Chapter 9: Sweet Dream
I glanced up at the sound of a Trailmon, and smiled as I watched it cross the bridge across the forests. I was in a surprisingly good mood today, even when I tried to recall all that had happened yesterday. And I wanted to live it up in it while it was still lingering freshly in my soul.
I still had one of the scratches on my arm, but it would heal quickly, and I didn't mind it being there. It wasn't like it was being anything like Takuya or JP by getting in my way.
I turned my head to face Bokomon as he stated quite matter-of-factly, making me wonder if there was anything that he'd ever been uncertain of, "I believe the Forest Kingdom begins just beyond that track."
"It sure looks big." Takuya said, looking out over the area with a blank look on his face. Though, he really hadn't needed to point out the frickin' obvious. I was pretty sure that we could all see that.
I glanced at him after slightly rolling my eyes. I used a very exasperated tone (he'd been asking how much longer it would be till we got anywhere near the Forest Terminal for the past few hours; honestly, I was sick of hearing him talk), "Were you expecting it to be the size of a sandbox?"
"Hey Bokomon," JP asked, hoping that Bokomon's answer would contain a small numbers and words, or none at all. "How much farther do we have to walk?"
"Three feet. You have to walk three feet." I told him with a smirk.
He gasped; I nearly laughed at the fact that he really believed me. "Really?!"
I let myself utter a snicker as I replied, "Well, you can walk three feet and fall over, then you only have to walk three feet."
"…Will you drag me the rest of the way?" I stopped snickering and glanced at him with an eyebrow raised. Did this guy have no pride at all?
I shook my head in pure pity as I headed forward. "No. I thought I made it clear that if you fell over, I was leaving you there."
Zoe thought this was the perfect time to bug me. "Would you drag Koji if he asked you?" She grinned as she awaited my reply.
"Koji's…well…I don't know, but one thing's for sure: he wouldn't have asked in the first place, he would've just kept going anyway." I replied with a grin of my own placed up on my face. But there was also a slight strawberry red glistening on my cheeks as Koji's name started to resonate in my head again.
JP looked at Bokomon again, hoping that he wouldn't agree with me and say three feet. He didn't. "Don't worry; you should only have to walk a little bit more…However, more than three feet."
"A little bit more?" JP repeated; I could sense his brain (or at least the massive twitchy glob of chocolate between his ears) was quickly forming a complaint. "All these little bits are killing me!"
I heard Koji let out a bit of an annoyed scoff at JP while turning his head to see me attempting to jump up onto the log that Bokomon and Neemon were both standing on. I missed the mark, and my face smacked into it instead, knocking me back to where I'd been standing before. But now I was staring up at it from my seat on the ground with a burgundy expression of anger that I'd been so clumsy, and embarrassment that Koji had seen all that.
I heard a snicker come from Zoe and JP. I growled at them; they must've seen the 'incident' too. "Oh, shut the hell up." I snapped at them, getting to my feet and starting to walk ahead.
"Ohhh," Zoe whined, trying to make me see something I obviously didn't. "Calm down Toshiku, we're just kidding around. You don't have to be taking everything so seriously all the time and watch—"
I cut her off with a snarl; spinning around on my heel. I gave them a fierce look before saying, the same rage scorching my tongue as the words spilled from my mouth, "If I don't keep an eye on you, who do you think will?! Sentimon or those other things?! Ha! I doubt it! They'll keep an eye on you after you're one of the stiffs!"
I was about to turn and leave it at that, let those words smolder in their minds for a little while, but I stopped when something tugged on the back of my shirt. I glanced back to see Neemon, but he pointed from himself to Bokomon.
Bokomon pulled out his green book before asking me, curiosity all over his tone and his statements, "Toshiku my dear, what did you call that Digimon? I've never heard of it before. Why, I've never even seen something with a name close to it."
I looked away, closing my eyes as I remembered the pain of the serrated whip slashing across my face. "I said Sentimon. She called herself one of the three causes of death, specifically emotion," I glanced back at Bokomon, hearing him suddenly close the book. "I know they chose a stupid name for their little trio, but didn't you find anything?"
"My dear girl," His tone told me that he'd either found something bad, or had found nothing at all. I prayed to Kamisama that it was just something bad. "There's nothing written here about a creature called Sentimon," He looked at everyone else and continued with a few questions supporting that I didn't know what I was talking about. "Have any of you children seen this Sentimon?"
I rested my gaze immediately on Takuya and Koji; they'd been there when Sentimon had first shown up. But my confidence was quickly decimated when I saw them shake their heads.
I was confused for a moment at their reason for denying that they knew who she was, but then I remembered that they'd been hit by that Astral Flare. Maybe that had kept all chance of them remembering her at bay in their minds.
I was about to give that reason, but JP cut in before I could, his suggestion making my anger blaze back into life. He gave a sly smile as he said, "Maybe you were just dreaming Toshiku; you tend to do that."
I snarled and snapped back at him, my voice raising with the anger of their disbelief, and the remembrance of the pain and everything Sentimon had said to me, "Do you really think I could've dreamt that pain?! Dreamt that the only reason I got my beast spirit was to defend Takuya and Koji, and save my own insignificant life?!" I gripped JP's jumpsuit in my fists and slammed him into a tree.
I growled, sounding just like Wereraiomon as I continued. "I don't care if you don't trust me. You can think of me as an enemy for all I care! But if you know anything about me, know this: I wouldn't lie about something that was a threat to you people. Do you think a guardian would lie to the person they're watching over?" I let go of him and hurried to get away from their bewildered eyes.
"No," I finished, my voice quiet, but tense and still filled with rage. "They wouldn't…" I stopped, thinking over what I'd said for a minute before adding another thing I might need to bring up later on. "…Unless they had to."
I halted for a moment, suddenly wondering exactly how they'd reacted to that outburst. I glanced back at them to see completely disorientated expressions on all of their faces, even on Bokomon and Neemon's. I could see that my words had struck them while they were unprepared.
I cleared my throat before quietly stating, forcing them out of the trance that my outburst had put them in, "We…we have to keep going. I think we should travel for at least a little bit longer."
Takuya snapped out of his little obscure moment immediately, and merrily said, snapping the others out of their trances as well, "C'mon, I'll race you guys to…to…over there! One, two, three…go!"
I let out a small sigh as they ran past me. I was glad that it had passed through one ear and went directly out the other. That meant that Zoe wouldn't start saying that I had to tell them stuff like that more often, and that I shouldn't bottle everything up, otherwise that would happen again.
I was about to turn and follow them, when Koji called out to me, "Toshi," He walked up to me; I could hear his soft footfalls grace the grass beneath them as he approached me. I felt the illumination of his touch as he set a hand on my shoulder, and a comforting serenity passed through me for mere seconds before my tempted soul pushed the comfort away. "Are you okay?"
I instantly shrugged his hand off, if he didn't know about Sentimon now, maybe it was best that he didn't know about them at all. I replied quickly, trying to force out a happier tone than what I already had. But I only made myself sound angry with him. "Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing's wrong."
I was about to walk away, when I stopped, knowing in my heart that that's not what I wanted to do. So, for once, I didn't let shadows control my actions. I didn't need it to now.
