The radio he had made was playing his favorite song while he fried a couple of eggs. The man did not need to eat anymore but he still enjoyed it. Plus, cooking was almost a form of therapy for him. The large kitchen had an industrial stove, a five meters long table with, in that moment, fourteen plates with breakfast food on it. There were onigiris, tea, coffee, milk, different types of bread, chocolate cake and a pan filled with rice. It was food that would last for days but the man could not stop cooking.
In the middle of the table there was a black cone that was ten centimeters tall that worked as a communicator and a hologram projector. It had not been used in a long time, so the man had practically forgotten about its existence. Until that night.
"Imagine there's no countries. It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion too. Imagine all the people-ou-ou!" He was singing along when the communicator began to whistle. The man almost dropped the eggs from the frying pan in surprise. He left the pan on the counter next to the stove and went to the table, where he touched the cone. A hologram of a person with the upper part of the face covered by a hood appeared. The person was sitting at a desk in front of a white wall, and was wearing a large brown robe.
"Kanda-kun!" The man in the kitchen was surprised. "Did something happen?"
"Tamaki-san!" The other scolded, "I have told you many times to stop calling me by my real name."
"What are you worried about? I know that your office is acoustically isolated and you monitor your entire base. Nobody is going to listen to us unless you allow it. Besides…" His voice became bitter, "I'll never call you Gennai."
Kanda sighed in frustration, scratching his head with his gloved hands. Tamaki glanced sadly at the back of his own right hand, where there was a green tattoo that he hated: a drop of water with two concentric circles inside it.
"What do you want, anyway, Kanda-kun?" He wanted to get that conversation over with.
"I need you to take a group of children who are in the Village of the Beginnings to Aurora Town." Kanda told him.
"What group of children? Baby digimon? Aren't they too young for you to recruit?" Tamaki raised an eyebrow.
"You'll understand when you see them." Kanda sounded annoyed.
"Why Aurora Town? Am I taking them to Homura-chan? Is she working with you?" Tamaki's suspicions grew.
"You already know more than enough, Tamaki-san. Thank you for your attention." Kanda hung up, thus ending the conversation.
"That pretentious brat!" Tamaki yelled at nobody after the hologram disappeared. "I'm still two years older than him! Who does he think he is to treat me like that?"
Despite his anger, Tamaki always did what other people asked him, so he headed to the control room of his base and typed the coordinates of the Village of the Beginnings into his personal computer. Soon, the entire base trembled as it prepared for the partial materialization on the physical dimension of the digital world.
"How am I supposed to know which digimon I should take, anyway?" He complained to nobody.
Chapter 10: The original chosen children
Takeru was on his knees, watching the light particles that once composed the body of his friend floating in the air. The boy's body felt numb as tears streamed down his shaking face. He was no longer screaming and he could barely register what was happening around him.
Someone was saying "I'm so sorry." It was probably Jyou. The little boy felt two hands hold him gently by the arms. He looked up and saw Sora kneeling in front of him, gazing into his eyes. Her face was very pale and covered in sweat. Her lips trembled and her eyes widened and became wetter as the seconds passed. She did not say a single word.
Mimi glanced at the spot where Devimon had died and then glanced at the little boy and Sora, who were two steps in her left. Her body was shaking and several tears were falling from her eyes. The feeling of being held by dark claws was still too present. And she could still hear the cries of help of the lost souls that had trapped her.
Jyou was next to the younger girl and noticed her distress. He too felt overwhelmed and wanted to break down and cry. Instead, the boy stretched his right arm in the girl's direction and touched her left shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. Mimi held the hand on her shoulder and squeezed it in gratitude.
Koushiro was standing by himself, five steps in the left from the other kids. He watched Takeru and Sora silently. His wet clothes were making him cold.
Piyomon, Palmon, Gomamon and Tentomon stood between where the children were and the point where Devimon had died. After failing completely at protecting their partners and seeing their friend sacrifice himself, the shame they felt made them unable to meet the eyes of the children.
Then, the particles of white light began to gather on the grass, close to Takeru. A digital egg with orange stripes on it appeared.
