Episode 10: Where's Wallace?
The thought that he might die didn't once cross Yagami Taichi's mind as the waves thrust him out to sea. Later, he convinced himself that this was because he had nerves of steel, an unfailing ability to remain calm in the face of crisis. But deep down, he suspected that it had more to do with a lack of forward thinking due to his being tossed around like a hot potato.
He fought to swim back to the others, but for all his efforts, he might have been trying to walk a Monochromon through the park. The waves walloped over his head without mercy. He quickly lost track of which direction as up or down, left or right. He had little choice but to give himself up to the current, struggling to remain afloat as it ripped him away from the raft.
He washed up on shore just as the first light of dawn stained the horizon a bloody orange. Taichi scrambled up onto the sand, clawing at the ground in fervent relief, and collapsed. He didn't bother to move out of reach of the waves, or roll onto his back. His stomach churned and he thought that it was a good thing that this stomach was empty, otherwise he might have thrown up and whoever found him would discover him, ironically, having drowned in his own vomit.
He didn't know how long he lay there for, or for how much of that time he was conscious. But the next time he opened his eyes, he sensed that he was not alone. There was someone sitting next to him. Talking to him. Taichi realized that the words he was hearing was not part of some disjointed dream, but reality. He opened his eyelids a crack and peered blearily into the face of the person speaking to him. He concluded that the person looked a lot like Ken.
"Taichi-senpai, can you hear me?" Ken asked, eyes narrowed with concern.
"You're bleeding," Taichi observed.
"I'm fine," Ken said, wiping the thin cut above his left eyebrow.
Well, Taichi was glad that one of them was because he sure didn't feel like it. He pulled himself into a sitting position, his muscles aching in protest. His body had taken a beating in the storm. His abdominal muscles felt tender as he moved; his arms and legs were stiff and heavy. Taichi lifted an arm over his head and stretched it. He must have overworked it trying to get back to the other. The others, who had been carried away in the storm. Who weren't there now.
His face went blank.
"Tai—"
Taichi lunged to his feet. His hair whipped from side to side as he looked around, searching the empty shore for a sign of life other than his own, or Ken's. Fear for the others rippled through his body. How could this have happened? He never should have let the team get onto that boat. He stared out at the open water, which was perfectly calm now, desperate to see a sail floating in the distance. Or even a black speck along the horizon. But the ocean was clear.
"There's no one else?" he managed to croak.
Ken shook his head.
"Where are we?" Taichi asked.
But Ken didn't know. Of course he didn't.
"I think it's another island," Ken said apologetically. He pointed away from them. "I landed over there, but it doesn't look like the shore extends very far in either direction."
Taichi scanned the beach. Ken was right, he thought. Either the land folded in from there, or it wasn't a very large mass they had stumbled upon. He turned around and considered the thick jungle of trees before them. He could tell from the way that the leafy green canopy rose up in the near-distance that higher ground wasn't far off. If they could get there and look out, it would give them a better picture of where they were. And how to get back to the others.
Taichi tried not to think about what had happened to them. He couldn't. That was a reality he would face only when he was forced to. He refused to consider the worst.
But should they leave the beach? he wondered, casting an appraising eye over the untouched sienna sand. What if someone came looking for them? But then again...
Hell, what other choice did they have?
He explained his line of thinking to Ken, who took his words in grim silence. Taichi wasn't used to his plans going uncontested. He almost wished that Daisuke were there, to try and run the show with his own suggestions; or Koushirou, who would poke a hole in every flawed idea; Yamato, who would sock him in the jaw if he thought that Taichi was being stupid; or even Hikari, who could make him second guess himself with just a look of well-practiced innocent appeal. It wasn't for no reason that he never got to pick what TV show they watched over supper.
But he didn't have any of the team mates he was accustomed to working with. He had Ken, who he suddenly realized he didn't know very well at all. What Sora had said back at Infinity Mountain came back to him, about the team having grown apart and needing a lot of work. He wondered for the first time if the team had always needed it. Maybe that was the reason they had fallen apart so easily. Maybe they had been growing part, even before the gate closed.
