Chapter 20: Trouble in the Real World! The Disappearing Children
It was already dark by the time Guilmon finally woke. He groaned as he sat up, feeling pain in his stomach area. He grabbed his head and looked at his belly, seeing a large circulation of blood-stained bandages over it. He looked up to see everyone else gathered around a lit fire. Looking down, Guilmon noticed that he was covered with Nero's jacket to help keep him warm.
"Guilmon, you're okay!" Ana cheered happily, running over to him after noticing he was awake.
"Ana?" Guilmon said as she hugged him.
"Glad to see you're awake," Nero stated, getting up and approaching the two. "Sorry about the bandages, but those were all we had left. Alex was smart enough to pick up some bandages back at Ikebana Town, though they were originally intended for us. You were hurt really badly."
Guilmon looked around at the others, who had few bandages.
"Did we win?" he asked.
"Yes, we won," Ana answered. "Now don't push yourself so much."
"I won't, Raeana," Guilmon replied, using his partner's real name to show that he respected her wishes.
Guilmon handed Nero his jacket, thanking him for it. Nero quickly looked over it, noticing hat despite Guilmon's bandages being bloodstained, none has seeped through enough to reach his jacket. He put it back on and patted Guilmon on the head, returning to the others.
Nero sat down and glanced at his Digivice, noting the locations of the others who weren't in the group.
"As I stated earlier, there are two different sectors we could go to from here," said Nero. "One of them would involve travelling through the desert region of the Digital World, while the other would involve traversing the Dragon Spring Mountains. The problem with both choices is the distance between towns. The desert area has stronger wild Digimon, but there is more room to fight and it's a fairly straight path. The Dragon Spring Mountains aren't so dangerous unless Gaiomon gets involved, but it's tight, and escape would be difficult if an enemy found us."
"I say we go to the Dragon Spring Mountains!" Hikaru proposed. "Ryudamon and I have a fairly good reputation, so I'm sure we cold get help there."
"And with you there, Lord Yggdrasil, Gaiomon would more than happy to provide us with the assistance and protection necessary," Ryudamon added.
"That probably would be the best choice of action," Nero admitted. "From what the Digivice says, there's only signal in the sector, whereas everyone else appears to have at least someone else with them. Being alone for so long, I'm sure they'd appreciate some company."
"Um, Nero," Aimi suddenly said after hearing him mention that they had been gone for a while. "If you don't mind me asking, how long have we been away from home?"
Aimi's question had struck everyone with surprise; most of them hadn't even realized that they had been away as long as they had.
"I honestly don't know," Nero answered. "I lost track around the time Dorumon first digivolved. If I had to guess, I'd say about three weeks."
"That long?" Andrew gasped.
"Wow," said Alex, looking down at the fire. "I bet my mom's going to turn my disappearance into the scoop of the century. I just hope my dad doesn't take it out on his students."
The human all went deep into thought, remembering their homes and missing them greatly. Just the same, the Digimon stared at the fire with guilty expressions prevalent on their faces. They couldn't help but feel responsible for the way their partners were feeling.
In fact, the humans were not the only ones missing their families; their families were missing them too. It was about two weeks ago, if not sooner, that they deeply began to question the disappearances of the children.
Approximately two weeks ago, after realizing that Nero had missed several days of school, Nero's teacher approached the two boys that had been picking on him.
"Nara! Reiji!" Ms. Yuriko called as the two students headed out the door. "I would like to talk to the two of you for a moment."
The two turned around to face her, wondering what they did wrong.
"Yes, ma'am," they said.
"I want to know exactly what you two said to Nero last week," Ms. Yuriko requested, trying to sound calm like a teacher should. Both students looked at her curiously. "According to the office, Nero's mother had stated that Nero would be taking time off of school for personal reasons that she did not want to discuss. Did you two say anything that may have made him feel so uncomfortable that he didn't want to return? I want you to be completely honest with me!"
"No!" Nara replied firmly. "At least, I don't think I did. I was mad at him for making my friend upset, but all I asked him to do was repay her."
"He's telling the truth, ma'am," Reiji told her.
"Regardless, the two of you are to deliver his class and homework to his house," Ms. Yuriko ordered.
"Fine," Nara grumbled, not wanting to risk losing his football privileges due to what the teacher believed was his fault.
The two boys later walked towards Nero's house to deliver the assignments to him. As they walked, they first cursed Nero for causing them the trouble, but then started wondering if perhaps they were responsible for his absence. Upon arriving at his house, the knocked on the door and were greeted by his mother. They handed over the work, receiving a "Thank you!" from the woman.
