Yang-Yin
Chapter Twenty-five: "The Oncoming Storm"
It was generally considered foolish to take shelter under a tree in a thunderstorm. Katsuharu didn't have much choice in the matter, though. All around him was forest, and he didn't like the idea of standing out in the open in a lightning storm anyway. He'd just have to trust that his Spirit would be able to hold up against it if it came to this.
"What is with this storm?" he muttered, watching the skies intently. The lightning only skipped from cloud to cloud, never once touching the ground. He wasn't an expert, but… "That's not normal lightning behavior."
"What was your first clue?"
Suddenly, the lightning aimed directly for him. Katsuharu was lucky to follow his gut instinct and dive for cover the moment he heard Beetlemon's voice. A burnt patch of dirt radiated out from where he was standing. He got to his feet quickly and pulled out his D-tector. Before he had the chance to evolve, however, Teppei's voice sounded from it:
"Where are you, man? I can't find anyone!"
"I'm a little busy at the moment," he bit back before hanging up. A second later, he evolved to Arbormon.
Beetlemon came at him, his horn charged with electricity. Arbormon launched an arm into the air and grabbed hold of a tree branch, using it to swing himself out of the way. Once he was in the safety of the tree, he tried to fire the missile from his breastplate. A blast of lightning completely destroyed it before it could touch Beetlemon, however. Bits and pieces of the wooden projectile went flying through the air, embedding themselves into the trees. Seeing that his long-range attack was useless, Arbormon knew he had to settle for his typical mid-range Roundhouse Punt.
He jumped out of the tree just as Beetlemon took flight. Beetlemon was able to block the first fist that came his way, but the other three limbs hit him anyway, throwing him into another tree trunk.
"Here's something I've been dying to know," he said while perched in another tree. "What the hell did I do to you?" He leapt out of the way of a lightning blast and ducked into another tree. "You said that this was revenge for Tommy, but I don't buy that anymore. If it was, you'd be attacking Teppei just as bad. And you don't nearly stop a guy from being able to breathe just because he kicked around a friend of yours. It has to be a lot more personal than that." He stopped and faced Beetlemon, making it very clear that he was not going to fight until he'd heard the story. "So what did I do?"
Thunder boomed all around them, but the lightning remained in the sky. Very deliberately, Beetlemon said, "You think you can see through everyone, don't you? You think that just because you can see others' weaknesses, it's all right to keep hitting at them, make them feel worse about themselves."
"Yeah, I've been a bully," Arbormon replied. "I've accepted that, and I've moved on. What does that have to do with you, though?"
Beetlemon faced the sky, and Katsuharu thought that underneath the armor, J.P. had a sarcastic smile on his face. "You know, I hate lightning and thunder. When the Spirits chose us, I was sure I'd gotten the wrong element. Every time there was a storm, I was terrified. You never know what can happen—the lights can go out, a fire can start… For just a minute, the whole world is lit up, and then everything goes black again with a deafening boom."
"Okay…" Arbormon answered, confused.
"I have this bad habit of forgetting my umbrella," he continued. "One day while I was at school, a tropical storm hit, and I was stuck trying to bribe other kids into walking with me. Finally, all of them left but one. This last kid agreed to walk with me without candy or trading cards. But on the way home, he looks at me and says, 'You know, you're pretty sad. You don't have any friends, so you try and buy them.' Want to guess who it was?"
Arbormon recoiled in shock. "I don't remember saying any of that!"
"You did, and I've got a good memory," Beetlemon replied. "You've put down so many people that they just blur in your mind. I was willing to just forget it until I saw other pieces of your handiwork. You bullied Tommy, who was too young to stand up for himself. You do it to your friends too—I watched the way you treated Koichi. Up until recently, you acted like you didn't trust a single thing he did. You mostly kept it to yourself while he was evolved, but it was obvious by the way you tried to ignore him. You even belittle Teppei, who you say is your best friend. How many times have you shot him down? Sure, maybe he's got a thicker skin because he's a bully himself, but how much of that is your fault?"
"What?" Arbormon asked, completely unable to say anything else.
"This is what you do to us, Katsuharu," Beetlemon insisted. "You tear us down before we even know what we're doing. And you don't even realize you're doing it. Maybe your friends can let you get away with it, but I'm not standing for it any longer, and I'm glad Tommy isn't either."