Ken was unnervingly quiet as Taichi led the way into the jungle and he found himself thinking of ways to try and break the silence. But his reserve of small talk was pathetically low and depressing besides. What did they have in common anyway? Daisuke, soccer, Daisuke...
"So...you fell off, huh?"
"Pardon me?" Ken asked, sounding bewildered but ever polite.
"The raft," Taichi clarified, thwacking through the thick jungle foliage ahead of them. "You must have gone overboard. Ouch!" A branch swung back to hit him in the face.
"Oh...yes." Ken picked his way delicately through the maze of tree trunks. "Are you okay?" he asked as Taichi rubbed his eye, bridling with barely restrained curse words.
"Fine," Taichi grunted, swinging at the wayward branch with his fist for good measure. "Doesn't anyone keep up with the landscaping around here?" he complained.
As his words echoed away into the shadows, the bushes around them erupted with movement. Taichi could hear something pattering along the tree branches above them; the vines draped around them started to sway. Taichi squinted up into the thick leaves of the canopy. It was dark beneath the trees, so much so that you could hardly even tell that it was day.
Dozens of red eyes stared back at him.
Taichi backed up a step, bumping into Ken. From somewhere above them, a small creature leapt down. It landed on the branch that had smacked Taichi just moments before.
"Halt! Stop! Cease your movement!" It trilled. "Who goes there?"
"Who! Who! Who!" The others chanted from the tree tops.
Taichi stared at the creature, a Digimon he assumed, in incredulity. It was small, no bigger than Koromon (even when he wasn't at his chubbiest). It looked like some sort of mutant monkey he had seen before on a discovery program he'd been forced to watch in school—a bush baby, he realized. It had a small, squirrely body with bronze fur and two tails. Its face was marked with what looked like kumadori makeup*—as Taichi looked up, he saw that some had red markings while others had blue—and its tiny bulbous hands appeared to be made of metal. The one standing before them was wearing what appeared to be an ornate kabuto* on its head.
"Who are you?" Taichi shot back out of instinct.
The Digimon in the trees let out cries out outrage. The one before them—the leader, Taichi presumed—whipped out a spear, seemingly from midair. Taichi leapt back in surprise.
"We asked you the question!"
Taichi glanced at Ken to see what he made of their situation, but his face was impassive.
"Okay, okay! Just take it easy. Well, um, I'm Yagami Taichi and this is Ichijouji-kun. But you can just call us Taichi and Ken. We're, um, Digidestined. You know, the Chosen Children?"
"Digi-what?" The monkey-thing demanded. Beneath the shadow of its helmet, its eyes grew suspicious. It lowered the tip of its spear, bringing it closer to Taichi's belly.
"Woah! Relax, okay? We don't want any trouble!"
"Trouble! Trouble! Trouble!" the Digimon echoed from above.
"If you were a troublemaker, that's exactly what you'd say," the Digimon said.
"But we're not," Taichi insisted.
"We told you who we are, now it's your turn to tell us," Ken reminded him.
The Digimon scowled, but it seemed compelled to answer. "We are Bushumon. We inhabit this island, and we don't take trespassers lightly," he added, seemingly as an afterthought.
"Well, we didn't have much choice," Taichi said. "The storm brought us here."
The Bushumon up in the trees chattered at this. A few shrieked wildly. Taichi tilted his head back to get a better look at them. "Hey, what's going on up there? What's the problem?"
The leader thrust his spear towards them. "They say that evil brings evil."
"Evil what—" Taichi yelped as the tip of the spear pricked his chest. "Okay, that's enough!" He swiped at the spear, knocking it out of the Bushumon's metal hands.
"What do you mean by evil?" Ken asked urgently, but the Bushumon were no longer listening. Their leader let out a furious shriek and leapt back up into the trees. Taichi could hear the Digimon swarming over their heads. For a moment, he thought they were going to attack. But it appeared that they were fleeing. Leaves rained down onto his head. Then all was silent.
