasp.
"What are you doing here? Didn't Ranamon go to take care of you?" The enormous combination of lizard and tree, complete with a face that faintly resembled a flower, twitched the tail that was wrapped around me, sending me soaring through the air. I had a nauseating view of the ground flying beneath me, and hoped that this time I wouldn't fall.
"Put me down!" I tried to say, but the tail started growing around me, reminding me unpleasantly of the Woodmon.
"Kouji!" I heard Junpei shouting from somewhere down below me. Not that he could do anything to help. I squeezed my eyes shut against the vertigo of being upside-down.
"Where is Ranamon, anyway? How'd you get away from her?" The Digimon rumbled. I saw no reason to keep the truth from him.
"She was fighting someone called Grottomon," I gasped. The vines loosened a bit, then I felt myself being righted and opened my eyes to see that I was directly in front of the Digimon's face.
"Grottomon? Why was she fighting him…? Maybe she's keeping her friends close and her enemies closer? Wait, that's not right." The giant head suddenly turned.
"You're still coming back? Guess you can't keep a Digimon down."
"Put. My brother. Down." While I was happy to hear Wolfmon's voice again, I had never heard him sound so angry before. The Digimon was holding me at the wrong angle to see him or Chakkmon or Neemon and Bokomon, but I could see Agnimon and Fairymon who looked battered but still in action.
"Sorry, I can't do that," the Digimon said. "Ranamon wants him, and you know what they say about the fury of a woman denied."
He suddenly moved quicker than his massive size would suggest and I caught a quick glimpse of Wolfmon slashing down with his sword at where the base of the Digimon's tail had been. Then it (he?) had to move again, this time to dodge Agnimon's flames. This time, I felt the tail holding me go limp, and I dropped, only to be caught by Wolfmon. I saw that the tail was coated with ice break off then quickly grow back. Chakkmon slid out of the way of a giant leg as the Digimon took a swipe at him.
Wolfmon bounded to the edge of the battlefield and put me down as Junpei, Neemon, and Bokomon ran up.
"Kouji! You okay?"
I watched Wolfmon leap back into the fray before answering Junpei's question.
"Yeah. What is that thing?"
"His name's Petaldramon, he's the Beast Spirit of wood," Bokomon replied. That explained why he had been quoting that old saying wrong, I thought.
As the fight dragged on, it was clear that Wolfmon and the others weren't getting anywhere. Petaldramon was simply too big, and regenerated any limbs the others cut off. Not to mention, I thought wryly, that they were at a disadvantage fighting a plant-based Digimon in a jungle.
"There must be something we can do," Junpei said. "Maybe we can find that Grottomon guy and see if we can make him fight that guy."
I glared at him in exasperation. What was he thinking?
"Dumb idea, I know." He sighed. "It was the only thing I could think of."
I felt a prickling sensation crawling up the back on my neck, and had the distinct feeling I was being watched.
"Kouji!" Junpei cried out, and I barely fell out of the way in time to avoid Grottomon's hammer smashing down where I had been standing. The others paused in their fight and stared at the newcomer.
"Grottomon!" Petaldramon finally said. "What are you doing here?"
"One of my Minomon told me about the humans who ruined my data factory," Grottomon picked up his hammer again. "And when Ranamon started acting all secretive I got suspicious. Why are you working with her?!"
"Uh…because she asked me to?"
While they were talking Wolfmon and the others, taking advantage of the lull in the fighting, regrouped around us. Being in the middle of two enemy Digimon wasn't a good thing at all. I felt helpless…
Not quite, Duskmon's voice whispered in my mind.
Leave me alone, Duskmon, I thought at him furiously. Mocking laughter was his only response.
"You idiot!" Grottomon snapped, bringing me back to reality. "She's only working with you because she's too weak to do it herself. She wants all the glory, and she's just going to dump you as soon as she gets what she wants!"
"But she asked so nicely. A friend in need is a friend indeed, right?" Petaldramon asked.
Grottomon smacked his forehead in exasperation. "Do I have to spell it out for you?! She's not your friend!"
"Don't listen to him, Petaldramon!" Ranamon jumped out of the trees. "I'm your friend. Now Scan those humans and take their Spirits. But don't forget, the boy with the blue backpack is mine!"
Wolfmon and the others resumed fighting positions.
"No he isn't, he's mine!" Grottomon pulled out his Beast Spirit. "Slide Evolution! Gigasmon!"
"You…" Ranamon choked down her fury before bringing out her own Beast Spirit. "Slide Evolution!"
"We need to get out of here," Wolfmon said in a voice too low for the three enemies to hear. "They're all after Kouji…Fairymon, could you fly fast enough to get him out of here?"