He shifted evolutions and aimed MetalKabuterimon's cannon at him. There was a sparkling, blinding flash of lightning as the Electron Cannon fired at Arbormon, and then there was darkness.
-------
"Koichi, where the hell are you?"
All it took was one little slip to give him away. It wasn't even anyone's fault; Teppei only called to be sure Koichi was all right, not realizing that he was purposely trying to keep under the radar. But Koji heard it, and with the light from his evolution and Lobomon's sword shining brightly, there was no place Koichi could hide. But maybe that was for the best; it was high time he stopped trying to run away.
Lobomon swiped his sword at Koichi, who just managed to slide back out of its way. But the blade still managed to hit him, knocking the D-tector right out of his hand. Immediately, he ran for it, but Lobomon was easily able to get in his way. He stopped short, staring into the business end of the laser equipped to Lobomon's wrist.
"Give up," Lobomon warned, his voice low.
Koichi swallowed hard. "I can't," he insisted.
There was a tense standoff in which Koichi stayed frozen to the spot while Lobomon kept his laser trained on him. There was absolutely nothing he could do. He had no idea what Koji would do, but having a deadly weapon fixed on him gave him a pretty good indication of what he might try. If Koichi tried to move, there was the extremely strong possibility that Koji would shoot. It would probably be a good idea to watch Lobomon's face to see if he could read his intent, but Koichi was not about to take his eyes off the gun.
Finally, seeing that Koichi was too terrified to look at him and not the laser, Lobomon put his arm down and said, "Look, I'm not going to attack someone who can't fight back. It goes completely against my personal code."
"W-what?" Koichi stammered.
"Just because we're enemies, it doesn't mean you're still not a helpless, stupid kid right now," he replied. Koichi guessed this was supposed to be something akin to a compliment, however insultingly worded. "I'm not the kind of person who would push someone around like that."
Koichi's heart was racing, and his instincts were screaming, "Say something, stupid!" Suddenly, having a staring contest with a laser cannon seemed far less frightening. But he knew he had to say this, and it was now or never.
"I'm K—" At the last second, he choked, and his name was left hanging unfinished in the shadows.
Lobomon gave him a look that suggested he was raising an eyebrow behind his mask. "You're what?"
Koichi cleared his throat, took a breath, and slowly said, "My name is Koichi Kimura. Does…does that mean anything to you?"
That look intensified. "No. Should it?"
Koichi hung his head. "I guess not, then. Sorry."
There was another awkward silence between them. At last, Lobomon said, "You're weird, you know that?"
A small smile formed on Koichi's face when he remembered the last time Koji told him that, or something similar for that matter. First breaking into giggles after nearly drowning, now expecting him to recognize his name? "Yeah, I guess I am." An idea hit him: Just keep talking. Just keep talking, and sooner or later you'll figure out what to say. "My—my parents divorced when I was younger. I was too young to remember. My mom raised me almost all on her own. She's great, you know. Everything she did, she did for me. No matter how much she was hurt or sick or tired or anything, she would drop everything just for my sake. I guess I never really appreciated it until now."
It hadn't seemed possible, but Lobomon looked even more confused now than he had before. "Is there a point to all this?"
Koichi didn't answer, but all he could think was, I hope so.
-------
Katsuharu only had a moment to switch to Petaldramon's form, but it paid off and the electrical blast only hit him in the side. While it hurt, it was definitely preferable than taking it head-on. Quickly, he thrust his tail into the ground to try and spread out the roots to rip up the ground underneath MetalKabuterimon. But it was a trick he'd used too often; J.P. changed evolutions and rose high above the roots and vines. With his hands in the air, he called on the storm and sent several powerful bolts of lighting right into Petaldramon's back. Katsuharu never stood a chance. He was far too slow in that form to dodge, and even if he'd changed evolutions he'd still be hit just as badly. Fractal Code wrapped around him, and he fell to the ground with an undignified thud.
"You know," Beetlemon said as Katsuharu defiantly started pulling himself up, "right here is when I'd expect you to start saying all sorts of things to throw me off. Where's your spirit, Katsuharu? No comebacks about how pathetic I am? No putdowns that I'm just using my team the way I used to use the kids at school?"
