Yang-Yin
Chapter Ten: "Another Side, Another Story"
Late in the afternoon, Cherubimon's Warriors sat in a small station outside the Forest Kingdom, in far too much pain to go on any farther. Not long ago, they had gotten a call from Cherubimon, saying that a messenger would meet them there before long. Teruo took the opportunity to sleep off some of the effects of being beaten so thoroughly that his Fractal Code had appeared, while everyone else tried to deal with their physical and mental trauma.
"Feeling any better?" Chiaki asked Koichi, who had been extremely quiet since his outburst earlier.
"A little," he admitted. "It's just hard to deal with."
"I can imagine," she agreed, handing him a flask of water. He took it because he felt like he needed to hold onto something, more than because he was thirsty.
"I still can't figure out why my father would say something like that," he said. "And why my parents would separate Koji and me like this."
"Maybe there aren't any answers," Chiaki suggested. "There probably aren't any easy ones to begin with." Koichi nodded. "But don't worry. I'm sure things will work out. We've almost got an answer of how to save the others."
"Hey," Teppei cut in, looking toward the forest. "Isn't that Bakumon?"
Koichi had nearly pulled out his D-tector when Chiaki warned, "Don't. This one's on our side." Nodding, he put it away.
Bakumon was singed and exhausted when he made his way over to them. Koichi handed over the water flask, and Bakumon drained it quickly.
"Hey, you made it away from Takuya," Katsuharu noticed.
"Yes, but the Forest Kingdom is no longer safe," Bakumon replied, still sounding out of breath. "Much of our area was destroyed from your battle and another one." Koichi flinched but otherwise didn't comment.
"Why'd you come all this way to find us?" Chiaki asked.
"I never finished explaining to you how to wake Ophanimon's Warriors," Bakumon explained. He started to continue, but the sleeping Teruo grimaced and started to moan. A wisp of darkness left him and came over to Bakumon, who devoured it quickly. Teruo calmed instantly. "He shouldn't remember that when he wakes."
"So, you were saying?" Teppei asked.
"Oh, yes," Bakumon replied, returning to the subject. "The nightmare is an illusion they're caught in. When I first attacked Flame and Ice, I made them see their friends attacking them. Flame managed to break free simply because he couldn't believe that they would do such a thing. He held onto reality."
"So is that what they're seeing?" Koichi asked. "Is the dream that we're their enemies?"
"The nightmare is probably different," Bakumon said, "but the premise is the same: a warped view of reality. Remind them of what is real, and that should wake them."
"Okay, piece of cake," Teppei replied. "Why isn't it working then?"
"It isn't as easy as it sounds," Bakumon warned. "The nightmare is tied to their fears and beliefs. Breaking the nightmare requires you to shatter their beliefs." Unconsciously, the others started to look at Koichi, who nodded solemnly.
"Thanks for the warning," Katsuharu answered. "Where are you headed now?"
"I'm not sure, but I'll try to find a large town," he decided. "Someplace that can defend itself well."
"Good luck," Katsuharu replied as Bakumon left. Then he sighed, "Sounds like we've got our work cut out for us."
"Hey!" cried a childlike voice, and the others turned to see a Terriermon gliding on the wind, carrying a package. "Are you guys Lord Cherubimon's Warriors?"
"Yeah," Katsuharu answered. "Why?"
"Got something for you from Lord Cherubimon," Terriermon answered, landing and placing the package down. "He said only one of you could handle it. It's been weighing me down for days."
"Looks like yours," Teppei told Koichi, seeing the emblem of the Spirit of Darkness.
Nodding, Koichi came over and held out his D-tector, breaking whatever seal had been placed on the package. It opened, revealing the Beast Spirit. The Spirit looked like nothing more than a bird with its wings folded around itself, but there were chains all around it—chains that everyone could tell had been placed there by Cherubimon to restrain its power. And even with those chains, everyone could feel its destructive rage and power. Everyone shivered, including Teruo, who hadn't woken at all. Katsuharu was about to tell Koichi to forget the whole thing when Koichi took a deep breath and held his D-tector to the Beast Spirit. A beam of light shot out of the digivice, capturing the Spirit, but everyone could swear that one of the chain-links had broken in the process.
Suddenly, Koichi dropped to his knees, breathing heavily. He brought his hands to his head, screaming as the new Spirit tried to take over him. After a few minutes of nobody knowing what to do, he stopped screaming and got to his feet, his breathing far too calm for anyone's comfort. He then raised his left arm into the air, forming a globe of corrupted Fractal Code around his hand. He was about to scan it when Katsuharu tackled him, knocking his head against the platform and waking him up.