I reached back and grasped his hand in mine for a moment; I couldn't help but wonder about the way it fit mine the way it did, and the more I held it, the easier the reason for this thought would be to figure out—and besides, his warm presence made me feel a strange kind of harmony. My face turned an intense shade of ruby as I felt his hand reassuringly grip mine back.
"I'm sorry…I-I'm just…" I sighed, knowing that if I started with what I was, I would never stop, and I would more likely than not end up asking Koji who he thought I was. Because honestly, I didn't understand myself.
Everything went silent for a minute, and we just stood there. Me holding his hand, trying to think of what to tell him, while he stood a little ways behind me, awaiting my response.
"It's okay Toshi…" Koji told me; I found myself gently squeezing his hand, and blushed before letting go of it. My arms fell back to my sides as Koji walked forward, looking tenderly into my eyes as he continued in a whisper-soft tone, "If you ever want to talk, you should know…I'll listen."
I could feel my face growing increasingly warm as it reddened. I shyly shifted my gaze away from his pretty beryl eyes. I could feel my knees shaking under me, threatening to make me look like an idiot and buckle beneath me.
I looked back up at him as we headed forward to catch up to everyone else. "Thank you, Koji…I…that…" I let out a small sigh as I started forward, realizing I didn't know any way to really express how I felt about him right then. Or anytime. "Just…thanks…"
We walked side-by-side back to everyone else in an undisturbed yet serene silence.
"Wait up! I know I said I'd race you, but that didn't mean you had to run faster than me!" Takuya called to Zoe, Bokomon, and Neemon as he tried to pass them.
Weregarumon was riding on Takuya's head, apparently having the time of his life up there. "Weeeeeeeee! Faster Ta-kun, faster!"
"I'm working on it!" He called back up to the happy wolf-cub Digimon, striving to run a little bit faster, not only for the entertainment of the little guy, but also so he had at least a slight bit of dignity left.
I passed JP and Tommy; both of them were starting to lag behind like the slackers we all knew they were. I let out a knowing, but annoyed sigh. I could just tell that one—or both—of them was going to complain about something. I'd been around both of them enough now to be able to guess when they thought they'd 'worked' enough for the day.
That time of the day…was now. JP was the first to start the routine this time. "Man, isn't it time for a dinner break? I'm wasting away here!"
I glanced back at him before commenting, "You're still there, and you haven't been reduced to dust or close to it yet. We can keep going for a while longer."
"We didn't even get any breakfast yet!" Tommy added to the complaint, taking JP's side in this one. But, I couldn't say that wasn't out of the usual stopping routine though.
I put my hands in my pockets and listened as Takuya gave in to their whining. "I think we'd better stop here and make camp."
Zoe supported their idea to stop, saying, "It's been a long day for all of us."
I let out a small sigh before shrugging; Koji beat me to the talking though. "Yeah, whatever." He grumbled, his tone letting me know he was aggravated that we hadn't gotten any farther than we had today.
I would've tried to convince everyone to go at least for a little bit farther, but the sun was starting to convince me to stop by itself. Already it was setting in the sky, making it turn all kinds of vivid, blazing colors. And honestly, I was still a bit out of it after the beast spirit knocking all the sense I thought I had right back out of me, making stopping for the night sound fairly pleasant.
I glanced back at Tommy and JP from the corner of my eye as Tommy asked, sounding slightly surprised, "We're stopping?"
I mentally rolled my eyes as JP also decided to ask a stupid question (I know there is no such thing as a stupid question, but that depends on who you're talking about), "Does that mean I get to eat, and lay down, and…eat!?"
"Yeah," I said, turning around to smirk at him. "You can go find a wood chip, or maybe whatever some other Digimon left behind."
"That depends," JP said, glad that I'd said something he could retaliate. "What did they leave behind?"
I looked at him for a moment, an eyebrow raised. I wondered if I should really say what I had in mind. But I just smirked again before stating, not really caring right then if I shouldn't have added it, "Their crap, what else do you really think they'd leave?"
"Hey!" I snickered as he started to shout at me. I'd obviously crossed a line by ripping on him using his love of food. "That was completely uncalled for!"
I turned and continued to grin, I didn't know why, but I couldn't get a hold of myself. I couldn't stop. "That was unavoidable. You ran right into that snare of words!"
JP growled, I guess I'd pushed him over an edge. I just smirked all the more as he made a move towards me. Zoe took a step in front of me to stop JP, but I shoved her out of the way as I said mockingly, "Let him try."
"Stop, Toshiku, get a frickin' hold of yourself. You just told them that you—" I stopped my thoughts and instead told myself something that would reassure me that I should let the shadow have a hold of my heart and soul for a moment. "I didn't tell them I wouldn't hurt them. I just said I wouldn't lie. And besides, I can stop anytime I want. Darkness…" My thoughts stopped as my pupils dilated, enveloping my entire iris in black. It felt like all of my sensible emotions were being drained out of me…like a faucet draws out the water through a pipe. "Darkness…is all that I am. My heart is filled to the point of over flowing with it; my soul a basin for pure evil. And pure evil alone."
JP wrenched a hand back to swing his fist at me, but I knew he wouldn't go through with it. He was weak; I would fight him now, and he would fall.
I tried to stop myself, but now not only my mind, but my whole body was crammed with the breath of dusk; I reached into my pocket, and pulled out my D-Tector. I could feel something pulling at the back of my mind, pleading with the darkness to let me go, but my body felt too numb right now for me to back it up and stop.
Before I knew what the hell I was doing, I'd spirit-evolved into Wereraiomon. I let out a horrendous roar before snapping my jaws, my pearl-white teeth clicking. I growled before slamming my muzzle into JP, knocking him against a tree with barely any of my strength.
He glared at me before pulling out his own D-Tector. He spirit-evolved to his pip-squeak of a spirit as he shouted at me, "Now…you're going to get it!"
I uttered a growl-like laugh; I doubted that he could harm me. All that zappy little bug could really do was maybe cause my fur to puff out weird.
"Thunder Fist!" JP swung his fist back as he sped towards me, sparks of electricity shooting out from his clenched fist.
"Show that pooch who's dominant JP!" I heard Zoe call to him; the idiotic name she'd used to refer to me sent rage flying through my veins.
I lunged at JP, grabbing onto him and tossing my head around as if he were a chew toy. I wasn't going to use an attack now. I would wait until he was weak, and in pain. Then, and only then, would I kill him.
He grunted as he reached over and grasped one of my razor sharp canine teeth. It—being one of my canines in the first place—was larger than his fist by a hell of a lot.
My eyes shot open wide and I yelped in agony as electricity rippled through my bones, initially from my jaw line. I heard JP shout as I stamped the ground to try to recenter the pain, "Thunder Fist!"
I continued to cry out as more electricity flew through me; I could feel it piercing my veins inside. I squeezed my still dilated eyes shut and flung my head to the side, throwing him out of my mouth.
JP hit the ground with a thud, but got up after a bit of a struggle. He was breathing heavily, his chest heaving. I knew he was in a lot of pain; I could sense it. I grinned with pure blackness tainting my animal-smile.