"Is that really what you think of yourself?" Katsuharu asked bluntly. J.P. was shocked at the wording, at the honesty of it—no trace of a mocking tone at all. "Those are your words, not mine. I haven't bullied you once since we first met in the Digital World, you know that? I don't even see your interaction with the others enough to judge. But if you can think that I'd try and say that against you, then some part of you must be thinking that it's true." He groaned and managed to stand upright. "Yeah, I was wrong to say that stuff to you. I was wrong on a lot of things. But still, there are some things that need to be said. And looking back, I think that was one of them."
"What do you mean?" Beetlemon demanded.
"It's simple," Katsuharu answered. "You don't know how to fix what's wrong with you if you can't face what's wrong. And yeah, it's gonna hurt—just like it hurts knowing that belittling people is so second nature to me that I don't even realize I'm doing it anymore. It makes you doubt how far along you've come, makes you think that you're nothing more than what you started as. But you've got to force yourself to grow a thicker skin before you can begin to improve yourself, just like a tree grows its wood in rings around itself." Another metaphor hit him, and he smiled humorlessly. "Or like how a tropical storm pulls its clouds and winds around itself, winding around to form a typhoon. But a tree and a storm are only strong if they manage to do that."
A bright light broke into the forest and struck Katsuharu's D-tector. He only had a moment to notice Seraphimon's emblem displayed on the screen before everything went white. The pain faded from his body, and he looked to see his Human Spirit at his right and his Beast Spirit at his left. The smile on his face this time was genuine, as he whispered, "I get it," and allowed the light to vanish. Without missing a beat, he raised his hand into the air and formed a globe of Fractal Code around it, crying out, "Execute now! Fusion Evolution!"
The two different evolutions joined together, gathering around him and fusing into one powerful warrior. He looked more like a smaller Petaldramon (but with a head closer to Arbormon's) standing upright with an extra pair of arms. The armor covering his wrists and ankles was from Arbormon and was covered in carvings that looked like they were straight out of Aztec mythology. The piece on his chest was no different—a head based off of Petaldramon's, complete with the flower design, but still a bit resembling an Aztec feathered serpent. It was no surprise then that his name sounded Aztec as well: "Xolotlmon!"
"How could you evolve again?" Beetlemon asked.
"Don't know," Xolotlmon replied. "And I don't really care right now. Cuauhunacayotl!"
He held his arms out, and a slight glow formed around the trees nearby. Suddenly, static wood started moving—branches swung at Beetlemon; roots burst through the ground to try and ensnare him. A few lightning strikes felled some of the trees, but it was difficult fighting all of them. He was constantly forced to dodge branches and treetops that were determined to pummel him into the ground. Finally, he charged up his entire body with electricity and let it go. Every tree near him was electrified; the lightning coursed through their sap and fried them from top to root. It took a lot out of him, but it worked and the trees fell to the ground as dead wood.
"Xochitl!" Xolotlmon cried, and razor-edged poinsettia bracts came flying at Beetlemon like shuriken.
The flowers weren't sharp enough to cut through Beetlemon's thick armor, but he dodged them all the same. In midair, he spotted the weak point in Xolotlmon's armor—a spot beneath his breastplate that wasn't very well armored. Charging up a Thunder Fist, he flew toward Katsuharu and hit him right in the solar plexus, just as he had the first time they fought.
Katsuharu devolved and fell backwards immediately on impact, and J.P.'s evolution gave out soon after. Though it hurt to breathe, Katsuharu didn't feel as bad as the last time; his armor was thicker this time around. J.P. stared at him, shocked at what he'd done, and Katsuharu defiantly grinned at him despite how battered he was.
"I win," he whispered. With that, a portal opened, and they were gone.
-------
"What do you know about your mother?" Koichi asked. Lobomon started at the seemingly innocent question. "I saw your memories, but I don't know anything beyond that. What...what was she like? Do you know anything?"
"She died months before my third birthday," he answered. There was no change in expression on Koichi's face. "My dad doesn't like to talk about her. I think it hurts him too much."
"I never knew my father," Koichi murmured. "I was too young. Sometimes I want to say I hate him, but I don't remember him. But I know he took my brother and never told him I existed. I almost think that's reason enough to hate him."