"This was fast." Gabumon said, approaching the children. He went to Takeru and examined the egg attentively. "Digitama normally take longer to form. This is the first time I've seen one appearing right after its digimon's death."
"This is Patamon?" Takeru's question was almost inaudible, yet full of hope. He slowly freed himself from Sora's hold and reached for the digitama. The boy picked it up gently, as if afraid of causing it harm, and brought it close to his body. Takeru embraced the egg lightly as he looked sadly at it.
"Digimon can come back to life after they die…" Jyou murmured, amazed.
"But…" Piyomon had begun to say but could not finish.
"Normally, digimon who are reborn don't remember their previous lives." Gomamon concluded Piyomon's sentence. "It's unlikely that Patamon is going to remember any of us."
"Patamon won't remember me?" Takeru's voice broke. His horrified expression made Sora and the others gulp.
"But we all knew, since we were born, that we were going to have partners! We even knew what their names were!" Palmon pointed it out. "I'm sure that Patamon wouldn't forget Takeru. I mean, we're not exactly the same as every other digimon."
"That's true!" Piyomon sounded more hopeful. "The bonds we have with our partners are strong. It's highly likely that Patamon will be able to remember!"
"Isn't that wishful thinking?" Jyou asked in a depressed tone.
"It's called having hope." Mimi retorted, slightly annoyed at the older boy's indelicacy. Then, she glanced at Takeru with sadness.
"Hope…" Takeru murmured, caressing the egg. "Patamon would want me to be positive."
The blond boy wiped his tears away with the back of his left hand and stood up, still holding the egg tenderly. Jyou, Mimi and the digimon were visibly happy for Takeru's action.
Sora stood up too and tried to smile. She was not sure if she had succeeded. Her mind was filled with things she wanted to say but none of them made it to her mouth. The girl stood still and gazed at the other children. Her insides felt like they were freezing as she remembered how Devimon had overpowered all of them.
Because of her incompetence in protecting Takeru, Angemon had died. And if the little boy and his partner had not walked out of the cube to face Devimon, everybody would have been killed.
"Sora-san." Takeru's voice brought the girl back to reality. He was looking up to her.
"Takeru-kun, I-" Sora had begun to speak, not sure about how she would express everything she wanted. She felt her eyes getting humid and fought the urge to cry. I can't cry in front of him. I need to be strong. She thought. But then she remembered how she had been subjugated by Devimon. How Birdramon and the other digimon had been defeated and trapped. How she could listen to Jyou's praying and Mimi's crying. How she was sure that there was no way out and that, after Devimon tortured and killed them, he would go after Takeru and do the same to him.
"I'm sorry." Sora said, unable to stop the tears.
"I'm going to be okay, Sora-san, don't worry." Takeru promised, forcing a tiny smile. The way his lips trembled and his eyes shone betrayed his true emotional state. Sora knew that he was trying to be strong for her sake and that killed her spirit. She wanted to apologize for so many things. To him and to everybody else.
I'm sorry my power was not strong enough to make you win, Piyomon. Jyou-senpai, I'm sorry I wasn't dependable enough. Mimi-san, I'm sorry I couldn't comfort you. Takeru-kun, I'm sorry for not protecting you… for causing you so much pain… I couldn't do a damn thing! Despite my best efforts and intentions… I was completely useless and failed with everybody!
But what actually came out of the girl's mouth was an almost inaudible "Okay" as she harshly wiped her tears and forced a smile. There was no point in making the others concerned about her.
"Koushiro-han." Tentomon called his partner, going to him and rubbing his body against the boy's legs. "How are you?"
"Huh?" Koushiro showed confusion. He had been quietly observing the others, with his arms crossed.
"You're cold, right?" Tentomon asked, pointing to his partner's clothes.
"Oh." Koushiro murmured, looking down. "Yes, I'm a bit cold."
"Koushiro-kun!" Jyou exclaimed, hurrying to his side. "That's right, you fell into the well! Did you have any fracture or concussion? Does it hurt anywhere?"
"Koushiro-kun fell into the well?" Sora asked, surprised, walking in the redhead's direction with Takeru.
"He was probably being careless, typical of Koushiro-kun!" Mimi sighed. "When our class had field trips, he'd always get lost in the woods while examining the plants and the insects."