I took a long step forward, lowering my head as I did. I crouched low, ready to pounce and maul him. I paused for a small moment as Tommy grabbed his arm and tried to pull him back.
"What are you doing?!" JP shouted as I made another move towards them, taking my time and letting their fear set in.
Tears started to stream down Tommy's face as he cried out, "Don't hurt Toshiku! She doesn't know what she's doing! Can't you see her eyes? The color is gone!"
I was about to lunge at them, but halted when something clutched my muzzle. I knew the sweet scent, but I growled nevertheless, threatening to throw my mouth back open and bite.
But it didn't let me go; he just clutched my muzzle tighter and spoke into my fur, "Toshi, please…" Inside my heart felt flooded as I recognized the voice to be Koji's. But not with regular emotions like blankness and ordinary happiness, but the brightest ones I had in me.
I felt him bury his face in my fur as he said, "Please…don't let it control you. You didn't let it in before; I know darkness isn't in you. You're kind, and—"
I let out another growl; I didn't know how much longer I could go without unwillingly hurting him. It was the last thing I wanted, but the beast spirit and darkness combined were too much for me. Heck, the beast spirit by itself was far stronger than I was meant to handle. I couldn't help but wonder if I'd even been ready when I got it.
I knew he heard my snarl, but he still didn't let go. He continued, his voice quiet, but emotionally concentrated, "And I know…you won't hurt me. I know it."
"…K-…Koji?" I questioned, my now tattered soul comforted by the sound of his voice, and his warm skin against my black fur.
Koji nodded, unwrapping his arms from around my muzzle, but keeping one hand in its place. He reached back and rubbed behind my ear as he gently told me, "Yeah, it's me. You know that."
I felt the rest of my senses return to me with the force of a flood as I de-spirit-evolved. Strength didn't return to me as fast though, like it was considering whether or not I still deserved to have it. I hung my aching head as I thought, "I don't want it back…"
But my strength returned even though I hated that it was mine, and the fact I didn't know how to get rid of it—or at the very least control it—made everything that much worse.
I fell backwards onto the ground, but stayed upright. I just sat there on the ground; my eyes squeezed shut, and my head resting on my bent knees. I didn't want to open my eyes, I just wanted to die. I knew I didn't deserve all of these second chances I was getting. Why wouldn't Kamisama just give them to someone worthwhile?
I let out a weak cry as JP—now back to his less bug-like form—grabbed me by the back of the shirt, and forced me back up onto my feet. I grunted as he slammed me up against a tree, his hand now at my neck.
I tried to claw at his wrist and get him away from me, but I still didn't have enough of my strength back.
I let my hands drop back down to my sides as he shook me with increasing anger as he shouted, "Why did you do that?! Why were you trying to kill me?!"
I replied with silence. I didn't have a good answer. I had one, but I doubted that they'd understand. And besides, I didn't want to know why I was trying to hurt him. What I wanted to know, was what made me stop.
My silence obviously just pissed him off all the more. He slammed me into the tree again, knocking the air out of my lungs and starting to crush my throat before shouting again, "Why can't you get a hold of that stupid spirit of yours?! Why do you always try to kill everyone with it?! Why—"
"Stop it JP!" Koji shouted, Tommy's voice ringing in with it. Koji stepped forward, anger in every step. I was surprised to learn that it wasn't for me, or for what I'd done. "Toshiku didn't mean to do that. And besides, if she was really trying to kill you, she would've when she had you in her teeth the first time," He looked straight into my eyes, like he was reading my thoughts through my closed, miserable eyes.
He looked back at JP, his anger rekindling at the sight his eyes beheld. "I saw her fighting the urge to snap all of your bones in half, you're just lucky that she wanted to make it last longer. It might've been for the wrong reason, but it worked out for the better."
Everything was silent for a while; and I could hear the silence telling me to speak now. I opened my mouth for a second, but only a small croak came out. I didn't want to have to say anything, but I didn't see any other way of getting JP off of me.
"I…I-I'll…" I stuttered, not so good with apologies or cheering people up. This time, I had to practice with apologies. I gulped before forcing the rest out; I didn't want to. To me, apologies were a sign of the heart, and shouldn't be given out whenever they fit. "I'll try…not to do it again…"
I slowly opened my eyes as the pressure around my neck lessened, and finally was gone. JP had backed off, accepting my this-really-isn't-an-apology-but-if-you-take-it-that-way-whoop-dee-frickin'-doo apology, and almost instantly everyone dismissed most of what had happened without much more thought.
Zoe seemed to think that now would be a good time to bring up the announcement of her discovery. "Look what I found!" She exclaimed, holding a light green apple up in the air. "I hope it's edible."
Bokomon took one look at it before telling everyone right off the top of his head, like his eyes were some kind of encyclopedia in themselves, "That's a meat apple."
"Meat apple?" Everyone repeated. I was starting to wonder if they needed to clean their ears out. And how big of a swab they might need.
"Yes," Bokomon replied, not seeming to care that everyone would always repeat what he said. I know it would've gotten to me. "Each one had the flavor of a different kind of meat. Quite nutritious, actually."
Takuya took a step forward, pointing at the green apple with one of his gloved fingers as he asked, "Where'd you find that thing?"
I was about to say, "Inside your head, there can't be anything else in there." But I stopped, knowing that might lead me to losing control of everything again. And that was one thing I didn't want happening a second time.
"It was just lying on the ground," she replied, sounding quite proud that she'd been the one to find it. Even though the ground was frickin' everywhere. "There has to be a tree somewhere near by."
JP and Tommy sounded pretty glee-filled after hearing that there was most likely more food to be found.
"Bokomon, will you help me find some more?" Zoe called to the white 'all-knowing' vegetable.
"Certainly." Bokomon replied, starting to head after her, but stopped as Neemon started to speak.
He turned to face where Bokomon was running as he asked, "Can I come?"
I heard Bokomon let out a loud groan before grabbing the yellow moron's waist band and dragging him along saying, "Alright!"
"Goody!" Neemon exclaimed, allowing Bokomon to drag him without any struggle. "I love meat apples!"
Tommy ran after them shouting, "Wait for me!" But he abruptly stopped, ran back, and grabbed my hand.
He ran forward again, dragging me along as he said, his voice much happier despite the fact that he'd been sobbing just a few minutes before, "You come too Toshiku!"
Well, honestly I didn't want to go with, right now I just wanted to either be left alone so I could think for a while, or stand by Wolf-boy for the remainder of my life. Which, if I kept screwing up like that, wouldn't be for much longer. Sentimon or one of the other things would show up, and they'd take advantage of my dark core while they had the chance.
"But, you don't want me by trees. They blow up, they start on fire because they blew up, and—Heheh, the Santa at the mall did that too—but, uhh, they—" I tried to worm my way out of it—and my arm out of his hand—but Tommy wasn't believing any of it.
"Come on Toshiku! It'll be fun!" He said again, trying hard to convince me, even though the fact that he wasn't loosening his grip on my hand made it all the harder to get away.
I felt something furry suddenly jump up onto my shoulder, and instantly saw Weregarumon perched there. I paid no real mind to him being there, it wasn't as if it was unlike Weregarumon to sit on either my or Koji's shoulder or head.