"I think so," Fairymon said hesitantly.
Something grabbed my foot, causing me to trip and fall backwards into something that felt like a dozen hands. I screamed as the hands gripped me tightly pinning me on my back.
"Kouji!" I heard Wolfmon's voice.
"How could a boy like you beat Calamaramon, using only his Human Spirit?" A male voice said too closely into my ear, causing me to shudder. "There must be something about you, something special."
"Mercurymon, you get away from him!" Calamaramon sounded outraged. "He's mine!"
"No he isn't, he's mine!" Gigasmon yelled.
"Oh, the two of you are fighting over one single human?" This time the voice came from over me. I tilted my head to see the speaker, an odd-shaped metallic humanoid Digimon with shields built into both arms. I couldn't see any eyes on the reflective plate that rested where the face should have been, but I could see a pair of smirking lips. I dimly remembered Bokomon mentioning the name when he had talked about the other Spirits. This was the Warrior of Metal…
"There's plenty of humans to go around," he said. "Why waste your energy fighting over this one?"
"Weren't you the one who was just saying he was special?" Petaldramon's voice boomed. "That's why."
"Enough!" Calamaramon snapped. "Give the boy to me and I won't 'accidentally' take your Spirit as well."
"As if you could," Gigasmon said contemptuously.
"Threats?" Mercurymon replied. "I thought you were above threats. Are we not on the same side?"
I felt a freezing cold along my back and the hands below me shuddered and went limp.
"What?" Mercurymon looked down just as Wolfmon grabbed me and took off. I had a quick glimpse of the hands, now coated in ice, then Chakkmon came between us and Mercurymon.
"Snow Bomber!"
"Run!" Wolfmon yelled as he leaped past Agnimon and Fairymon, then there was no more time for talking as trees shattered behind us. I peered over Wolfmon's shoulder to see Gigasmon running after us. He was faster than Wolfmon, and nearly caught us, but then Calamaramon suddenly landed on him, having evidently jumped off a tree.
"The boy is mine!" She shrieked, only to be grabbed by a tentacle and swung around like a ball on a string. I could hear her scream in fury as Wolfmon disappeared in the trees. When there were no signs of our pursuers, Wolfmon finally slowed and stopped.
"Kouji, are you all right?"
"Yeah." Moderately traumatized, but physically unharmed.
Wolfmon sighed and ran a hand over his head, nervously. It made him seem a bit more like Kouichi instead of a Digimon.
"We need to find the others," he finally said. "Preferably without running into any of those others."
"We can meet them at the train tracks," I said. "But we need to keep away from any water. That was how Ranamon found us, she said that she can see through any surface of water."
"One more complication." Wolfmon shrugged. "Let's go find the tracks."
I once again had the feeling that I was being watched. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something suddenly appear out of thin air, something that looked like a hand with a shield attached to it.
"Kouichi!"
Wolfmon turned as the rest of Mercurymon materialized out of thin air following the hand. He swiftly aimed his arm cannon.
"Licht Kugel!"
Mercurymon held up the shield on his arm which didn't block the laser as much as absorb it. Then he held up the shield on his other arm.
"Generous Mirror!"
The blast of light that came from the second shield knocked Wolfmon into a tree, causing him to de-evolve back into Kouichi.
"So," Mercurymon said to me as if nothing had happened. "How is your Spirit so strong, human? Why don't you use it now and we can see?"
I shivered from the cold that wrapped around me. Kouichi was down, and I couldn't see the others anywhere…
"Why do you hesitate, human?" Mercurymon's lips twisted into a smirk. "Could it be that you cannot control it? Ah, you think that if you Evolve you will hurt your brother, right?"
"Stop, Kouji!" Kouichi struggled to get to his feet.
He was cut off as Mercurymon disappeared into his shield and reappeared behind him.
"Perhaps if your brother was gone, you wouldn't have this trouble," Mercurymon picked Kouichi up by the collar of his shirt.
"Put him down!" The cold around me became even more intense, making me gasp. "I'll do what you want, just let him go."
"Indeed." Mercurymon's smirk grew wider, and he dropped Kouichi.
"Kouji!" My brother's eyes were wide in horror as he staggered towards me. "You promised you wouldn't leave me..."
"I know." I gulped and pulled my freezing cold Digivice out of my pocket. "I don't have a choice, Kouichi. It's either me or you…"
I summoned the black Digicode onto my trembling hand, but as I was about to wave my hand over my Digivice, Mercurymon suddenly pulled up a shield as a blast of leaves hit him, pushing him back several feet.