"What the hell was that all about?" Taichi wondered out loud.
Ken glanced over at him. Worry was painted across his face. "I don't know."
"Not much for hospitality, are they?" Taichi grumbled, trying to mask his concern. He didn't like the vibe he had gotten from those Digimon at all, nor from their sudden disappearance. At least they'd confirmed one thing. They had landed on another island. And he would bet, judging by their reactions, that they were the first humans the Bushumon had seen.
"They were afraid," Ken commented.
"I was getting more of an angry vibe..."
"You could see it in their eyes. And what they said, about evil bringing evil."
Taichi couldn't think of anything to say to this. Now more than ever, he was worried about the others. What would they find when they reached Server? They had to get back to them.
"Should we keep going?" Ken asked, looking uncertain.
Taichi didn't know what else they could do. He nodded. "Come on."
They continued to climb. The land was rising now and it wasn't easy going. This jungle was thicker than anything he'd ever encountered in the Digital World before, let alone his own world. He wondered how anything could live here. There were no paths leading through the vegetation; they had to force their way through, scraping up their limbs and snaring their clothes. And he hadn't seen anything that looked remotely edible either, unless the Digimon all ate moss.
"Maybe we should turn back," Ken suggested when they were both out of breath.
Taichi leaned up against a tree. Well, he wasn't so much leaning as he was pinned against it. "We can't be much further," he argued, searching for the sky above but finding only darkness.
"We don't even know if we're going in the right direction," Ken pointed out. Though his voice was even and unruffled, Taichi supposed that this was the Ken version of irritation.
"Just a bit further," Taichi insisted.
Ken followed Taichi as they fought their way even deeper into the jungle.
"Do you hear that?" Taichi asked after a few more minutes had passed. He stopped in the middle of a bush that he had been attempting to circumvent. The branches clawed at his legs.
"Hear what?" Ken grunted, disentangling himself from a vine.
Something heavy was moving nearby, something that clunked as it moved. It was a difficult sound to describe, Taichi thought, listening hard. Something wet struck him on the head.
"What the—?" Taichi looked up?
Perched upon the branch above him was a Bushumon with indigo stripes streaking across its ugly bush baby face. It leered an evil monkey smile and hocked back another wad of spit.
"Argh!" Taichi attempted to dive out of the way as the ball of saliva hurled towards him. Behind him, he heard Ken make a similar noise of disgust. Suddenly, there were dozens of Bushumon above them. There was a collective gurgling sound as they prepared to attack.
"Shit." Taichi fought his way out of the bush. "Come on!" he called to Ken, trying to shield his head with his arms as sticky globs of monkey slime pelted down around them.
The two of them manoeuvred through the jungle with difficulty. The Bushumon leapt easily from branch to branch above their heads, firing their spit balls unceasingly.
It didn't take long for Taichi to realize that they were being herded.
But before he could attempt deviate from the Digimons' intended path, they spilled out into a meadow. At the far edge, the land gave way, leading to unknown depths. Taichi didn't have long to study it. He tripped as he came to the edge of the trees and fell sprawling to the ground. Ken stumbled over top of him. Screeching, the Bushumon leapt over top of their prostrate bodies and bounded to the centre of the field. Taichi peered up from a face full of grass.
Sitting in the meadow was a large figure.
It was another money. At least, that was what it looked like to Taichi. It was much larger than the Bushumon; Taichi would put it close to the size of a minivan. It was clad in old-fashioned samurai gear, which accounted for the clunking he had heard earlier. A long, lethal looking sword hung at its side and it had six tails instead of two. Beneath its helmet, it had two, round, red eyes. Only there was something unusual about them. They looked mechanical.
As the Bushumon swarmed around it, Taichi heard them calling its name.
"Sarumon! Sarumon!"