"One day, he wanted to try a different route to school and we got lost!" Jyou remembered, irritated.
"Once Koushiro-kun wanted to climb a tree to check a bird's nest and-" Mimi was about to continue the unveiling of Koushiro's not so admirable past when a strange digimon landed violently close to them. She wore black jet cloth, had horns, long white hair, red eyes, long fingers that resembled claws and bat wings.
"Ladydevimon!" Piyomon shouted, apprehensively. She, along with the other digimon, quickly positioned herself between the children and the diabolic creature. Ladydevimon ignored them and headed to the crater where Devimon had died. She contemplated the spot in silence as a single tear escaped her left eye.
"I was sure I hated him." Ladydevimon spoke to no one in particular. "If someone had ever told me that his death would upset me, I'd laugh at the idea. I guess we can't really let go of family."
"Was Devimon related to you?" Mimi asked, feeling sorry for the other.
"Are you our enemy as well?" Takeru inquired in a cold tone.
"There's no simple answer for either question. We loved the same mother and each of us believed to love her more than the other. For this mother, I'll fight to destroy the Digital World with my remaining brothers. If you try to stop us, we would have to fight you." Ladydevimon answered with no emotion.
"She's a perfect level digimon." Gomamon muttered, afraid.
"Like Andromon…" Tentomon's voice had a mix of anger and guilt.
"I just came to pay my respects to my brother, don't get worked up." Ladydevimon said, turning to their direction. "I sincerely wish you do the smart thing and leave this world when you get the chance. I have no desire to take children's lives."
"Unlike Devimon?" Takeru had a skeptical tone.
"So you've heard about how he killed the former bearer of hope?" Ladydevimon did not seem surprised. "Everything changed that day."
The perfect level digimon took flight. Those who remained behind watched her go without uttering any word.
"Devimon killed a child?" Jyou asked afterwards. "A digimon child?"
"No." Gabumon replied, glancing down. "From what I heard, it was one of the original chosen children."
"This again…" Mimi felt anxious.
"There really were others before us." Jyou commented, recalling their conversation with Leomon the night before.
"Elecmon had told us that." Sora muttered. "One of those children died."
"I wonder what happened to the rest of them." Koushiro thought aloud.
Suddenly, they all heard a loud buzzing sound. Twenty meters to their left, a small sphere of white light appeared in the air and shot lightning up and down. The ball grew and assumed a rectangular shape. Soon, it had turned into a wooden sliding door.
"What is that?" Mimi asked, pointing to the door. "It just appeared out of nowhere!"
"Why a sliding door? It's not connected to anything!" Jyou was intrigued.
"Maybe it's connected to another dimension." Koushiro theorized, beginning to walk towards the door but being stopped by Jyou, who blocked his way.
"How about, for a change, you don't head straight to something potentially dangerous?" Jyou scolded the younger boy. Koushiro paled when he heard that and took a step back. The older child was puzzled by the other's ashamed expression.
The door slid to the left and a tall figure walked through the opening, sliding it back to close the entrance. The children and their digimon were shocked by what they saw.
"It's…" Mimi could not believe her eyes.
"It is… IT IS…" Jyou could not hide his joy.
"An adult! A human adult!" Sora was the one to complete the phrase.
The adult was tall, had blond wavy hair, brown eyes and seemed to be in his twenties. He wore baggy jeans pants, a white shirt and an orange jacket above it. He was barefooted and ran his eyes around as if looking for something. When his eyes locked in the direction of the children, an astonished expression took his face.
The man started to sweat and tremble. His completely open eyes seemed to doubt what they were seeing. He approached the children, slowly. Panic started to build in him.
"Human children?" The stranger questioned, horrified. "It… it can't be! Why… how?"
"WE ARE SAVED!" Jyou shouted in ecstasy. "AN ADULT! WE REALLY FOUND AN ADULT! AN ADULT!"
"Please, calm down!" The man told him, nervously, putting his hands on his head. "What's the meaning of this? How did you come to this world? Who brought you here?"
"We were in a summer camp and an aurora appeared, then these little machines came from the sky and-" Koushiro was narrating, picking the machine stuck in his backpack and showing it to the man.