"W-what happened?" Koichi asked shakily. Katsuharu breathed a sigh of relief before getting up and helping him stand.
"Do us a favor," he replied. "Never use that Beast Spirit. I don't care if it's a matter of life or death—run and leave us before you have to use it. It's way too strong for you."
Koichi refused to meet his eyes. "I can't make that promise, Katsuharu. If I have to evolve, I will. I can't abandon you guys."
Katsuharu sighed and muttered, "Stupid," before walking to the other side of the station. Koichi took a seat and looked at his D-tector with a blank face. Teppei, Chiaki, and the now awakened Teruo watched with mixed feelings.
"That was interesting and all," Terriermon cut in, "but can I get paid now?" The three stared at him in disbelief. "What? I'm not doing this for free, you know!"
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Takuya came to the clearing, bruised and sore but grinning and waving at his friends as he declared, "Well, it took a while, but I finally got control of that Beast Spirit. Wish I had that control when I fought Cherubimon's Warriors, but at least the fight went well."
"It went okay?" Tommy asked hesitantly.
"Yeah, of course," Takuya answered. "Why?"
"We had a little problem getting Koji to talk about his fight," Zoë replied. Koji maintained a blank expression while bandaging a cut on his upper arm.
"What happened?" Takuya asked.
"I fought Duskmon and things went bad, all right?" Koji replied tersely, tucking the end of the bandage underneath the wraps. Carefully, he tried to flex his arm, making a face at the tightness of the bandage. Then, pulling on his jacket, he added, "And we need to steal more supplies. We're out of bandages."
Takuya gaped. "But I just picked some up four days ago!"
"And I just used up half of them," Koji responded. He took a second to calm down before adding, "I underestimated Duskmon again. But now I know for sure—he's way too strong for us to handle."
"Maybe without our Beast Spirits," Takuya replied. "But once we get them all, we'll be fine. J.P., didn't you just find yours?"
"Yeah, but I think you might want to listen to Koji on this one," J.P. warned.
"Look, guys, I really think we can handle him without a problem once all five of us have our Beast Spirits," Takuya insisted. "We already know how to fight against the others, and we've gotten pretty close to winning. The only reasons we lost were because they got lucky—they managed to find their Spirits or someone was in the right place at the right time and made such a huge fluke that somehow made them win. But now we're stronger. I had four of them running for their lives after I evolved. They're not going to be able to fight for a while. I say we should take this chance to find the last two Beast Spirits and take them down. Once the other four are down for the count, then all five of us can team up against Duskmon. He's strong and out of his mind, but he's only got a Human Spirit. That's nothing compared to us."
Koji glared at him, stood up, and said, "Takuya, can I talk to you in private for a second?" Without even waiting for an answer, he grabbed him by the arm and dragged him through the forest.
"What's up?" Takuya asked.
"I need to show you something," Koji answered. Half a kilometer later, he pointed out the deforested region of the Forest Kingdom. Takuya stared at it in horror.
"What happened here?" he asked.
"This is where Duskmon and I fought," Koji explained. "Not even half of the damage is my fault."
"Are you sure?" Takuya asked. "I mean, I know Duskmon's strong, but this?"
"He's a lot stronger than you think," Koji replied. "You only fought him once, and he was fighting both of us. We were fine then. Both times I fought him alone, he nearly killed me. But he held back every time."
"Okay," Takuya answered, not really understanding what Koji meant. "I know he's strong, but we are too. We can take him down so long as there's more of us. You just said it yourself—you did better against him when you had me to back you up."
"You're not listening to me, are you?" Koji asked. He pointed at the devastation. "Look! Everything you see here was from our battle. Even with my Beast Spirit, I didn't stand a chance against him. I couldn't even move!"
"Then we just fight him where he won't have an advantage," Takuya insisted.
Koji growled in frustration. "It's not going to work! We'll all get killed! The Warrior of Darkness is too dangerous."
"What about catching him off-guard? You said you heard him mention his brother…"
"I tried that already! He could barely fight me, but once he scanned my memories, that changed."
"Wait a second, he scanned your memories?" Takuya repeated.
"That's not the point!" Koji yelled. "The point is that something inside him snapped. His personality changed completely. Just before that, he'd been telling me that he needed to know if I knew about his brother because it was all he had left. Immediately after, he was a different person. He was cold and sadistic—he laughed as he threw me to the ground and forced me to devolve. When he devolved, he just stared at me with so much hatred. When I asked why he was letting me live, he said that he never meant to kill me."