"What do you mean?" Lobomon asked, suddenly very suspicious.
"When my parents got divorced, they each took one of us," Koichi answered, his voice strong and unwavering. "I lived with our mom. She did everything she could for me, sacrificed every last thing she had, and I never saw how hard it was for her." He stopped. "No, that's a lie. I saw that she was suffering, but I was willing to blame it on everything else in the world—money, her job… And then my grandma died and she told me everything. That's when everything suddenly made sense." He looked up at Koji, almost accusatory. "My mother was hurting because the more I grew up, the more she realized she was only getting half the story. She could only watch one of her sons grow up, not the other. So I knew I had to find him to make things right for her. But I was scared. I was scared that this meant I was the one nobody wanted, that my father rejected me and my mother regretted me."
"Where is this going?" Lobomon demanded, his voice starting to waver. His increasing fear seemed to be directly proportional to Koichi's rising courage. But Koichi paid it no heed.
"My brother had a good life," Koichi insisted. "He had everything he could ever want, and he didn't appreciate any of it. Meanwhile, I'm watching my mom die a little more each day because she's stuck working a job she hates for a boss who doesn't pay her enough, just so she can raise the kid she has while longing for the one she doesn't have. And my brother doesn't know because he's too busy being fed all these lies my father tells him. And I've known this for so long, but I didn't say anything because I was still so afraid of what was going to happen." He noticed the way Lobomon was looking at him, a combination of foreboding and fury. He smirked. "But it's your turn to be afraid now, isn't it? Because you know what I'm going to say next. You know that even though I'm a helpless, stupid kid right now without a digivice, I have the power to destroy your world with just one word." Lobomon aimed the laser at him again, but Koichi knew who was really in control of the situation now, so he whispered, "And I already have, Brother."
The laser fired and missed, but that had nothing to do with aim. Faster than Koji expected, Koichi had ducked out of its way and dove for the forgotten D-tector. He scanned his Code through quickly and evolved to Loewemon not a moment too soon. Lobomon was right on him with his swords drawn, so he raised his shield to block.
"Mom didn't die," he growled. "Everything our father told you was a lie."
"No, he wouldn't!" Lobomon denied, connecting his swords into a staff. Loewemon met it with his own staff, and they clashed repeatedly before a Shadow Meteor threw him across the battlefield. "You're lying. You're only screwing with my head, making me doubt everything just so you can have the advantage. It's not going to work!"
"How can you be so blind?" Loewemon demanded. "How many times have you seen me devolved? How could you not see it? We're twin brothers and how is anyone so incredibly dense that he can't even see that?"
"We do not look alike!" Lobomon argued, hitting him again. The staff struck Loewemon's shoulder, but he jabbed the end of his into Lobomon's breastplate.
"Maybe we don't look exactly the same, but that doesn't change the fact that we're twins," he answered. "You're supposed to be the smart one on your team. I'd think you knew what fraternal twins are."
"I know what that means!" Lobomon snarled, swinging for Loewemon's head. He ducked and fired another Shadow Meteor.
This time, when Koji went flying backwards, he devolved and lay prone on the ground. Loewemon held his staff at his side and watched as Koji got to his feet, defiantly yelling, "My father is a good man! He'd never keep this from me!"
Bitterness crept into Koichi's heart like a long suppressed demon finally breaking free. "Not even to make you accept that other woman?"
Something inside Koji snapped, and he glared back with the utmost hatred. "You leave my mom out of this."
It was at this point that Koichi realized he'd gone too far. He was about to apologize when a burst of light came from Koji's D-tector, and a woman's voice rang out, "Koji, you must not believe him. The Warrior of Darkness will twist whatever he can to blind the Light."
"Ophanimon?" Koji asked, his voice betraying his desperation. "I don't know what to do."
"Don't be afraid," she insisted. "I will help. I would never turn on you."
Bright light surrounded him, and Koichi only caught a glimpse of the blissful look on Koji's face before he was completely blinded. When his vision finally returned, Koji was glaring at him and holding out a hand surrounded by a Fractal Code globe. Koichi thought he was going to Beast Spirit Evolve, and so shifted to JagerLoewemon's evolution. But Koji smirked.
"That's not enough. That won't ever be enough." He scanned the Code through his D-tector and cried, "Execute now! Fusion Evolution!"