"Digivice?" The stranger interrupted. A mix of horror and anger took his face over. "You can't be… you're chosen children?"
"What does it mean to be a chosen child?" Sora inquired. She wanted to understand the true meaning behind that label.
"That conversation is going to be long. How about you come to my place? I can arrange some food and…" The man stared at Koushiro, "… dry clothes, I guess."
"Excuse me, mister, what's your name?" Takeru asked before the stranger turned around to return to the door.
"Oh." He had a depressed look on his face. "You can call me Tamaki."
After he stepped inside his house (it was possible to see a white corridor through the opening, with a space to leave the shoes in its beginning), Sora called the other children for a conversation.
"Do you guys think it's a good idea to follow him? It's very suspicious to suddenly find another human now." The girl expressed her concern.
"You don't think he's really human, Sora-san?" Takeru asked.
"I think we should go after him!" Jyou gave his opinion. "We can't just let a chance like this pass! If he's really a human adult, he could help us! Besides, we'd get shelter for now!"
"It's our best chance to know more about our situation. Tamaki-san seems to be very knowledgeable." Koushiro pointed out.
"We're all tired. It would be nice to spend the night in a safe and comfortable place. Plus, Koushiro-kun needs a change of clothes." Mimi said.
"What about the babies?" Takeru was worried. "We can't just leave them!"
"I'm going to take care of them from now on." Gabumon announced. "I'm the oldest, it's just right."
"But…" Takeru spoke with guilt but Gabumon gave him an encouraging smile, saying:
"Carer has dedicated most of his life to look after digimon like me. I don't want his effort to go to waste. I want to give back the love I received and be the one protecting others now. Carer will be reborn one day... and he's not going to remember who he used to b-be…" The digimon's voice cracked for a second. "It's going to be my turn to look after him and keep him safe."
Takeru nodded, hugging the digitama more tightly.
"If you ever need help, don't hesitate to call me." The boy said.
"The same goes for you. Thank you for everything, Takeru." Gabumon replied.
After saying their goodbyes to Gabumon, the kids and their partners crossed the door and entered Tamaki's place. Sora and Piyomon were the last ones to do it and the girl closed the door behind them. The girl took her shoes off and put them close to those of the other children, before climbing the step to the corridor. She had a concerned expression that Piyomon noticed.
"Are you worried, Sora?" The bird digimon asked.
"It's not as if I don't see their point." The girl whispered in a defensive tone. "But, from our experience, have we not learned not to go into strange places nor listening to someone we don't know?"
"But Tamaki is human. Don't you feel at ease with another human being?" Piyomon could not comprehend the girl's preoccupation.
Before Sora could reply, she heard Mimi's shout. The younger girl had stopped walking in the middle of the corridor, in front of the entrance of the kitchen and looked amazed at the quantity of food. The older girl and Piyomon joined the others, who were going into the kitchen. Tamaki was sitting close to the table, tapping a black cone placed above it with an annoyed expression. When he noticed the children, the adult suggested that they should take a hot bath before eating, promising to arrange clean clothes for them.
"I can freely manipulate the data inside this base; it shouldn't be a problem to produce clothes." He said. "There are 27 bathrooms for you to choose."
"Why do you have 27 bathrooms?" Jyou was shocked.
"When I get bored I rearrange the data of the base and produce new things. Last month, there were 56 kitchens." Tamaki explained, smirking.
"I agree to taking a bath first. Would you like to take it with me, Sora-san?" Mimi invited the older girl.
"Uhh…" Sora hesitated. "If you don't mind, I'd like some time alone with Piyomon. Maybe next time."
"Oh." Mimi was disappointed. "It's okay."
"I don't think I want to take a bath yet." Takeru said. "First, I'd like to make Patamon's egg cozy."
"I can lend you some sheets." Tamaki offered, which made the smaller boy beam. "The bathtubs will be waiting for you, anyway."
"Bathtubs?" Koushiro asked in a terrified tone. He opened his eyes widely and shivered. Tentomon deduced that the boy did not want to be submerged in water again.
"There's a shower in the end of the bathroom corridor, at the second floor." Tamaki informed. Koushiro sighed in relief.