"So what's that supposed to mean?" Takuya asked cautiously.
"I took martial arts for a few years," Koji explained. "I know when someone's pulling their punches. With him, I could barely tell, but I think I believe him. That's the only reason why I'm still alive and in better shape than I should be. When he's sane, he can hardly keep up, and I stand a chance. But piss him off, make him lose control, and he's completely different. Remember what Lord Seraphimon said about the Spirit? The Warrior of Darkness should have lost his mind a long time ago. It happens when he evolves, and I've seen it twice now. Sometimes he manages to control himself, and sometimes he doesn't. When he can't, he's that much stronger."
"Then we get the Spirit away from him," Takuya answered. "Solves their problem and solves ours."
"It's not that simple," Koji said through clenched teeth. "Getting the Spirit means we have to fight him first, and I don't think he even used half his strength to destroy all this. You're not the only one leading this team, Takuya. I am not letting you risk our lives like this."
"You've got to have more faith in us!" Takuya shouted. "Sure, Duskmon's strong, but he doesn't rely on his team. He always fights alone. There's five of us—if we all work together, I know we can bring him down!"
In any other situation, Koji would have remembered that he was still badly injured from his battle with Duskmon. But Takuya always had a talent for angering him to the point that reason, common sense, and everything else were completely forgotten. So immediately after punching Takuya, Koji cried out in pain and clutched his arm. Not only had the sudden movement pained his injured arm, but it also had aggravated the other wounds in his body, as if in a chain reaction of pain.
Takuya rubbed his aching jaw and yelled back, "What the hell did you do that for?"
Managing to block out the pain for the moment, Koji glared at Takuya and said in a dangerously calm voice, "It's obvious you don't care about yourself, but promise me the others won't get hurt. 'Cause if you can't, then go home now. I won't let you risk their lives." And then he turned and started to head in the opposite direction.
"Where are you going?" Takuya demanded. "We're not done here!"
"I'm getting some supplies, since someone was stupid enough to destroy the only major town around here," Koji answered in a voice that plainly said they were done here. Takuya growled in anger. "If you need help, call." Angrily, Takuya kicked at the fallen leaves and branches before returning to camp.
"Hey, where's Koji?" J.P. asked once Takuya stalked back.
"You two didn't get into a fight again, did you?" Zoë sighed, noticing the red mark on Takuya's jaw.
"He's looking for more supplies," Takuya answered bitterly. "I'm going to get some water."
"I'll go with you," Tommy volunteered. Takuya shrugged, too caught up in his rage against Koji to give much thought to anything else at the moment. Zoë sighed and shook her head.
"I still can't believe they consider themselves best friends after all these fights," she muttered.
"I doubt we'll ever get them," J.P. agreed. Then, looking around, he added, "We might as well get food for tonight. Knowing them, they won't come back until at least sunset."
"Yeah," Zoë said resignedly.
They started searching the bushes and trees for fruit or nuts. There were some meat-apples around, but they didn't want to risk making a fire if they were only going to leave again. These things happened often now that they were in Ophanimon's employ; it wasn't exactly easy to walk into town without causing panic. Their camps were as temporary as they could make them, and they always needed to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. Often, it meant they spent a night cold and lightless.
Zoë was humming as she picked berries from a bush. Hearing it, J.P. said, "Hey, I've never heard that song before. What is it?"
"Oh, just something I heard in Italy," she replied. "It was written in memory of a famous tenor, and since my parents always played opera, they found this song and got me hooked."
"You know, you never mentioned why you were in Italy," he realized. "Two years, right?"
"Yep," she answered. "My mom is actually half-Italian, and a couple of years ago, she got the chance to work in Italy, so she moved us over there in a heartbeat. I knew a little Italian from my grandparents, and I caught onto it quickly. Though, I'm not so good with Japanese."
"You sound fine to me," J.P. replied.
"It's reading that's my problem," Zoë admitted. "I can understand the simpler characters, but I have a lot more trouble the more complicated they get. And you know how I keep mixing up Italian and Japanese—saying something in Italian when I know you won't understand it? That habit didn't make me popular with the other girls. They thought I was being pretentious, so I have a hard time making friends."
"How many friends did you have in Italy?"
"A lot," she confessed. "And I miss them and everything about Rome. I was so homesick the first few months when we moved back to Japan…it didn't help at all."
"Yeah, I can imagine," he replied.
"What about you?" she asked.