"Isn't that the evil dude from the Lord of the Rings*?" Taichi asked weakly as it stalked towards them. He and Ken staggered to their feet, too winded to run.
"What do we have here?" Sarumon wondered as he approached. It stopped a mere, few feet away from them, considering them with its eerie robotic eyes.
"Evil! Evil! Evil!" the Bushumon chanted.
The leader, the one with the kabuto who Taichi had knocked the spear away from, leapt up onto Sarumon's shoulder. It thrust a glistening finger at them. These are the trespassers!"
"We're not trespassers," Taichi said. "Well, I mean, we are. But not on purpose!"
Ken tried to appeal. "Please, we fell off of our boat and—"
"Silence!" Sarumon boomed. "I did not ask for you to explain yourselves."
"What shall we do with them, Sarumon?" the lead Bushumon asked, coiling itself around Sarumon's shoulders like an overly affectionate ferret. "Shall we throw them from the cliff?"
"Throw! Throw! Throw!" the Bushumon cried.
Taichi stifled a groan.
"Perhaps," Sarumon said. His mechanical eyes flicked back and forth between Taichi and Ken. He seemed curious, and disdainful. But was there something else that Taichi sensed about him? Something in the way that he held his posture so rigidly? Could Ken be right?
Were these Digimon afraid of them?
"I don't think you want to do that," Taichi said, taking a leap of faith. He took a clumsy step forward but then regretted immediately as the Bushumon jumped to attention, screeching.
"Mind your tongue!" the lead Bushumon spat, but Sarumon quieted him.
"What do you mean?" Sarumon asked. "I do not take kindly to threats, evil one."
Taichi could sense Ken's uncertain gaze on the back of his head. He took a deep breath. "Neither do we. Er, you wouldn't want our master to find out about this now, would you?"
The Bushumon bristled. Sarumon's sword glinted in the sunlight as he shifted his weight.
"Your master?" he asked, low and mocking. But Taichi thought that he could detect a slight note of fear there. "And who might that be, evil one?"
Taichi's mouth opened, but his mind ran blank.
"We don't speak his name," Ken offered, stepping forward.
The Bushumon burst out laughing. Even Sarumon let out a deep guffaw. Taichi could feel the sweat beginning to bead along his hairline. He wondered if they should run...
"We're not from this world," Ken continued.
This caught the Digimons' attention. Their eyes darted back to Ken. Sarumon's left eye twitched so that it was slightly out of synch with his right. The effect was unsettling.
"How do you suppose we really got here?" Ken asked. His voice was low, but clear. He advanced another step forwards and the Digimon shrunk back. "A portal. Our master creates them. You've heard of him, haven't you?" Ken let this sink in. "We've come for you..." The Bushumon started to scream. Dozens of sharp-tipped spears appeared. "...unless you help us."
"SILENCE!" Sarumon roared.
The Bushumon fell silent. Their round eyes were almost comical as they grew wider, terrified gazes trained on their master. Sarumon glared at Ken. "Help you?" It asked, derisive.
Ken nodded, unflinching. "Unless you prefer we brought the Demons here."
The Bushumon started to shriek again but Sarumon silenced them with a wave of his hand. He let out a low snarl. "What would have us do?" he asked after a short pause.
Taichi felt his hope rising.
"What we're after isn't on your island, but a continent near to here," Ken said.
"Server," Taichi threw in for good measure.
"If you can arrange to get us there, then we'll leave you in peace," Ken concluded.
The Digimon were silent. Sarumon shook his head. "That's impossible. We have no way of leaving this island. Why do you think we've been here for all these years?"
"There must be some way—" Taichi insisted.
"That's a shame then, isn't it?" Ken interrupted softly.
The effect of Ken's words was striking. Taichi saw the Digimon visibly recoil. He himself felt unnerved by Ken's tone, the heartlessness of it. He knew that it was an act. He knew that Ken had changed, recovered. But the memory of his past was unexpectedly sharp.