"If it's not too much trouble, could we speak to Nero?" Nara asked.
"I'm sorry," Nero's mother replied with a small bit of hesitation. "Nero's not feeling too well at the moment and he's asleep."
The two looked each other and wondered what they should do; no way were they going to waste more of their time by coming back another day. It was then that Nara thought of an idea.
"Excuse me, Miss Arakaki, but do you by any chance know Nero's username for that Digimon game?" he questioned.
"I'm afraid I don't," the woman lied. "If you want, I can tell him you stopped by."
The conversation was briefly interrupted by the arrival of a mailman delivering mail to the house directly. The two students bowed politely and thanked her for their time. As the two walked away, Nara began speaking Reiji.
"Reiji, did you notice the return address on the letter on the top of the pile given to Nero's mom?" he wondered.
"No, why?" Reiji responded.
"It said the letter was from Toy Origins Entertainment Inc.," Nara informed. "That's the company that makes the Digimon game."
"Odd," said Reiji. "Why would the company that makes the Digimon game be sending Nero a letter?"
In another part of Japan, Hikaru's mother picked up a phone and sighed. She was dressed very business-like, mostly in black with a white shirt underneath her black jacket, as if she had just returned from work.
"I see, so you haven't found him yet," she said in a disappointed tone, her long red hair hanging over her shoulders as she tilted her head. "Thank you! Please keep looking."
She moved her hair away from her hazel-colored eyes and began dialing a number.
"Hey, honey! I received a call from the police station today. No, they haven't found Hikaru yet. What?! Alex's father told you that his daughter is missing too? Heh, I wish it was something that simple, but Hikaru's not the type of person who would do something like that. I see…Alex was last using a computer as well? Well, once the police figure this thing out, her mother will have quite a story."
After finishing up the conversation, Hikaru's mother hung up the phone and looked up towards the ceiling.
"Oh, Hikaru, where are you? I just hope you're okay."
Unlike Hikaru and Alex's parents, Aimi's parents were not having the police scan the city for heir missing child. In fact, they had no idea that Aimi that the last thing Aimi did was use the computer. They had thought that Aimi went on her school's camping trip. Apparently, somehow someone had mistakenly marked Aimi as present on the bus, so it was assumed that she went missing on the trip. When Aimi's friend was questioned, she thought they had been talking about the previous week, when Aimi actually had spent the night, so she confirmed it. Several members of the school's staff, feeling guilty for the supposed disappearance, had taken some time off to help try and locate her.
Since no body had been found at the camp grounds or anywhere around the area, they figured that there was an equal chance that she was still alive; of course her parents never gave up hope. Even the nearby lake was checked using scuba diving equipment; once again, nothing was found, not even any personal belongings.
It wasn't until a few days ago that Yotsuba's father had noticed that she was missing. He was a business man of sorts, always dressed professionally. After Yotsuba's mother divorced him, there was nobody to really take care of Yotsuba. He regretted working so much, but he wanted to make sure his daughter would be financially secure if something ever happened to him, but he enjoyed his work enough to the point where his intentions went unnoticeable. Due to working so late, he never noticed her disappearance. The moment he realized she had never come home and that her school hadn't seen her in days, he knew something was wrong. He even took the next couple days off from work, just hoping to hear from her.
"How…" the tall, short blonde-haired man constantly thought. "How could I not notice this? And I call myself her father!"
Zaki's disappearance in Malaysia had been questioned just like the children from Japan, but the police were unable to locate him anywhere either.
Things were no different in England, where her mother had asked the police to look for her. She knew that she wasn't the world's best mother, and that Sandra didn't like hanging around her if it could be avoided. It was possible that Sandra ran away, so her mother asked the police just to make sure that she was okay, and once she was found, to tell her that she missed her.
In the case of Aaron, both of his parents were already dead, so his caretakers were the only ones that would be truly worried about him. However, they weren't too concerned about his whereabouts for the moment, mainly due to the fact that he had left behind a note saying that he was going on a trip to visit an old friend Japan. This, of course, was an obvious lie, as although he knew Yggdrasil's true identity was someone from Japan, he couldn't say he knew who he was and that they were friends. Regardless of this, Aaron was rich and had notable social skills, so it was believable.
Conrad from France had done something similar to escape to the Digital World. Having been spoiled so much as a child, his parents let him do pretty much whatever he wanted. When he told his parents he wanted to visit Japan, his father naturally forked over some money to allow him to go. Upon being asked why he wanted to go, Conrad responded that he won a contest with a group of others, and that he would get work with the creator of his favorite game.