"What?" he asked, caught off-guard.
"You're always helping everyone out, trying to keep Takuya and Koji from killing each other, or trying to be the responsible one, or you'll try and cheer us up with magic or chocolate. Why didn't you have many friends?"
Surprised and embarrassed, J.P. answered, "It's just how things worked out!"
"I'm sorry," Zoë insisted. "I'm always doing this—hurting people's feelings by mistake. I didn't mean to embarrass you."
"No, it's okay," J.P. replied. "The kids at school liked me, but they didn't like me enough to be a friend, that's all."
"Well, at least they liked you," she answered, suddenly becoming very interested in the berries.
"Yeah," he agreed, switching his attention to the search for food. It was going to be a long, awkward silence until the others came back.
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"I can't believe that jerk," Takuya muttered, kicking a rock all the way through the walk. "Doesn't believe in us, always has to have the last word…"
"Yeah," Tommy murmured hesitantly. Takuya raised an eyebrow and looked at him.
"What's wrong?"
"You just got me thinking about Yutaka," he admitted. "He was always the same."
"Oh?" Takuya asked, intrigued. Tommy tried not to talk about his college-age brother; they did not get along at all.
"Yeah," Tommy replied. "He was always mean to me, telling me I was a baby and that I needed to grow up."
"You've grown up now," Takuya pointed out. "You're the Warrior of Ice—how could he argue with that?"
"You don't know Yutaka," Tommy said. "He'd figure out something. He's never nice. I know he had school and couldn't play with me a lot 'cause he's so much older than me, but why did he always have to pick on me?" The comment hit Takuya like a blow to the gut, but Tommy didn't notice. "And just because Mom and Dad love me, it doesn't mean I'm spoiled. He doesn't know what he's talking about."
"Well, Tommy, sometimes that's what big brothers do," Takuya confessed, trying to recover from the shock of hearing something that sounded oddly like his brother Shinya's complaints. "It's not an easy job."
"I know," he admitted. "But he could at least try to be nice to me." When Takuya didn't answer, he asked, "Is something wrong?"
"Uh, no," he answered. "Just thinking about stuff, you know?" Tommy nodded, and Takuya inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. He hated admitting when he was wrong, but now he was starting to have doubts about the way he'd acted toward his little brother back home.
Maybe I'll give it a shot, he considered. But after this is all over. There was still a lot of work to be done in the Digital World, and he wasn't going to fail Lady Ophanimon. Maybe once they'd won, he'd be able to try a nicer approach to Shinya. He'd at least have the victory to cheer him up if the brat ever got on his nerves, anyway.
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Koji knew he was pushing himself by walking several kilometers to the nearest village or settlement while badly injured, but right now, all he cared about was finding some supplies and putting as much distance between himself and Takuya as humanly possible. The Warrior of Flame was his best friend, but it was just so hard to think with him around—a trait, Koji suspected, Takuya was rubbing off on him.
He stopped for a minute and leaned against a tree, trying to catch his breath. He was still tired, aching, and bleeding from the battle, and to boot, his head was throbbing from the memory scan. Having Duskmon invading his mind like that was not fun.
"What was he so interested in anyway?" he muttered. Thinking aloud was a bad habit of his, but it helped him reason things out a lot better than silent thought did. "He said he wanted to know how much I knew about his brother, but he went after my memories of my family. And then he freaked out seeing how I am around Dad and Satomi."
He was still upset about that. Getting physically beaten up in a battle was one thing, but a mental attack was on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. His memories and thoughts were private, and he hated Duskmon for crossing that line and looking into his mind. Yet he couldn't help but wonder about that look of hatred he'd gotten from the human Warrior of Darkness, and why it was this specific memory that caused such a reaction. It was true that Koji and his father often had disagreements—especially when it came to the subject of his stepmother—but it wasn't bad enough to warrant the warning he'd gotten.
"Why that memory?" Koji asked. Duskmon had seen everything else in flashes, but he stopped at that specific memory. What had made him want to see it through? "Was it my mom's picture?" But that didn't make sense; why would Duskmon care about Koji's dead mother? Was it pity?
Koji scowled. "I don't need his pity."
Putting aside these thoughts, he resumed his trek. There was no point to wondering any of this. He had a job to do, and he wasn't going to let himself get distracted. He at least still remembered that his friends would need help. That was first priority now. Everything else would wait.