"Weregarumon?" I kept my eyes ahead as something soft and warm tickled my cheek. I assumed that it was just Weregarumon's fluffy black tail and let it pass back out of my mind without much thought. "Why aren't you with Koji? I thought you were still in his bandana?"
"Papa ckn'dt fayia gianlkt menaiees." He answered, thinking that he was speaking clearly and not stopping to state what he'd said again.
I was about to question what the fuzzy little creature had just told me when something soft, and gave off Koji's distinct scent tickled my nose. When I'd gotten over the fact that it had Koji's sweet smell to it, I reached over and yanked it from Weregarumon's mouth.
Before my eyes, lying tenderly in my hand lay Koji's bandana. What? So, Weregarumon would leave Koji for a little while, but he would bring his bandana?
…Well, it was a spiffy bandana. And not only that, it was Koji's, and smelled of him too.
Weregarumon decided to explain. "It was too warm to leave, and it had Papa all over it," He gave a small, sheepish wolf-grin. "Papa was a little mad at first, but then I got here. I think they went to go and get some of the hard flame not-resisters."
"…You mean wood?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at the creative baby Digimon. I couldn't help but wonder who he was getting most of this from anyway.
"If it's brown and starts on fire, then yes it is!" Weregarumon stated happily as I carefully folded Koji's bandana so if wouldn't wrinkle and placed it in my pocket. The last thing that I wanted happening was me losing it. It was an important part of Koji after all.
Truthfully, I didn't know how to reply to that kind of a statement. Most times, when someone's talking to you about stuff that they don't even know, you just don't know how to answer.
It's like talking to a frickin' bush. It'll listen, you know it will, it's just gonna have a bit of difficulty answering you. So you have to talk for it.
That's were insanity comes in.
"Huh?" I glanced at Tommy as he turned his head away from the trail. I exhaled loudly through my nose, thinking that he'd probably just seen a little squirrel-ish Digimon go by.
"Is something wrong?" Zoe asked as she stopped, turning to face him.
"Mama!" Weregarumon suddenly cried, instantly jumping to the ground and cowering, covering his eyes with his paws. "The onions! The burn! Eee!"
I slightly raised an eyebrow at the bizarre little guy before turning to Zoe and saying, "I think you're blinding him with your pink and purple-ness."
She glared at me, obviously not precisely pleased with my remark. It really hadn't been to make her laugh anyway. If anything, it was supposed to annoy her. Nevertheless, it worked.
Zoe turned back to Tommy, ignoring the fact that I'd said anything as she waited for Tommy to reply to the question she'd asked only moments before Weregarumon's confession of his fear of…apparently colorful onions.
"I just thought I heard something flying by." Tommy told her, glancing out among the trees again with a look of confusing and fear on his face.
Zoe smirked before saying, "Maybe Toshiku's trying to scare us—"
I growled before grumbling, "Don't try to pin this one on me, I haven't done anything yet."
"Yeah," Zoe snickered, always the one to find at least one flaw in everything that I did. "Yet."
I snarled before snapping, "You know what—"
"What?!" Zoe snapped right back, thinking to herself that one way or another, she was going to win this fight too.
But this time, I wanted to be the one to beat her down. Right now, the one thing that would please me more than anything would be for something to come crashing down through the trees and crush her. I wouldn't help; I wouldn't save her.
I shoved my hands in my pockets, ready to say exactly what was on my mind and not leave one thing out, when Koji's bandana came into contact with my hand. I felt nothing but the bliss that Koji's essence gave me, and my rage felt swept away.
"Nothing," I tried to say it calmly—though it just came out as a low mumble—as I walked forward, keeping my hands in my pockets, Weregarumon still sitting on top of my head like a little fur cap. "Forget I said anything."
Zoe seemed surprised that I hadn't kept going with the threats and yelling, but she didn't exactly seem to mind that I'd passed on her offer for another dispute this time.
But, I just had to wreck everything that I'd actually tried to make peaceful by adding, "Someone's gotta be the bigger one out of us. And if it's not going to be you, it's gotta be me."
"What makes you think—"
Zoe was about to 'ask my opinion', but Tommy cut her off as he exclaimed, pointing ahead of him, "Hey! There it is! A big tree!"
I couldn't help but wonder as I looked towards where Tommy was pointing if it was even going to be the right tree. The closest thing that I assumed it could be was a peach tree, with poisonous peaches. But they wouldn't be peaches on that peach tree, they'd actually be numbers disguised as peaches. So…if I was right, that would be one stupid tree to have gotten fruit mixed up with fake number-fruit.
But no, it was the meat apple tree. And Zoe decided to state the frickin' obvious right off the bat. "There're so many!"
"It's loaded with meat apples," Tommy exclaimed, grabbing my hand again as he and Zoe ran forward towards the tree, dragging me along with them even though I could've followed just fine without him having to pull me. "Yummy!"
As we neared the tree and Tommy finally let go of me, I looked up at the full branches of the tree and wondered aloud, "How do you expect to get them down now geniuses?"
I continued to stare at the lowest branch, wondering if gravity really did exist in this world (I kinda figured that it did, but it helped my thought process to think that maybe it didn't) as Weregarumon jumped off of my head to the grass-covered ground.
I cast my gaze down to were Weregarumon was as he jumped up, pushing his paws against the back of my legs and saying, a happy little cub-smile on his black face, "Just climb up there and throw a couple of them down Mama! You can do it! I'll even give you a push if you want."
"No," I answered awkwardly as I took a few step closer to the trunk of the tree, gripping its rough bark in my hands. I started to claw my way up, and was about halfway to the nearest branch before I realized something.
"You know," I called down to them as I finally reached the branch and pulled myself up on it. "How much easier do you think it would've been if one of us had just spirit-evolved and shot them out of the frickin' tree?!"
"That's a good idea Toshiku!" Zoe called up to me as she spirit-evolved into her creepy fairy of a warrior. I couldn't understand how that thing could've been anything near strong back when—or, actually any time at all.
"Uhh…that was my Plan B, actually. Plan A, I'm working on right now so, you don't have to—" But no, Zoe was going to do what she didn't have to do. I shouldn't anticipated that she wasn't going to listen to me anyway.
I didn't have the time to hear the precise attack she used, but it sent a lot of wind in my direction, knocking a hell of a lot of the meat apples out of the tree—and almost me too.
I dug my nails into the branch I was falling off of, just trying not to let the gravity that apparently did exist drag me to the ground.
"Zoe! Knock it—" I shouted, trying to pull myself up higher on the branch, my arms straining just to hold on to the thing. "Off!"
I grunted as the wind stopped and I fell along with a lot of the meat apples to the awaiting ground below. I think Zoe tried to catch me, but her plan didn't work, and only succeeded in bashing my head against a rock.
I clamped my eyes shut and groaned as excruciating pain shot through my skull as I tried to get back up. I'd never known that rocks—or Zoe—could do so much damage.
I heard them calling my name, and I opened my eyes slightly to see Neemon, Bokomon, Tommy, and Zoe hovering over me like alien space ships. If I wasn't at least a little bit conscious, I would've been shouting, 'you'll never take me alive! or dead!'.