The children followed Tamaki's instructions and got to the second floor. Takeru stayed with him in order to get sheets for the egg. The adult took the small kid to a room in which the floor was made of mattresses and covered with many colorful pillows and sheets. The second grader made a little nest with the pillows and sheets and carefully rested the digitama in it.
"I'm sorry for what happened to your partner." Tamaki said while sitting at the boy's right.
"He evolved and saved us all from Devimon." Takeru replied, looking away. "He was very brave…"
"You liked each other very much, right?" The man had a nostalgic voice. "I used to be like that with my digimon partner."
"You had a partner?" Takeru asked, turning to look at the other's face.
"Kind of… well, real Tamaki had a partner. He was a chosen child, after all." Tamaki said, vaguely. It was a hurtful subject for him.
"Real Tamaki?" The little boy was confused.
"I think it's better to explain that when everybody is reunited." Tamaki opinionated. "Let me just tell you that I'm not exactly a human being. I'm an enhanced copy of one. There are three other people like me… although there had been five of us long ago…"
Takeru guessed that the heartbroken expression of the adult had to do with the child that Devimon had killed.
"The chosen children who survived… are they okay?" Takeru questioned.
"I see that you've heard about Shin-chan's death." Tamaki murmured. "I'll tell you guys the whole story during the meal."
The man stood up and left Takeru there with the egg. He headed back to the kitchen and continued his attempts to call Kanda using the cone. Soon, he gave it up and called another person.
A hologram appeared above the cube and showed a young woman with long black hair and black eyes, wearing a white kimono, in a place that resembled a dojo. There was hair covering part of her face, so she used her right hand to move it away from her eyes. She had a gray tattoo on the back of that hand: a cross with four triangles around it.
"Hello, Homura-chan." Tamaki had urgency in his voice.
"What's the matter, Tamaki-san?" She questioned, not showing interest.
"Could you please explain me why there are five human children in this world and why Kanda asked me to take them to your town?" The man's voice was filled with controlled fury.
"We knew that you wouldn't react well to that." Homura replied impatiently.
"You can bet that I'm not reacting well!" Tamaki almost screamed, punching the table. "After everything that happened to us, how could you bring other innocent children to this Hell?! If Otae-chan hears about this, she'll kick your butts so hard-"
"If that coward ever returns, I'll be the one beating her up!" Homura interrupted, angrily.
"She lost her little brother." Tamaki defended his friend.
"She abandoned us!" Homura's tone became more ferocious. Realizing that, she took a deep breath and calmed down. "Anyway, as you remember, the crests don't work with us anymore and we can barely keep our partners in their current forms. It was necessary to bring new children in order to reactivate the crests and protect the Digital World. They must come to Aurora Town to get the two crests we hid here."
"Unbelievable…" Tamaki could not accept what the woman was saying. "Do you not see the immorality of bringing them here and make them fight?"
"It won't be like in our time." Homura promised. "We can help them! We can make them stronger and protect them! Our partners won't stop the Dark Masters for long!"
"THIS IS WRONG!" Tamaki yelled. "How can you not understand that? You've kidnapped children and turned them into targets! This is not their fight!"
"It wasn't our fight either!" Homura retorted.
"So what? Because we suffered it means that we get to make others suffer as well?" Tamaki could not agree with her.
"Kanda and I had no pleasure in deciding this. There was no other way! If we don't stop her forces immediately, both the Digital World and the Human World will be doomed!"
"If you think I'm going to accept those excuses, you are so very wrong, Homura-chan." Tamaki had a menacing tone.
"The decision to fight is up to those children, not to you." Homura replied in the same tone. "Once we explain everything, I'm sure they'll understand why we brought them here."
"I'm not going to let you manipulate those kids the same way the Academy did to us!" Tamaki roared, turning the communicator off. When he turned around, Takeru was at the entrance of the kitchen, staring at him.
Did he follow me? Tamaki wondered. He gave the boy a reassuring smile, before saying:
"There's nothing to worry about. I'll find a way to send you and your friends home."
Takeru' body was tense, but exhaled determination. The little child clenched his fists and contracted his eyebrows, and then he stated:
"I'm not going to let anyone destroy the Digital World!"