"There might...there might be a way," the helmeted Bushumon spoke, all submissiveness now. He exchanged a significant look with the others. "He might be able to help."
"Who?" Taichi asked eagerly. "Who might be able to help?"
Sarumon's eyes swivelled back to Taichi. He sounded uncertain. "There is a Digimon who could help you...but he has been sick. The darkness..." He trailed off, and suddenly a devious smile glinted beneath his helmet. "But then, that's your problem, isn't it?"
"Who is this Digimon?" Ken asked.
Taichi's nerves squirmed.
"Whamon! Whamon! Whamon!" the Bushumon chanted.
Whamon! Taichi thought with a burst of excitement. He was the entire reason they had made it to Server the first time. But then Sarumon's words sunk in. Sick...darkness...
Corruption.
Ken was staring at Taichi, waiting for his response.
Taichi sucked in a breath. He forced himself to nod. "Find him. Bring him to us."
Sarumon nodded, eyes gleaming. It was as if he knew he had them trapped. "As you wish." He turned to the Bushumon and instructed them to go. They scurried off into the jungle.
"Come," Sarumon said. "We will wait for them by the water."
"What are we doing?" Ken whispered as Sarumon beckoned them over to the edge of the cliff. Looking down, Taichi saw that it led to an inlet from the ocean. There was a path leading down along the edge of the gorge. It was thin, but it looked stable. Sarumon started to descend.
"Making it up as we go," Taichi hissed back.
He had a bad feeling about this, but it was too late to turn back now.
Iori stared at the damp earth beneath his feet. A piece of driftwood hung loosely in his hands. He and Hikari had just finished carving a message into the sand where they had both washed up overnight: We were here. Not hurt. Gone looking for help. Hikari and Iori. Somehow, it reminded him of something tourists did at the beach to commemorate their vacations. His family had done a similar thing when they had visited Okinawa* so many years ago. He still had the picture, sitting at home on his dresser. He was just a toddler in it. His father was holding him; they were all smiling, the words traced into the sand at their feet—Hida family, 1996.
Hikari was waiting for him at the edge of the forest. Iori turned and walked over to her. She met his eyes, a ghost of a smile flickering across her face. But it was a weak display of encouragement. Her fear shone plainly in her eyes—the same fear that resonated within him.
They wandered into the trees in silence. Neither of them knew where they were going. They had decided earlier to canvas the area, to see what they could learn or who they could find. They didn't plan to go far. They would return to the beach by nightfall. Iori was careful to mark the dirt at the bases of the trees they passed with clear x symbols, markers for the journey back.
They had only one bag with them. Iori had managed to salvage it, quite accidentally, by using it as a flotation device when the raft had broken apart. It was filled with now-drenched first aid supplies. Hikari had already insisted that they open it to replace the bandage on Iori's shoulder. He had resisted at first—who knew what else they might need those supplies for? But Hikari was persistent and Iori couldn't deny the importance of preventing an infection. They couldn't go back to their world for help this time. It was an unsettling, and terrifying, prospect.
But Iori wouldn't think about that. Not when they still had hope. However small it may be. He was quiet as they trudged through the trees. The forest was cold and dark. Grey light filtered down through the needled branches above. Iori found himself studying the trees as they passed, trying to determine whether he had been here before. Nothing about this place looked familiar to him, but he didn't know if this was because it actually wasn't or because the darkness had somehow altered his perceptions. Everything looked different in the bleak light.
Washed out.
"Did you hear that?" Hikari asked, stopping before him. Her heart-shaped face was pale in the dim light. Iori stopped too and listened. Inside his chest, his heart was beating fast.
"No...Hikari-san, what is it?"
But Hikari shook her head, her eyes troubled. "I must have been hearing things."
She started forward again. Iori hesitated a moment before following after her. He wondered if he ought to say something, to assure her that things would be all right. But the words caught in his throat. He couldn't help thinking that they didn't know if things would turn out okay. What if they never found the others or their Digimon? What if their Digimon had been corrupted? What would it be like to lose their partners again? Iori wondered. Would it be like the first time, after the gate had closed? Sudden and devastating? But at least they had had hope that the gates might someday reopen, for a while at least. He had a feeling that the loss would be different this time. Something closer to the memories of his father's death. Permanent. Indelible.