Instead, I heard Bokomon ask, just by the tone of his voice I could tell that he was expecting either no answer, or one that was going to be incredibly off topic, "Toshiku, are you alright? Can you hear me?"
"How many months are there in thirty billion days and hours?" Neemon questioned, sounding completely serious about me answering as he held up both of his yellow paws.
I snarled as I heard Zoe piteously tell me, "I'm sorry Toshiku, I didn't mean for you to hit your head!" Then why the heck did you make me hit the stupid rock in the first place?! It wasn't there when I climbed the tree! "Are you okay?"
I put a hand to my forehead as I mumbled, my voice sounding strange even to my own ears, "My head…it feels like…ka-pow…"
"Bokomon," Tommy's voice sounded distant, but I knew he was kneeling right by me. I shuddered as I began to wonder how hard I'd really hit my head. "Is Toshiku going to be okay?"
"I don't know my dear boy," Bokomon told him, sounding none too sure of himself as he spoke. "I think she will, but right now, I think the best thing for her is to just get a bit of rest," That turned my brain off faster than lightning.
I knew that hearing the rest of what Bokomon had to say would've been a smarter idea, but clearly the rest of me didn't give a crap about what he was going to say. I'd been half asleep for less than thirty seconds when the fuses in my mind reacted like machine work, and dreams filled my sleeping soul.
I sighed, lowering my head from the sad blue sky to watch the sea of grasses churn before me. But they were there no more; Lucemon and his forces had burned everything from my village, to the forests surrounding it, everything.
I squeezed my eyes shut as I remembered the horror. The pure, malevolent terror. All that I'd heard…all that I'd seen…none of it was supposed to be happening. Lucemon was supposed to be keeping the peace. Why was he torturing everyone so?
"AncientRaiafemon! AncientRaiafemon! Please, come quickly!" I turned my head from the depressing sight of the scorched meadow ahead of me to the Digimon racing towards me. It was Baeomon, a snow-white leech-looking creature with tiny feather-covered wings. She seemed troubled—or, at least more troubled than what she should've been right now—as she called out to me, fear and hopelessness clear in her voice, "It's Baiirmon!"
Baiirmon. I hadn't known he'd been injured. And why had Beomon come to get me? Why not someone else? What was so relevant about me speaking with Baiirmon during the time when he should be getting healing rest?
I shook my head, my black fur-tipped ears that were placed precisely at the top of my head fluttering uncontrollably; now wasn't the time to be wondering. If I was the one Baiirmon wished to converse with before his spirit was taken back to the Tree of Beginning, then I couldn't hesitate for a moment.
I got quickly to my taloned feet before sprinting after Baeomon, who'd already started back to Baiirmon's shelter. In reality, many of our refuges had been demolished by Lucemon's services, so in truth, he was just lying underneath one of the trees that had survived on one of the cloth blankets that one of the women had made.
When I saw him, I stopped in my tracks. There were many serrated gashes in his chest, and one at least twice the size of my talon down the center of his face. I could tell that just from those wounds, my friend wasn't going to be around for the next village meeting to tell his story.
I ran the rest of the way to him and knelt by his side, the black armor on my legs clicking against the pebbles beneath me as I did.
"Baiirmon," I asked, taking up one of his paw-like hands in my own, being careful not to scratch him with my own claws. "Are you alright? Please, answer me!"
He grunted in obvious pain as he opened his weary, forest green eyes. Baiirmon focused his gaze upon me; he tried to smile, but he couldn't disguise the pain I knew he was in. "AncientRaiafemon, heh, I recall when you were a young Digimon. So many memories that I've grown so fond of—"
He broke off into a coughing fit, and I could tell just by his little speech about old times…that he knew just as well as I did that he wasn't going to be getting much more time around.
Baiirmon cleared his throat, but remained silent. I gritted my teeth in despair as he continued to be without sound. I knew he hadn't passed yet, he was still here. He was just thinking about something. Thinking about something he should or shouldn't tell me.
I cried out, the sadness of losing my friend to the unknown able to be heard in my choked voice, "Baiirmon! You wouldn't have sent Baeomon to retrieve me if you had not anything that you wanted me to be aware of! Please," Tears crawled down my cheeks, leaving red stains on my face as they fell to the dead ground below. The ground that had once been filled with life, and love; earth that had once been my beloved home. "Tell me what plagues your mind in this cheerless time."
"You are…correct—" He cried out. Reaching for a gash in his side and gripping it tight, he whispered through gritted teeth, the sound waves troubling my drooping ears, "You…you're strong…the Digital World and all of its inhabitants need you to be brave, and fight along side the Ten—"
I squeezed my eyes shut as I said, my dread sodden heart ripping like the moon itself tears through the darkness of the night, "I'm no warrior; I'm no fulfiller of a prophesy—"
"You are! You cannot deny it! You cannot—" He grunted, pain filling him again. Baiirmon, being aware that he had only moments left, moved on to his main point. "You must…protect those warriors…or die trying. Swear to me that you will," He looked at me, a pleading sorrow in his dying eyes.
He knew this was a lot to ask, and I didn't even know if I could. I was weak, no matter what Baiirmon said, or did, nothing could change that. I would never be like the Ten, no matter what I did; I couldn't achieve what they could. Where I would fail, they would succeed.
I gritted my teeth, a pulse of hope heating my chilled veins to the point where my blood began to boil. If I could never be like them, then there was no way for them to become like me. Where they were too weak to go on, I could carry them the rest of the way. When they needed aid, I could help them reach the goal they needed to achieve. If ever they might fail, I could take their place, and succeed.
"Your oath…" Baiirmon uttered, his delicate data already beginning to present itself around him—
Something hard walloped me over the head, waking me from my slumber, and from the rest of my dream. I groaned as I rubbed my head; I felt like I'd been put in the dryer, and then run over by a frickin' Trailmon. And from what I could assume, that wasn't fun.
I glanced at the ground, an uncooked meat apple sitting there on the ground next to me. I could only guess that it had been the thing to hit me in the head. I picked it up in my hand, rolling it over a few times for the heck of it.
I sat up away from the tree that Zoe and Tommy had probably placed me by as I asked, "Okay, who threw an apple at me this time?"
"I did," Takuya said, raising a hand. He was sitting next to Koji by a growing fire. I wondered if Takuya had been 'smart' and used one of Agunimon's attacks to start it. Probably not; I was talking about smart, and that was not really one of Takuya's strong points. "I wanted you to eat something. But, it just…flew…too hard."
I looked away from them again; my head still hurt from falling on it—and getting hit by an apple. Right now I just wanted to sleep. I wanted to know the rest of what happened to AncientRaiafemon. I needed to know what she meant to me.
"The fire's ready!" Bokomon called to everyone. When I looked, he and almost everyone else had bundles of apples on sticks in their hands. "Bring your apples!"
Zoe, JP, and Tommy laughed happily at the thought of eating the meat-fruit as they ran over to the fire. I kinda hoped that one of them would fall into the fire and burn out of my life.