Jyou was the first one to finish his bath, in spite of Gomamon's insistence on staying longer in the water. The boy left the aquatic mammal in the bathtub and found new clothes folded on a bench in the bathroom, where he had left his original ones. They were simple: brown shorts and a blue shirt with long sleeves. I didn't see the door being opened. When were the clothes changed? He asked himself.
The bathroom was circular and had at least 12 meters of diameter. Like the rest of Tamaki's house, the ceiling and the walls were all white. That did not bother the sixth grader, who found the decoration similar to the one of a hospital. The bathtub was like a small square pool and had hot water and bubbles. The child believed that it had been the best bath he had in his life. He looked at his reflexion at the mirror above the comber while he dried himself with a yellow towel. There were marks on his body reminiscent from the dark claws' grip.
"It's okay now. It's over." He muttered to himself, closing his eyes. The boy put on the clean clothes and the glasses he had left on the comber, and then he opened the door to the outside. Gomamon left the bathtub when he saw his partner getting out of the bathroom and quickly followed him, what made Jyou complain about him for making the floor wet.
From the door across the corridor, Mimi and Palmon came out. The fourth grader was wearing jeans shorts and a large pink shirt. She looked exhausted.
"Did you enjoy the bath?" Jyou asked in a polite tone.
Mimi merely nodded. Gomamon called Palmon and asked to talk to her in private. The plant digimon looked at Mimi and the girl told her she could go.
Alone with the fourth grader, Jyou approached her slowly.
"I keep thinking about it all." Mimi muttered, upset. "Not just Devimon's fight. All the horrible things that happened to us… I'm all marked…"
"My body is like that too, it will vanish with time." Jyou tried to comfort her.
"It's not just my body." Mimi contested. "When I try to think about my life from before, it feels like a distant past. I don't think I can imagine myself back home anymore."
"We are going back home, Mimi-kun!" Jyou promised. "We already found an adult! I'm sure that we're close to-"
"Even if I go back home, can I go back to my life?" Mimi interrupted, beginning to cry. "Will I still enjoy what used to make me happy? I can't imagine myself laughing with my friends or having fun with my parents anymore… everything became just so awful… am I going to feel like this forever?"
Jyou grabbed the girl's hands and squeezed them.
"We can't erase the horrible things that happened and I agree that we're not going to be the same people we were before but that doesn't mean that our lives are ruined! We had good experiences in the Digital World too, right?" Jyou spoke with certainty. "We learned important things and we are more mature than before. I guarantee you, Mimi-kun, no matter how bad you feel right now, that pain won't last forever."
"Thank you, Jyou-san." Mimi said, drying the tears with the backs of her hands after Jyou let them go. "You are so kind to me."
"You're the kindest one." Jyou made an affirmation. The two of them walked down the corridor and found Gomamon and Palmon talking through whispers, unaware that their partners were listening behind them.
"We need to become stronger." Gomamon said. "Our luck is not going to last forever. Today we almost lost them."
"It's true." Palmon sounded depressed. "Do you think they blame us? We couldn't protect them."
"Hey, what's this sad talk?" Mimi shouted, putting a smile on her face. The pair of digimon turned around, surprised.
"Mimi!" Palmon exclaimed, relieved to see that her friend's mood had gotten better.
"There's no need for you two to over worry by yourselves." Jyou told them.
"What? You're going to join us in the over worry business?" Gomamon joked.
"If it helps!" Jyou smirked, which made his partner blush.
"I'm starving, let's go eat already." Mimi complained.
"We should wait for the others, Mimi-kun." Jyou scolded her.
"You're no fun, Jyou-san." Mimi laughed.
Gomamon and Palmon looked at them with admiration. Human beings could be incredibly strong.
In Sora's bathroom, the girl had put on a green shirt and jeans pants. She was staring at her own reflexion at the mirror, with Piyomon by her side.
"Sora, you're so quiet. Do you want to talk?" The bird digimon asked, concerned.
"You can go on ahead, Piyomon. I'm just going to fix my hair. Don't worry, everything is okay." The girl gave her friend a small smile and the digimon did as she said.
After the door closed, Sora put both her hands on the comber and leaned forward, getting closer to the mirror. She thought that she had the face of someone who could start crying at any moment.