Both children from the United States, Raeana and Andrew, were only really missed by their families, due to both of them having very few friends. Naturally, Raeana's mother was quick to notice her daughter's mysterious absence, having almost always been home. She had noticed it the first day. After realizing that her daughter had not come out of her room all day and night, she sent to check on her and see if anything had happened that day. She discovered that Ana was missing and immediately called the police. Even a week later, she had never been found. The same was true for Andrew; the police never found him.
In Australia, Jillian's brother had been the first to notice she was missing. Jillian's mother could still remember her son running into the kitchen while she was preparing dinner for the three of them, and that he was saying "Mom! Mom! Jillian's missing!" The two of them had gone out searching for her before alerting the authorities of her disappearance, since Jillian's brother had seen her about ten minutes beforehand. While Jillian's mother soon informed the police of the situation, her brother couldn't help but wonder if the Digimon game had something to do with it. As the days went by, and after reading the rumors of the human avatars on message boards, he began to find his theory more and more plausible. He had examined the messages he had in the game multiple times, but the one from Yggdrasil caught his eye. He had a feeling that the user known as Yggdrasil was responsible, but he had no proof to back it up, and if he could, he wondered what would be the right thing to do.
Out of the 13 children, Brandon was the only one who had not gone missing within the week. It wasn't until after two weeks in all that he had been given a chance to go to the Digital World. After finally managing to tell his mother that he was going to a strange place that seemed impossible to reach, he had his family be at the computer to see him off.
"This is crazy!" his mother exclaimed. "You can't be serious, Brandon!"
"You're crazy!" his younger sister stated with a questionable look on his face.
"I have to agree, this does seem pretty stupid," his younger brother said.
"I'm going to have to ask the lot of you not to talk about my partner like that," a voice from the computer announced.
The voice freaked the three family members out, resulting in Brandon giving a small chuckle.
"See ya around!" he told the three as held his Digivice up to the computer screen, disappearing instantly as a blinding light illuminated the room.
The three looked on with dumbfounded expressions as Brandon vanished from sight. They scurried over to the computer and were shocked to see Brandon facedown on the ground inside the monitor. They all gasped in disbelief, unable to believe that Brandon was telling the truth about the Digital World.
"Be careful!" his mother wished.
In the Digital World, Brandon lifted his head out of the dirt to hear a voice saying, "It's about time!" He looked up to see a strange wolf-like Digimon sitting atop a broken pillar. He had a bluish-light purple fur color, with a white belly and muzzle region. He sat upright as if he walked on his hind legs, wearing long white pants held up with a black belt, as well as black straps tied around his legs. He wore black gloves to cover his sharp claws in addition to straps around his elbows.
"I didn't think it would take you this long to get here!" he grumbled as he nimbly hopped off the pillar, a black scarf flowing freely behind him from around his neck. He extended an arm and helped the human to his feet. "The name's Strabimon."
"Nice to meet you, Strabimon," Brandon replied as he got to his feet, making contact with the Digimon's brown eyes. "Thanks for the help! And sorry for making you wait for so long."
"I've got to admit, I was getting tired of waiting myself," a female voice said.
Brandon turned around to see Yotsuba standing there with her partner, Kotemon.
"And who might you be?" he asked.
"My name's Yotsuba Ishimori," the girl greeted kindly, holding out her right hand. "My partner over her is Kotemon."
"It's a pleasure," said Kotemon, bowing politely.
"I'm Brandon Omiyage," Brandon responded, shaking Yotsuba's hand.
"I saw her passing by one day and asked her for assistance," Strabimon explained. "She was heading to the larger group, and agreed to stay after realizing that you'd be alone."
"Is that so?" Brandon questioned. "Thank you, Yotsuba."
"Now that you're here, we can finally get moving," Strabimon firmly stated. "I've already told Yotsuba and Kotemon the plan, which they both agreed with. Rather than meet up with the larger, we're going to check out an area up north that supposedly holds an item that will be beneficial to our overall goal. We'll then assist the others up there before joining with the larger group. Is that all right with you?"
"Well, I made you guys wait for so long, so you've had plenty of time to think this through," Brandon replied with a sigh, scratching the back of his head. "I guess it's all right with me. Lead the way!"
Strabimon nodded his head, Yotsuba and Kotemon soon doing the same.
"Very well, let's go!" Strabimon said in a leader-like tone.
As the third week passed, after Nero and the others had defeated Belphemon, one of the members of the company that made the Digimon game reported to a group of his coworkers with news of a video posted on the popular internet site, YouTube, containing disturbing footage concerning the rumors about human avatars in the game.