"Sorry Mercurymon," Petaldramon said as he lumbered into view. I realized that the Digicode around my hand had disappeared back to wherever it came from. "Ranamon would have been angry at me if she didn't Scan the kid, and you know what they say. No rest for the wicked."
He was hit in the face by a large tentacle.
"Are you saying I'm an ugly witch?" Calamaramon demanded indignantly.
"No, I was just…"
"Spinning Lariat!"
Petaldramon suddenly had to duck as Gigasmon went whirling through the air like a grotesque helicopter, narrowly missing Mercurymon and pummeling Calamaramon in the face.
"Watch where you're going, idiot!" Mercurymon cried. Gigasmon shrugged as he came in for a landing.
"If you were slow enough to get hit by that then you deserve it. Right, Calamaramon?"
Calamaramon's response was an outraged shriek. I realized that the blow had given her a black eye.
"Look what you did, you brute! I'll make you pay for that!"
Calamaramon started spinning herself.
"Titanic Charge!"
Her spinning quickly lost control however, and sent her flying into Arbormon and Mercurymon. Gigasmon burst out laughing.
"That's you all over! All power and no control!"
A tentacle grabbed him before he could react, pulling him right into the pile of Digimon, which was quickly turning into a free-for-all melee. Then Kouichi grabbed my arm.
"Let's go."
I nodded, and we slowly, and in Kouichi's case painfully, edged back in the direction we had come from before taking off as fast as Kouichi could move.
"Kouichi! Kouji!"
Agnimon came bounding over.
"You two sure left an easy trail to follow." He gestured at all the fallen trees. "What happened?"
"They're fighting each other," Kouichi replied. "We need to get as far away as we can before they notice."
"Right." Agnimon glanced up as Fairymon flew in to hover a foot off the ground. Chakkmon came sliding in an instant later.
"Are you all right?" Chakkmon asked.
"Yeah," I mumbled, still not used to people paying attention to me.
"A bit bruised, but I've had worse." Kouichi grinned sharply even though he was clearly still in pain. "We need to get out of here quick, though. Those guys are fighting each other and I don't want to be around when they realize we're gone."
"Can you Evolve?" Fairymon asked him.
"It's painful, but I think I can now." He pulled out his Digivice.
A few minutes later, the five of us reached the train tracks where Junpei, Neemon, and Bokomon had evidently just arrived.
"Kouji!" Neemon ran over and gave me a big hug as Wolfmon put me down and de-evolved.
"Brr, you're cold!"
"I know." Now that the chase was over, I could see how close I had come to becoming Duskmon, to hurting Kouichi. If Petaldramon hadn't shown up...but if I hadn't tried to Evolve, Mercurymon would have killed Kouichi. The cold wrapped around me tightly as I pulled my arms around me. Duskmon was wrong, I wasn't going to hurt my brother.
I wasn't going to…
"Kouji." I looked up to see Kouichi staring at me, an uncharacteristic scowl marring his features.
"You almost used your Spirit back there," he said echoing my thoughts.
"I didn't have much of a choice, Mercurymon would have killed you if I hadn't."
"That's not the point! I almost lost you!"
I realized that the others were staring at us. Part of me wanted to break off the argument and go someplace to hide, or to simply freeze up, while the other part of me wanted to tell Kouichi it wasn't all about me. In the end the other part won.
"How is it not the point?" I demanded. "You would have died if I hadn't!"
Kouichi's eyes blazed and his mouth worked furiously, as if he couldn't find the right words to express his feelings.
"Okay, that's enough." Takuya got between us. "We've all had a long day, now let's just calm down…"
"Promise me Kouji," Kouichi interrupted him. "Promise that you won't use your Spirit again."
"I can't make any guarantees," I said softly. "But I'll try.
Kouichi continued to glare at me, causing my anger to grow.
"What do you want?"
"You haven't promised yet."
"Kouichi," Takuya groaned.
"I told you, I can't make any guarantees. We aren't at home, if you haven't noticed, and a large chunk of this world's population wants us dead!"
"Then let me protect you, or go home!"
"Stop it, Kouichi! I have my own life, you know. Youaren't my keeper!"
I turned and ran off, the anger in me keeping me going for a couple of minutes before fading off with every step replaced by regret. What had I done? I hadn't meant to blow up at Kouichi…
"Your brother's light will hurt you."
I slumped against a nearby tree, feeling the cold around me intensify. Duskmon's words again, but Kouichi hadn't meant to hurt me. He was just overprotective.
And yet, he treated me like I was some kind of semi-intelligent baby instead of a fifth grader who was only younger than him by a few minutes.
I shuddered uncontrollably. No! I wasn't going to hurt him. I wouldn't give in to Duskmon.
I was so tired…
"Kouji?"
