A/N: RL again. One day it will learn not to get between a girl and her muse. :D
In terms of timeline, this bridges the Tomoki disappearing - Kouich & Yutaka in the DW - Kouji seeing Yamato outside his window and the scene with Kouji being blind (I actually forgot whether that's in mine or Light's collection…). So it should explain a few things, introduce a new group of players and possibly mess with your brains. Enjoy!
Concurring Overwrite
Data Fragment 25: Humanity
He didn't want to fight his brother, and he was sure that, beyond that virus fighting for control, Kouji didn't want to either.
And they weren't fighting. Not really. Kouji was simply standing there, staring between the two and taking no sides. And the Saint was playing with idle strings on his guitar, making a mismatch of tunes.
And Kouichi wasn't actually saying anything either. They were at an impasse of sorts. Because when Kouichi had tried to explain about the virus, about how it would change them all –
'It hurts,' Kouji had said, and it sounded so raw that the words had died without being said or heard.
And of course Kouichi could understand that, because he'd felt the same, before the Digital World.
But Kouji hadn't known him to stop him then. Now they knew each other. Now he could stop. And he had a way to stop.
The Saint lowered the guitar. 'I grow bored,' he said petulantly. 'Soon this song will be complete.'
And that made Kouichi both desperate and angry – because once the transformation was complete, there'd be no going back.
But what could he do? All he had to stop the virus was –
He thought no more than the idea. Simply, he threw himself forward when the Saint tried to wrap an arm around Kouji's shoulders, taking off his Holy ring in the same motion and slipping it around the other's wrist.
It tightened instantly and they both screamed: Kouji from the holy power pushing against the viral onslaught and Kouichi from the loss of that protection. The Saint looked at them: curiously and a tad annoyed, but not concerned.
The concern was however plastered across Yutaka's face, along with confusion. He'd heard the facts but things had moved too suddenly, too fast. And there was still a lot he didn't know and very little he'd experienced.
But screams and pain were parts of the universal language – and so was the fear of something keeping him rooted to the spot.
It was an instant light show. Light poured out of the ring and created a halo around the younger twin. As to the older who'd given his up – he became surrounded in darkness instead. A black outline formed by small particles lifting off his skin, becoming blacker as the human form began to quickly crumble.
The Saint frowned. 'What is going on?' It was a loud, harsh question: louder and harsher than the pseudo-melodies he'd sung before.
'Well,' said a new voice, appearing above them – a boy with brown hair and tan skin sitting astride a dragon. 'This is interesting.'
The halo of light tightened, then vanished. Kouji fell like a puppet cut of its strings and did not get up again. Kouichi on the other hand rose into the air – if he could be still called that. If the black particles were the virus, they had eaten his entire body in minutes and were now fashioning a new one for him.
The wings were the first to become recognisable from the blob, and then the body – not human at all, for humans did not walk on all fours or have a tail. The scream changed as well: one cut off, the other became more guttural – a growl. A sphinx perhaps, Yutaka fleetingly thought. He felt as though he was caught in a nightmare and perhaps it was. Perhaps it all, starting from Tomoki's disappearance and that brief adventure through the digital world, was a nightmare.
And the winged figure fell: not on to the ground but through it, and vanished. And the boy astride his dragon laughed in amusement and vanished as well, leaving just the teenager with his guitar and the other, collapsed, boy.
Saint, the ghosts had called boys like that teenager. Yutaka saw nothing different in him – except when he touched the Holy ring and it shocked him. It was Kouichi who'd undergone drastic changes – into the thing he'd called Phantomon in the digital world, and now into…that. He saw nothing different at all –
Except when the boy turned and walked away, forgetting or ignoring the spectator there. He crouched on all fours and became a blue blur – though the skin he wore didn't seem to change at all.