This isn't good, she thought. I need to show more confidence and strength. The others are already too overwhelmed; I can't be another cause of worry to them.
She forced her smile in front of the mirror and rehearsed, with her best cheerful voice:
"Don't worry, guys, it's going to be…"
Memories flashed before her eyes: the illusionary Taichi offering to take over for her and then ripping her heart out, the fight against Andromon and Koushiro possessed, the discussion with Jyou, Takeru being kidnapped by Devimon, the time when she thought that Koushiro was going to die due to an injury in his head, when she saw Devimon's memory, when Devimon had trapped them and was tauntingly asking who he would torture first.
Her body shivered and she fell to her knees, crying. The girl tried to muffle her sobbing by covering her mouth with her hands.
It's going to be alright. She said in her mind. We are all going to be okay.
In Koushiro's bathroom, the boy took the shower first. The bath did not take too long because the fourth grader had started trembling the second the hot water touched his skin. He washed himself well enough and hurried to take the towel.
"Koushiro-han, talk to me." Tentomon pleaded.
"It's your turn to take a shower, Tentomon." Koushiro murmured, putting on the clothes (black shorts and white shirt) that had been left on the bench.
"Why don't you tell me what happened when you were alone with Elecmon?" Tentomon asked.
"Why don't you tell me about the nightmare that has made you so scared?" Koushiro replied with another question, in an attempt to avoid answering.
"Don't compare the two things! What happened to you was real!" Tentomon got mad.
"Okay…" Koushiro muttered, looking down. "Elecmon left me at the well. He had heard when I said that the wind in the tunnel sounded like a voice and thought that…"
"Thought what?"
"He thought that… maybe… the Spirit of the World was trying to talk to me." Koushiro made sure to phrase that in a way to demonstrate the absurdity of that idea. "He thought that this… entity would show me how to protect the babies and did not allow me to leave until I received a revelation. Crazy, right?"
"You did save the babies." Tentomon was remembering how Koushiro had typed something on his computer and white light had come out of it.
"I figured it out!" Koushiro stated quickly. "I had a lot of time to think inside the…"
He could not finish the sentence. The boy felt the need to sit down on the bench and did so.
"How did that happen, Koushiro-han?" Tentomon asked, getting close to him. "How did you fall?"
Koushiro gulped and trembled lightly, closing his eyes fiercely.
"Tentomon, are you sure Homeostasis has left me?" The boy made that question with a pained face.
"Yes." Tentomon did not think twice. "Andromon scanned you and said that. He had no reason to lie. Why do you ask?"
"I…" Koushiro hesitated. He opened his eyes and stared at Tentomon, knowing that he did not want to deceive his precious friend. "I thought it was just the wind in the tunnel… but then I started to listen to it outside too. It was coming from the well…"
"What was coming from the well?"
"The lullaby… and I recognized their voices from the memory Homeostasis showed me…" Koushiro began to cry, visibly scared. "I heard my biological parents singing to me from inside the well…"
That information shocked and terrified Tentomon.
"It's not possible… Homeostasis couldn't…"
"Then it was just me." Koushiro spoke fearfully. "Maybe I'm losing my mind. Tentomon, they… I could hear them talking to me in the well… t-they said they missed m-me… t-they said they wanted to be with me a-again…"
Tentomon hugged his partner tightly, as scared as the other was. Koushiro hugged back, letting the tears wash the digimon's back.
"You're not losing your mind!" Tentomon stated with a conviction he had never showed before. "Neither is Homeostasis haunting you! Neither are your parents trying to get you back! You have just been through a lot of bad things! It's going to get better, I promise! I'm going to protect you from e-everything."
Tentomon began to cry as well, which made Koushiro feel guilty.
"Tentomon, I'm sorry…"
"It's okay. You thought you had heard something, leaned down and fell. It was an accident." Tentomon reassured.
"That's not…" Koushiro broke apart from the hug and looked into his partner's eyes. The bug digimon could see great confusion and shame on the boy's face.
The human gathered all of his courage, so he could make the hardest confession of his life:
"I'm not sure how it happened. It was like I couldn't control my body…" His voice was barely audible. "Tentomon… I think I jumped into the well."