Tears came into my eyes as my selfish thoughts brought back pain-bearing memories of the accident. If I could ever forget anything for the rest of my life, I would want it to be everything about the crash. Anything that I could still remember about my family before it.
It hadn't happened long ago, and they hadn't died instantly. But now, I wished they had. I hadn't been at the hospital when they died; I'd just been told by my fifth grade teacher that they were no longer at the hospital.
That would've been two years ago exactly in a few days. I never liked to think about it though. I don't know why, if I didn't like to remember it, I'd kept the article in the paper about the crash though. Maybe I'd wanted to have something to remember them by then. But not anymore.
I shook my head and stood up, wiping the pathetic tears from my eyes as I did. If I was to forget them and say good-bye to my memories, I'd have to stop thinking about them whenever my own stupid mind recalled them. I had no other option but to force myself to overlook them.
I turned and came over to the fire along with everyone else. Bokomon handed a stick to me, his black, beady little eyes digging deep into my shoulder as I turned away and shoved the stick through the apple's core. The pale green reminded me of my dream, and of Baiirmon's dying eyes.
I dug my nail into the thin bark of the twig my apple was now on the end of, frustration in every splinter I gave myself. I still didn't know who Baiirmon was. Or even AncientRaiafemon. But I wasn't about to ask and risk another fight.
AncientRaiafemon looked like Raveamon. But, she'd had some of Wereraiomon's features too. The ears had been like Wereraiomon, but she'd had the black wings of Raveamon. And the armor was closer to Raveamon that Wereraiomon too, but it had been thicker and, with the symbol for moon there, not on her torso. Her talons had been golden, and her teeth had had that canine look to them.
But what confused me the most was why she had cried blood-red tears. I knew that Digimon had no blood, and I could only assume that they had normal tears. Maybe it was just because she was somehow different.
Could it be possible that she really did have something to do with me having the spirit of Raveamon like I did? Had she been aware of the crash, and simply sent the spirit of Raveamon and combined her soul with mine to save me? But if that was so, then why had she chosen me out of the millions of people that die in accidents all around the world. And…why had she chosen me and not one of my family members instead.
My brother had always been the better person, and I didn't mind. He'd been humble about it, and had tried not to bother me too much. But that didn't mean that he never had been anything of a pest. Now, I just wished I could remember his name.
Even my parents had been superior compared to me, but that was how things were supposed to be. Like my brother, I'd gotten my mother's black hair, but nothing else about me was like them. Not even the color of my eyes. They'd been a cool, livid green during my childhood, but after the passing of my parents and brother every day they seemed to grow lighter.
I'd cry myself to sleep every night, knowing that this orphanage shouldn't be my home, and that it wasn't. When I'd wake up, every now and then I'd notice little green stains on the pillow case. I knew it had to impossible that my tears had drawn out the color of my eyes because of my weeping, that my misery was trying to change me.
But maybe it was because of Raveamon. She had those crimson stains streaming down her face, and they started at her eyes. And when AncientRaiafemon had cried, the same red marks had been on her face. It could just be something that bound us into one person. That would make it two things that were sort of same about us: one, when we cried, our tears left stains of our eye color, and the second was where I had to make a bit of an exception.
One day, Hiroshi and I had gotten into it about Rio again on the second floor of the building. My back had been to the window; Hiroshi's the rest of the hallway. I was trapped like a rat in a hat. Like a carrot in a maze.
Hiroshi pushed me, lightly at first just to see if I would back down. But I shoved him back, nearly knocking him off his feet and into his goons. I remembered him growling as he came at me a second time. I even remember hearing Rio cry for me to get away. Hiroshi's finale was supposed to be simple and foolproof: knock me onto the ground, and punch a bit of sense into me.
But it hadn't been foolproof. He hadn't known me long enough to make it idiot-proof. He shoved me, and I would've hit the ground if my pride hadn't enforced itself now into my legs, keeping me upright. I staggered back, staying upright the couple feet to the window. It was when I smashed through the glass that my pride really hurt; and it wasn't just my pride.
I felt the air rushing past me—a feeling that I now compared with flying—as I fell. I had no idea how close the ground was; I didn't want to know honestly. I knew I was done for, but the only thing I had really been thinking about was who was going to be protecting Rio now. I barely knew who he was, and he meant nothing to me, but it was just like I had to guard him. Like, it was some kind of…preparation, or training.
Everything else was hard to remember. It was like it really hadn't happened. Like my brain had made up some kind of alibi for the absence of all of my senses. But I knew that wasn't it. I knew something had happened. And it may have been one of the most important things that happened in my life.
I could remember hearing myself shout out shakily, "Sp-Spirit!"
Pain shot through my shoulder blades, making me cry out. At first I thought that I'd just hit the ground, but it was when the wind slowly started to flow gently past my face that I realized I was okay.
Slowly, I opened my eyes to see that I was slowly floating to the ground like an airplane landing on the runway. When my feet finally touched the ground, a strange, feminine voice ran through my mind, "There, now don't go by anymore windows. You have no idea how hard that is when you don't know what you're doing. I guess I'll have to get used to it."
I smiled as I looked into the center of the fire Takuya and Koji had made. I guess Raveamon had gotten used to me. I hadn't fallen out of any windows in a while, and now I knew what I was doing.
I looked up, my smile fading to a thin line across my face as I heard Neemon repeating Bokomon's name over and over again before his lemon-colored paw was slapped by the white radish. Neemon asked, ignoring the fact that he'd been whacked, "Is this a good idea?"
"What's the matter with you?!" Bokomon cried, even though he probably knew. He'd probably been the one to talk to brain out of Neemon in the first place. He turned towards the rest of us, raising one white appendage in the air. "We have to help you find your beast spirits as soon as possible! After all, it may be the only way to save the Digital World! We haven't even reached the Forest Terminal, and we're running out of time! These beast spirits must be out number one priority!"
"Nope," Neemon stated, that strange smile that never seemed to leave his face just as clear as ever. I had to figure that he wasn't talking about the beast spirits. "Not good."
Bokomon seemed pissed at Neemon's attitude. The one he really didn't have. "What is 'not good'?!"
"The meat apples," Neemon told him, raising a finger in the air. But surprisingly it didn't look like he was flipping anyone off like Bokomon always did. "While you're talking, they're burning up."
I looked at the fire to see that Neemon—for once—was actually right. Everyone dove for their nearly flaming apple as Neemon just kinda sat there, still pointed upwards like he'd gotten stuck like that. He was probably in shock of his own smart stupidity.
I heard a few of them yelling that they were hot, and Takuya seemed to be the one that seemed to be shouting the loudest—besides Bokomon, who was the one who always had to get the last word.
After all the screaming, it was 'story time'. JP decided on his own that he was going to start, "Mine tastes like a meat bun!"
"This one tastes almost like a chicken drum stick!" Tommy exclaimed after taking a bite of his. He seemed quite proud of it too.
So did Takuya. But he seemed more focused on eating than his pride. "I think I'm eating prime rib."
"Yeah," Koji said after taking a bite of his. Even when he had his mouth full of food he looked smarter than everyone around him. "Gingered pork."
I heard Zoe take a loud bite of hers before falling back and exclaiming in a stupid happiness, "Mine's osobuko!"