Iori shook his head in a vain attempt to clear it. His grandfather would be ashamed if he knew what he was thinking. Hida Chikara had explained to Iori the importance of remembering the past, but accepting it—coming to terms with the fact that it could not be changed. It was why he had been so hard on Iori over the past few years, trying to shake him out of the melancholy the Digiworld had left him with. Iori's grandfather had always been practical man. It was his opinion that the sooner Iori accepted his father's death, the sooner he could begin to honour his memory. The sooner Iori accepted that the Digital wasn't real, the sooner he would heal.
Only the Digital World was real.
And Iori was here now, when just a few days ago he had thought that he wouldn't ever see it again. If felt like no time had passed at all, and yet it felt like eons. His friends were not the people he remembered. They were trying, but it was as if they were all wearing masks that they had outgrown. Miyako, though lively and dramatic on the surface, fell into solemnity whenever she wasn't speaking. Takeru seemed more cautious, more hesitant. Even Hikari, walking before him, seemed more somber than usual. A dimmer, less vibrant version of her old self.
He found himself wondering how he had changed in the others' eyes.
Hikari stopped again, her head turning in either direction. Iori stopped too, his ears hypersensitive to the cold silence surrounding them. This time he did hear something.
"What was that?" he asked, looking around but seeing nothing.
"I don't know," Hikari whispered. "It sounded like...footsteps."
Iori crouched down, examining the soft dirt for prints. Only Hikari's sneaker tracks marred the mud. The rest was a blank slate, littered with needles and pine cones. Were they being followed? He gazed back into the shadows behind them, the light from the beach a distant beacon. The breeze ruffled the leaves on the bushes, but nothing else showed signs of movement.
"Hello?" Hikari called, turning in a slow circle. "Is somebody there?"
Nothing. Iori wondered if whatever they had heard was already gone.
"Maybe we should keep moving," he suggested, beginning to feel uneasy.
Just then, the ground began to tremble beneath their feet. Hikari's eyes widened. Iori looked around, thinking that an earthquake was upon them. Pinecones rattled across the dirt.
"We have to get out of here!" Iori said.
"Back to the beach?" Hikari asked.
Iori nodded. It was better than the forest.
They started to move. Iori stepped towards an overbearing bush with pale pink flowers growing on it. As a twig snapped beneath his weight, the bush exploded with movement. The leaves shook violently, the branches bouncing up and down. Iori jumped back a step in surprise and brought his stick of driftwood before him, wielding it like a weapon. "Who's there?"
"Iori-kun, wait!" Hikari said. She dropped to her knees against the trembling earth and crawled towards the bush. "Hey, it's okay. We're not going to hurt you." Iori watched as she extended her arms and withdrew a long-eared, cocoa-coloured Digimon from the shaking bush. It wasn't a Digimon Iori recognized, though he thought that it looked a lot like Wallace's Terriermon.
Whatever it was, the Digimon appeared to be terrified.
"It's okay," Hikari told it, over and over again as she held the Digimon in her arms.
Iori knelt next to them, lowering his stick to the ground so that he wouldn't scare the Digimon any further. "We're friends," he offered quietly. "Can you tell us who you are?"
The Digimon's wide black eyes roamed from Hikari's face to Iori's. Iori could see the terror there. Was it because of the earthquake? Or something else? The tremors were getting worse. Iori could hear trees crashing to the ground nearby. The trunks around them swayed.
"Hikari-san, we have to go," Iori said.
"Just wait," Hikari replied. She bent her face close to the Digimon's.
Iori heard the word "Lopmon" whispered and something about running. But before he could ask, there was a loud rumbling noise from behind them. Iori whipped around. He could see trees falling just yards away from them, letting light into the forest. Muscular red legs flashed in the sudden brightness. Iori squinted, trying to determine what it was he was seeing.