It wasn't Kouichi that had followed me, it was Tomoki. He looked up at me.
"Kouichi was wrong. He was treating you just like my brother…" Tomoki trailed off before resuming. "I know how you feel about him. You want him to leave you alone, right?"
"I don't know what I want," I whispered numbly. That was my problem. My whole life in a nutshell. I wanted everyone to leave me alone, but I didn't want to be alone. It was a contradiction that I just couldn't explain.
Green eyes peered up at me.
"Well, maybe we just need to take this one step at a time. Let's go back and talk to Kouichi, then you can tell him how you feel. He might not listen to you, but at least you can say you told him. Right?"
I didn't move. Tomoki took my hand.
"Kouji, you aren't alone. I've been thinking that if Takuya could be my 'big brother' while we're here, then you can, too."
I stared at him, the cold receding. He would do that for me?
"Why me?" I asked. "Why are you doing this for me? I don't need another brother…"
"Because you need someone you can talk to, someone who knows what it's like to be treated like a younger brother." Tomoki paused for a moment, as if remembering something unpleasant. "Besides, I still need to teach you how to be a good brother. It'll be easier if I thought of you like one."
The sound of distant voices reached my ears. The others were coming.
"C'mon, big brother!" Tomoki pulled on the hand he was still holding. "Let's go tell Kouichi how you feel."
Going by the contrite expression on Kouichi's face, he had figured some of it out. He, along with the others, all looked relieved when they saw Tomoki and myself.
"Kouji!" Kouichi ran ahead of the others, stopping about a foot away from me. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to treat you like that…"
"It's okay, I don't blame you for acting overprotective…" I felt a twinge of guilt at the lie, then realized I was looking down at the ground out of habit, and brought my eyes up to meet his. "It's not your fault. I would have acted the same way."
Would I? A part of me wondered.
Kouichi pulled off his hat and ran a hand through his hair. "You're a better man than I am, little brother."
"So now what?" Junpei asked. "Are we still going for that Meadow Village? Because going there got a lot more dangerous with those four looking for us."
"Well, that woman said that there'd be someone there to help us find our Beast Spirits." Takuya held up his Digivice, but this time it remained silent. He scowled at it for a moment before putting it back in his pocket.
"We must be careful going there," Bokomon said. "If what Junpei said about Ranamon being able to see us through any body of water is true, then it'll be even harder to get there."
"It doesn't matter," Izumi retorted. "Whatever we do, we need to start moving, because those others might come after us any minute now."
"Then let's go!" Takuya turned and began walking back in the direction of the train tracks. The rest of us followed him after a moment, and I found myself walking with Kouichi for once. Junpei and Izumi were walking in front of us.
"Hey, Izumi?" Junpei asked. "I was wondering; you've been speaking Italian a lot. I was thinking I'd like to learn how to speak it, so I could talk to you more. Do you think you could teach me someday?"
"You want to learn Italian to speak with me? Junpei, that's so sweet! I'd love to teach you!"
I saw a blush creeping down the back of his neck.
"That…er, really?"
"Looks like his plan to score with her went well." Kouichi grinned at me. I shrugged.
"You should talk to him, Kouji."
I glanced up at Tomoki's undertone to see him walking on my other side.
"You two have to start somewhere. Talk to him!"
Talk to him? About what? Small talk wasn't my thing, and I suspected everyone knew it by now. I racked my brain for subjects he would find interesting.
"Wh-what's it like at your school?" Okay, that was definitely a dumb question. I flinched, only to see Kouichi grin at me.
"It's a nice enough place. I'm one of the best at gym, but I'm not very good with history. How does the teacher expect me to remember all those names and dates? Especially when there's this cute girl sitting across the row from me. You got any cute girls in your class at home, little brother?"
"Not this class." I paused thoughtfully. "But there was a pretty girl in my homeroom a couple of years ago."
"Let me guess, you were too shy to talk to her?"
"Yeah, then Dad got a promotion and we had to move again."
Kouichi's face darkened a bit, and he was silent for a moment.
"You know something Kouji? Tomoki's right, we have to start somewhere."
"You heard that?" Now it was Tomoki's turn to flinch. Kouichi just smirked at him before turning back to me.
"I want to know all about you, and tell you everything there is to know about me and Mom and…" his voice cracked the tiniest bit. "Grandma. I want to make up for all these years we've been split up, if that's possible."
I felt myself blushing and looked down.
"I do, too," I mumbled, feeling the warmest that I had since I had found my Spirit.
Author's Note: This is going to be the last chapter for a while. Hopefully not as long as the last one, but with any luck the ride to school will give me plenty of time to write. Now if my muse would only inspire me for Reversal, instead of giving me ideas for other fics!