I looked around at everyone, noticing that they were waiting for me to give a description of my own apple. I shrugged before taking a bite out of it. The savory meat set my taste buds on a free trip to the frickin' carnival. The only problem was that I didn't know what the heck it was.
I shrugged before stating, taking another bite of my mystery apple, "I don't know what it is, but it hasn't killed me yet, so it's good."
"Why do you think everything is trying to kill you?" Zoe asked, taking her main focus off of the food in front of her for a moment. "Every time you see something, you always think it's going to try and hurt somebody. Why?"
I mentally rolled my eyes and ignored her. Or, at least that's what I thought I was doing. "I'm just trying to—" I stopped, suddenly getting an idea that had nothing to do with the present conversation.
I jumped to my feet, dropping my apple on a stick as I did. I pointed at Koji—who was sitting right next to me—and exclaimed, my leg being burned by the fire as I did, making me jump up and down on one foot. Which probably made me look like more of an idiot than I already knew I was, "KojKoj! KojKoj! KojKoj! KojKoj!"
I slipped on the apple I'd dropped and fell to the ground. I probably would've kept going until either someone threw something hard at me, or if that apple hadn't decided that I should shut the heck up.
I sat there on the ground, smiling like a frickin' moron as I blushed at a very embarrassed Koji. His face was now a very bright pink, the color only illuminated by the glow created by the fire. I loved to see him when he was embarrassed; he was too cute when he was.
Koji's cheeks only turned redder as everyone else exploded with laughter at my outburst, and his cherry red face. Zoe tried to make a comment, but she was laughing too hard and gave up.
I tried to give Koji a sheepish smile of apology; I really hadn't meant to blurt that out. But he simply glared back at me; his blushing face wasn't very convincing though. I continued to smile back at him until he turned away from me, still embarrassed.
When everyone else had stopped laughing, I finally noticed how dark it had gotten in only a few moments. I looked to the usually livid sky to watch a dark cloud move over the moons, blocking all the brightness of the sky from our sight. Now, the only light we had was the fire.
And Koji. Koji was very sparkly too.
"Hey," JP called up to the clouds as if they could hear him, but didn't give a kuso. "You're blocking the view!"
I turned back to the forest around us as Tommy stood up and looked around, scare in his eyes—like almost always. "Something's happening…"
I watched in awe as many of the trees' bark began to create screen-like shapes on themselves. I stood up and walked over to one of them to get a closer look as pictures began to appear on all of them.
"A TV…" Tommy mumbled, everyone just as mystified as I was. They looked around at all of them as I stopped in front of one single tree.
All of the trees around it seemed to have backed off, like it had some kind of contagious disease. I put my hands up on it as the screen appeared on its trunk too. The shine from the television flickered as I pressed my palms up against it.
When pictures finally started to appear on it, I didn't want to be curious anymore; I felt like the dead cat. But I was curious. I did want to know exactly what I was going to be looking at in a few moments.
The background was darkly colored, and had a slight, evil purple look to it. Right in the center, making tears spring into my eyes at the sight, was none other than AncientRaiafemon herself. A sword going right through her, surpassing her armor like it hadn't even been there.
She wasn't screaming, but I could see the pain her red stained face; after what seemed like all that time, those tear paths were still just as bright as the day she'd cried the tears. The hurt etched all over her face was just like Baiirmon's had been, except she had no one there that I could see to hide it from.
Already she was stronger than me. She'd been able to deal with the fact of losing someone close. She'd been able to keep going. AncientRaiafemon had moved on, and done what Baiirmon had asked her to do.
"How…how can you do that?" I mumbled to the screen, squeezing my eyes shut from the image before me. She wasn't dead yet; there was no data surrounding her, and she was still struggling against the wound. "How can you be so strong?"
Even though I desperately wanted to look away, I forced myself to gaze up at the screen again. Tears poured down my face as she noticed something in the distance. Something deep inside me knew where this was going. But I wanted to stay in the dark; I didn't want to venture into a known world. I'd really rathered staying in the danger zone.
The television screen seemed to shift as a jagged hole opened up in the background; that had been what AncientRaiafemon had felt changing around her.
I watched as the screen near her began to show pictures and colors. I let my forehead clunk against the tree as the image of a car, and four motionless people inside it came into the view. It was the day of the crash. She'd been aware when it happened. She'd felt it.
"Huh?" I looked through my tears at AncientRaiafemon as she struggled to speak. "A Digi-destined? But…she can't die yet," I watched in remorse, a knowing wave of guilt washing over me as she dug her now chipped, golden talons into the gash the sword had formed in her.
She grimaced, but didn't pull her hand back until she had multiple rings of her own data wrapped around her palm. "This…" She fought for another breath. "Should save her…human spirit of Moon…Raveamon…"
"No…" I murmured, my throat tight with my own emotion. "Don't. Don't sacrifice yourself for someone who's gonna screw up!" I could hear myself getting louder. And I knew that everyone else was starting to take notice of my tears, the shine from the screen making them stick out like laser beams from my face.
"And…" She dug both sets of talons into her armor. She let out a cry as her data shone out from her, and her figure disappeared in a flash of white and pale grey light. But I could still here her whispering, "…Beast spirit of Moon…Wereraiomon."
All of her tender blue data faded into two small little spheres of bright life, that insignificant-seeming data forming two power-filled figurines. One Wereraiomon, the beast spirit I didn't seem to be strong enough to control. And the other Raveamon, the human spirit that was more apart of me than any of my fingers.
"Don't do it! I'm not strong enough…" I cried, trying to stay quiet, but knowing that everyone had heard me. I didn't want them to see me in this state. I was weak now, and I didn't want them to be watching me fall apart. I hoped that they were paying attention to the other screens and not me.
"Toshiku…Yumari…"
I looked up in astonishment as AncientRaiafemon's voice whispered my name. The screen was already beginning to darken, but there was still a slight essence of her there in its center.
"I know…you will not fail…You will learn in time…that you are strong enough to do what you are destined to…" And with that, the cloud passed over the moons, letting their light shine back down on the forest.
I beat my fists against the tree; I still didn't understand. There was something I had to do, but I didn't see how I could go and do it if I didn't even know what it was. Why did everything have to be so confusing? And why did everything that was confusing come to me to straighten it out again?
"Toshiku," I glanced up, tears still trickling down my face. Zoe'd called out my name; I could hear multiple pairs of feet coming towards me as she continued. "Are you okay? What did you see in the tree?"
I quickly wiped the tears from my face as I answered hastily; trying to disguise my guilt-filled, sad voice with anger, "It doesn't matter what I saw or if I even saw anything to begin with! Why don't you just stop trying to make me your friend?! Isn't it clear that—"
I growled before pushing off from the tree and started trudging into the woods ahead of me. I didn't care where I was going. I needed a bit of time to go and think about what I'd seen and dreamt.
"Toshiku! Where do you think you're going?!" Zoe shouted after me, obviously getting even more pissed off when I didn't turn around and come back right away.
"I'm just going for a walk—"
"Oh no you're not! Not alone!" She shouted, cutting me off, and instantly feeling the need to protect the 'balance of her being in charge'. She turned to Koji and Takuya. "One of you go with her and keep her out of trouble."