"Tyrannomon!" Hikari gasped.
Not just one, but several. Dozens. Iori realized in that instant that it wasn't an earthquake causing the ground to shudder, but a stampede. Lopmon began to writhe in Hikari's arms. Stunned, she tried to hold him but he managed to scramble free. He took off into the bushes.
"Wait!" Hikari shouted. "Come back!"
"Hikari-san, I think we'd better get out of here!" Iori said, believing that Lopmon had the right idea. The Tyrannomon were showing no signs of slowing down. And Iori saw no recognition in their reptilian blue eyes as they drew closer. Were they corrupted? He didn't know, but he didn't want to hang around to find out. He yanked Hikari to her feet.
Sunlight fell back upon them as they burst from the trees into a large field. It extended for yards in a sheet of long green grass until it disappeared into another wash of trees on the opposite side. Iori could see the grass splitting apart where Lopmon was scurrying through. He let his legs carry himself after him, hoping that the Digimon knew a safe place it might lead them too. He was so focused on following him that he didn't notice the pit before him until it was too late.
"Iori!" Hikari screamed as he disappeared in front of her.
Iori grunted with pain as he tumbled into the hole and landed hard at the bottom. His shoulder throbbed and he had a fleeting thought that at this rate, it would never heal.
"Iori-kun!" Hikari gasped, her head poking over the edge. "Are you all right?"
Iori stretched out his limbs tentatively. Though sore, everything appeared to be working.
"I think so," he called back. He scanned the edges of the pit. It was at least seven feet deep, and the sides were steep enough that it would be impossible to climb out. On the ground, the pebbles were shaking. The stomping was getting louder. The Tyrannomon were close.
Hikari stretched out her arm. "Can you reach?"
Iori stood up on his toes to no avail. He tried to jump and his fingers knocked clumsily against Hikari's. She was too far. He could feel the tension building in his chest.
"Go!" he urged her. "Save yourself!"
"Don't be stupid!" Hikari replied.
"There's nothing you can do for me," Iori told her.
Hikari shook her head, her mouth set in a stubborn line that was not unlike the expression he had seen so often on Taichi's face. She glanced back over her shoulder. The quaking was getting stronger, the footsteps like thunder on the ground. It was a matter of seconds now...
Suddenly, Lopmon was there. He nudged Hikari. She nodded.
Hikari grabbed his back legs and lowered him into the pit. Iori reached up to grab his outstretched paws. Three inches, then two, and aha! The Digimon grasped him tightly and Hikari started to pull them up. Iori worried that she wouldn't be strong enough, but Lopmon began to flap his ears. Torrents of air buffeted Iori in the face as the momentum helped to raise him back to the surface. They pulled him over the edge, just as the Tyrannomon burst from the trees.
"Run!" Iori said, but even as he said it, no one moved. They were all breathing too hard, too exhausted from the effort of pulling him from the hole. The Tyrannomon were bearing down on them. The distance between them was closing. Iori saw their eyes narrow in on the three of them sitting in the centre of the field. A fireball began to form in the leader's mouth.
"Hey! Over here!"
Iori's head whipped around. There, at the opposite end of the field, was a group of people. The others! He recognized Sora's red hair, and Yamato and Takeru's blond heads, even from a distance. They were waving their hands over their heads, shouting at the Digimon. The Tyrannomons' eyes flickered to where they stood. Iori stayed very still, waiting to see what would happen. The stampede began to change its direction. They passed within feet of them.
Iori let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Hikari squeezed her eyes shut in relief. Lopmon stared after the Digimon, a dazed expression on his puppy-dog like face.
"Come on," Iori said after a moment. "We have to move."