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Dinner was at least an hour after sunset, and even then not everyone had arrived. Tommy came back with water, saying that Takuya had mentioned something about needing to practice and wouldn't be back until later. Koji made it back even later, carrying a bag of bandages, food, water bottles, and medicine. No one asked how he'd gotten it; it had become a personal policy that they no longer asked. None of them were all that proud of how many times they'd been forced to steal or kill for what they needed to survive. It had been so much easier in the days before, when they were naïve enough to think that they could save the world a little bit at a time. Back then, their reputations could pay for their dinners, and they didn't have to sneak around towns. But no matter how hard it was now, they knew it would eventually pay off. They were fixing the world now; Lady Ophanimon had opened their eyes to everything that was wrong with the Digital World, and they now knew that sometimes to cure an illness, it was necessary to cut off or destroy what was diseased.
They ate in an unusual silence, each of the four brooding over his or her own personal issues. When hours passed and Takuya still hadn't shown, Koji took off into the woods to find him. They all knew it would be easier just to call him, but right now, they wanted some time away from each other. It wasn't normally this way, but Cherubimon's Warriors were making it hard on them. They'd been forced to split apart to search for Beast Spirits and try and hold off their specific opponents. It was hard.
Takuya was half-limping back to camp when Koji ran into him, almost literally. They stared at each other silently in the night, refusing to apologize or admit any wrongdoing. Then finally, Takuya asked, "How exactly do you admit that maybe you could've been a better brother? And that maybe your friends have a point?"
"You're asking me?" Koji replied. "I don't know anything about that."
Takuya smirked. "Maybe not the first part, but the second you could try." Koji snorted and handed over a fresh roll of bandages, which Takuya wrapped around his injured leg. Then the two of them made their way back to camp, certain that sooner or later, the team would be back to normal.
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They'd been in the Trailmon for hours, and Koichi and Katsuharu were still sitting on opposite ends of the car. Teruo, Teppei, and Chiaki had long since given up trying to play peacemaker and had fallen asleep. Bokomon, meanwhile, added annotations to his book and snapped Neemon's waistband for trying to play with Seraphimon's egg. For the most part, everything was silent, and Katsuharu was doing what he could to try and ignore Koichi. They hadn't spoken to each other since the near-evolution earlier that day, and Katsuharu was still angry. Koichi knew how dangerous his Spirits were, and he still wouldn't refuse to use the Beast Spirit? It didn't make sense, not for him.
"Katsuharu?" Koichi whispered, coming over just as Katsuharu was about to fall asleep. He did all he could not to roll his eyes. Great. Now Koichi wanted to talk.
"What?" he asked. He wasn't swayed by the look of guilt. He'd been a bully for a long time; it would take a lot more than Koichi's regretful face to crack him.
"I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry for dividing the team like this," he apologized. "It's the last thing I wanted to do."
Katsuharu shrugged indifferently. "Fine."
"But I'm still not giving up my Beast Spirit," Koichi insisted. "I don't plan on using it until I absolutely have to, and I want you to know that nothing you say can change my mind."
Katsuharu sighed in exasperation. "You know what that thing'll do to you. Why do you still insist on using it?"
Koichi closed his eyes for a moment before answering, "I don't have a lot of friends back home, and it feels like I keep losing everyone I love. I finally have the power to help the people I care about. Please don't ask me not to use that power."
"That doesn't make sense," Katsuharu pointed out, shaking his head. "Sure, you have the power, but it doesn't mean a thing if you're just going to lose control. You'll wind up hurting the people you're trying to protect. I've been a bully—I know all about the emptiness that comes with power."
Koichi smiled sadly. "Then I guess you've been lonely too, because that's just as empty a feeling." Katsuharu didn't answer. "I can't promise anything because I'm so desperate right now. If everything's going to fall apart, I don't want to stand back and let that happen. Even if I fail, I need to try."
He was about to walk back to the other side of the car when Katsuharu called out, "Just hold off on it, okay? Right now, Duskmon's enough help." Koichi nodded and sat down, watching the stars pass by as they headed for the next town.
The title comes from the original trailer for Kingdom Hearts II. The song Zoë was humming is supposed to be "Caruso," written by Lucio Dalla and dedicated to Enrico Caruso. And yes, one line from Koji and Takuya's argument was almost lifted word-for-word from canon—thanks to Ryan Griffin for that little suggestion, among other ideas and help for the chapter.
And as a note, one review last chapter bothered me greatly. To set the record straight: I will never bash any character in any of my fics. Any opinions you see are intended to be the opinions of the characters, blinded to various degrees by different cognitive biases. My characters are human, and prone to making mistakes and being biased. Nothing is ever black and white.