I turned back as Takuya jumped to his feet and started walking over happily to come with me. I could see that he was more than happy to go with. But I didn't need someone with me. I didn't want Takuya with me, and I had no intentions of letting him come with.
But then I let my gaze connect with Koji's. I could see he was ready to get up from the ground and come if I wanted him to. I saw in his eyes that he knew something was bothering me. Though I could tell he was only coming with if I wanted him to.
I wanted to smile and tell him nothing was wrong, and I was okay. But I didn't know how to comfort him without giving the others a foothold into the fact that I did like Koji. If anyone was ever going to know, it sure as heck wouldn't be the people in this excuse for a group.
"I don't need someone to come with," I argued with Zoe, though my voice didn't have that kind of a tone to it. It was too calm for me to have been fighting with her. Honestly, I sounded like I was reasoning with her. "I just want to be alone for a little while. Just, sort out some old business."
"But what if we need you back here?" She called after me as I started back into the trees. I was sure that she knew that one way or another I was leaving, but she wanted to see if she could convince me anyway.
"I'll be back," I called to them, not taking the time to stop or turn my head around. "And I'll show up if you need me."
With that I continued into the darkness. But it was a clear night, and the light from the stars and moons lit my path better than a lamp or flashlight. I walked along a single trail where the trees parted; grass wasn't growing in multiple places on it. It must have been traveled a few couple times before.
I had to have been walking with a silent mind for at least ten minutes when something slammed into me, knocking me back a few feet and onto the ground. I knew what had been coming up on the trail, so I knew for a fact that I hadn't run into anything.
I jumped up from the ground and pulled out my D-Tector to spirit-evolve as three precise figures appeared from the shadowed trees before me, one of which was lighting up the area so much that I wondered how I could've possibly missed it. It was Sentimon, the possessor of the element of Sun.
I growled, the want for her downfall pressing my courage on beyond its normal limits. I placed my D-Tector back in my pocket before spirit-evolving to Raveamon.
"Do you really think, foolish child," A deep, masculine voice called out to me, stepping forward into Sentimon's glow. I could see the mark of Death on his armored shoulder, the color of it a dim ruby. A yellowish gem was placed on his shoulders, his mark also there. "That if you couldn't lay a talon on Sentimon herself without your beast spirit, you'll do better against three, all of our levels much higher than your own?"
I gulped, realizing that he was right, whoever he was. "I'll take my chances…uh…"
"Obstimon," He informed me with a flick of his dark colored glove; it was hard to get a close look at any of them in this kind of lighting. "Another of the three causes of death; the mind and all its splendorous wisdom."
"Does she really need to know?" The last of them asked, his voice snapping through the air like a bullet shot out of a gun. He stepped forward; in Sentimon's smolder his armor could've been blackish, or maybe had a black-blue tint to it, but right now that really didn't matter to me. His symbol was that of Power, and it was placed on his torso. The alikeness to Raveamon slightly frightened me, but I couldn't let them see they had me where they wanted me. "She's right where we want her to be," Aw crap. "I don't see why we aren't just going to attack her now!"
"Vigomon!" Sentimon shouted to him. I had to assume that he wasn't exactly following the plan. If they had in fact made one to start out with. "You know how Lord Cherubimon wants this to be done."
She stopped and they all faced me. I wondered why they weren't trying to fight me. Were they just trying to set a sense of fear for them in me? If they were, I didn't want them to know it was kinda working.
Standing here all alone against them, three powerful beings that could easily crush me, made me long for Koji's reassuring presence. At least then I would have something here with me to fight for. At least then I could tell him how much I—
I clenched my fists, a new sense of power surging through me, even though I knew I couldn't fight them then. I had to get back to the others, make sure that they were okay. Just in case Sentimon, Vigomon, and Obstimon decided that it was time they paid my friends a visit. They weren't about to get close to them. No matter what, I wouldn't let them.
But even though there was nothing that I wanted more in the world than to just fight them and rid my life of three of the biggest pains it'd ever had, I couldn't. Even though it was a bit of a dig to myself, I really wasn't strong enough to fight them by myself. I needed to know more about them and figure out why they wanted me.
Out of all the people in the world—two worlds—why they had chosen me was the key thing I needed to know before I could even dream of fighting them without any kind of help. And why AncientRaiafemon had chosen me too.
I started to step back; I didn't want to just up and run away, I didn't want to appear scared. Even though I was afraid, they didn't have to know that. But I could see that they did know they had me frightened as they started to stride towards me, all of their footsteps in perfect synchronization.
I didn't know if they were going to try and fight me, or if they were going to attempt to just capture me and take me to Cherubimon. But I wasn't going to stick around and find out.
I took a false step forward, turning on a dime and sprinting back up the path before my foot even touched the ground before it. Air rushed past my helmet-covered ears as I ran; I could hear their footsteps growing faster and closer behind me.
I had to get back to the others before them. Who knows what might happen if they make it back to the camp. I didn't think that I could protect everyone from them if I couldn't even protect myself from one of them.
I stopped abruptly and looked around me. I couldn't go straight back, I'd lead them right there. I stared out in front of me; I could see the small glow of the fire from here. Turning around I could see the sunlight-seeming smolder of Sentimon as they gained on me.
I ran off the path for a few yards—making sure that they saw me turn off the path—and lurched up into the tree branches above me as soon as I was certain (or at least sort of) that they couldn't see me. I watched in silence as they ran beneath the tree I was hiding in, halting right underneath my branch.
"I told you we should've evolved to our beast spirits before chasing her," Obstimon commented as he glanced around, searching and listening for any sign of me. I prayed to Kamisama that none of them looked up. "If we had, there wouldn't have been any chance of her escaping."
Sentimon stepped away from the tree and began to leave as she told him, "It doesn't matter if she got away this time. We'll have many other run-ins with her."
"And besides," Vigomon added, both he and Obstimon beginning to turn and follow Sentimon as they faded into the distortions again, "I can sense her fear, and her confusion. She doesn't understand us, and we can use that to our advantage."
The others agreed as they finally faded from my sight, becoming like figments of an imagination as they moved deeper and farther away into the forest. I waited until they were completely gone from my sight to let out a thankful sigh.
I tumbled from the tree, returning from Raveamon's from back to my own as I hit the ground. Letting out an annoyed, but now slightly calmed sigh, I got up from the ground and back onto my weary feet. I doubted that they would come back to look for me again; we would probably be out of the forest by the time that they did.
When I got back to the camp, everyone was sleeping soundly. A small, strange hippo-like Digimon was floating above everyone but Koji, Neemon, and Bokomon, blowing a pink powder over them. But it seemed to be happy, and the others did too, so I assumed that it wasn't an enemy.
I walked over and sat down next to Koji, leaning up against the tree beside him. I could feel the warmth from Koji and the fire from where I was positioned. And after a meeting with the Three, this was a nice little peace of heaven to come back to.
"Sweet dreams children." The hippo-good-dream Digimon said quietly, continuing to puff the glittery dust over the others.
I smiled before closing my eyes. "I hope so…"