They rose to their feet and hastened to the trees to the side of them. This time, Iori kept a careful eye on the ground, watching for any more holes hidden within the tall grass. He chanced a quick look over his shoulder to see that the others had disappeared into the safety of the forest. He knew that they would find them, meet them somewhere in the trees. The Tyrannomon let out a frustrated roar as they reached the edge of the forest to find that their prey had vanished.
Beneath the shelter of the trees, Hikari sank down onto a fallen log. Lopmon leapt up beside her. He seemed cautious, though no longer terrified. He appeared to be studying them closely, his eyes narrowed with evident curiousity. He blushed when he saw Iori watching him.
"Who are you?" Lopmon asked. His voice was so quiet that it was barely audible.
For a moment, Iori could only stare at the Digimon. Iori's chest was rising and falling with heavy breaths, the adrenaline still racing through his veins. His mind was spinning. He could still see the others behind his eyelids. He glanced into the trees, waiting for them to appear.
"You're humans, aren't you?" the Digimon asked, a little louder this time.
"Yes," Hikari whispered.
"Digidestined?" Lopmon asked.
She and Iori nodded.
"You're Terriermon's twin," Iori said, not as a question but a statement.
Lopmon's face crinkled with pain.
Just then, Sora, Yamato, Takeru, and Mimi arrived out of the shadows. The four of them were breathing hard, their eyes gleaming. Their expressions lit up when they saw them.
"Hikari-chan! Iori-kun!" Mimi cried.
Hikari leapt up. She looked ready to throw their arms around them all, but Yamato had seen Lopmon. His eyes widened as he took an unsteady step forwards. "Who's this?"
"This is Lopmon," Iori supplied.
"Wallace-san's—"
"—Digimon," Takeru finished for Hikari. Their eyes met for a split second.
"Are you all okay?" Sora asked, looking worried.
Hikari nodded. "Thanks to you. How did you find us?"
"We heard you scream from the beach," Yamato answered. He studied the two of them, the excitement fading from his eyes. "Is it just you three? Have you seen any of the others?"
Wordlessly, the two of them shook their heads.
"Where's Wallace?" Lopmon spoke up, looking between them all. "Is Wallace here too?"
A hushed silence fell upon the group.
Takeru was the first to break it. "I wish we knew."
Chapter Notes:
1) Kumadori makeup is what is used in Kabuki theatre. Red paint indicates the hero of the performance, while indigo is used to indicate the villain (the colours don't really have any significance to the story as of this moment. I just thought it was an interesting fact)
2) A kabuto is the helmet in traditional samurai armour. They can differ in appearance, but a google search should give you some ideas of what it may look like.
3) As a huge Lord of the Rings fan fan, I couldn't resist this reference. "Saru" means monkey in Japanese, which is why I used it for this Digimon's name. When I realized how close it was to Saruman, I couldn't help myself. Feel free to disregard my nerdiness.
4) Okinawa (part of Okinawa prefecture) is an island about 640km south of the rest of Japan. It has a climate similar to Hawaii and is quite a popular vacation destination.
Next Episode: The Digidestined are washing up in unlikely places. Taichi and Ken find themselves stranded on a remote island with a species of Digimon they have never seen before. And Hikari and Iori are, quite literally, stumbling into all sorts of trouble. Will Taichi and Ken find a way back to their friends? Will Lopmon be reunited with Wallace? And where are all the others? Find out on the next episode of Digimon, Digital Monsters!
Whew, another chapter finished. This one was a lot of fun to write. A huge, enormous, collosal thanks to Zen for all your suggestions! They are incredibly helpful. Thank you also to Fizzing Wizard and Ultimate Black Ace for your ideas! What would I do without you guys? (Write a lesser story, I'm sure). And of course, I am endlessly grateful to all my reviewers. You are all so super awesome and I can't thank you enough for your kind words! Except vow to work hard on the next chapter! Also, here is my obligatory 'please review' statement. It really does mean a lot and I love hearing what you think about all that's going on (which is quite a bit, I think). Thanks again for reading! I hope to hear from you and I will (hopefully) see you next chapter!
Also, bonus points if you get the title.