Beowolfmon, as he called himself, looked like little more than a white-washed version of Lobomon wearing KendoGarurumon's armor. But JagerLoewemon wasn't about to be fooled into complacency, especially not when his enemy was wielding a massive double-bladed sword comprised of KendoGarurumon's blades. It was a smart decision. No sooner had he begun to attack with an Ebony Blast, did a spectral wolf of blue flames form from the sword. There was a shout of "Frozen Hunter!" before it came at him. Quickly, he leapt into the air and fired off his attack, but Beowolfmon dodged it and held a fist out toward him and cried, "Cleansing Light!" JagerLoewemon prepared himself for the laser beam, but the missiles were new. The fact that they were apparently heat-seeking missiles didn't help at all.
Koichi couldn't afford to try and change evolutions before the missiles impacted, so he let himself take the brunt of the explosion before Slide Evolving. As Loewemon, he landed on his feet and extended his staff, then ran forward at top speed. Beowolfmon swung his sword, but Loewemon leapt onto the blade, throwing off his weight distribution. As Beowolfmon staggered and tried to compensate, Loewemon struck him alongside the head with his staff. Angrily, Beowolfmon put all of his strength into pushing the sword up high, throwing Loewemon off. In midair, Loewemon flipped upside down and fired a Shadow Meteor at his back. It hit, but Beowolfmon half-turned and fired another volley of missiles. There was no way Loewemon could dodge them, and the hits he took kept him from being able to correct his fall. He hit the ground hard.
A Frozen Hunter hit him while he lay prone. Realizing that he couldn't afford not to defend himself, he got up and saw Beowolfmon charging at him. He started to fire another Shadow Meteor, but Beowolfmon thrust out his sword like a jousting lance and destroyed the lion's head on Loewemon's breastplate. He had no time to be shocked at the easy destruction of his armor; as it was, he was lucky not to be speared straight through. He leapt back and held up his Shadow Lance to hold off Beowolfmon's sword. It was a futile attempt—the sword sliced clean through the lance, and it was only Koichi's instinct to slide back that kept him from being the next victim.
Out of weapons and out of options, he returned to JagerLoewemon's form and put his faith in his raw power to pull him through. Luckily, he was more agile than Beowolfmon, giving him a better chance to dart across and fire off Ebony Blasts. Those appeared to be doing some damage, putting some dents in the once pristine armor. But Beowolfmon was able to block several of them with his sword, and while the force behind them pushed him back, he was still able to throw them off.
Another Frozen Hunter came at JagerLoewemon, but he swiftly leapt into the air to avoid it, shooting down another Ebony Blast. Beowolfmon shot his Cleansing Light at him, but this time JagerLoewemon was ready. He surrounded himself with the aura of shadows for his Dark Master attack and spiraled through the air, dodging the laser but drawing the missiles. While the missiles were able to lock onto him, they were confused by the excess of darkness, so each time he moved, at least one of the missiles would veer off-course and fly toward the ground, oblivion, or even Beowolfmon.
Once the last of the rockets had exploded, JagerLoewemon landed and prepared another Dark Master. Beowolfmon had his back to him as he tried to recover from the attack by his own weaponry. It should have been a clean, easy win. But at nearly the last second, Beowolfmon turned and violently swung his sword, catching JagerLoewemon mid-attack. The blade cut into the armor—nearly cut clean through, if Beowolfmon's grip hadn't been weak. Koichi went flying off, devolving in the air with the sword still stuck in his armor. Somehow or another, it didn't cut through him when he landed, but it did lie right on top of him, broad-side down. And it was heavy, pinning him to the ground. No amount of squirming or struggling could free him. He frantically tried to push it off of him as Beowolfmon came over and aimed his laser/rocket launcher at his head. But salvation came in the form of a giant eyeball-shaped portal leading them outside with the promise of an oncoming storm.
If you can't spot the irony in the Koichi/Koji battle, you're not trying. This chapter's title comes from Doctor Who—the Daleks call the Doctor the "Oncoming Storm," as he is sort of a boogeyman for them. Major thanks to Ryan and Shaun for the Katsuharu segment, particularly for Xolotlmon. Ryan came up with the name and attacks and whole Aztec motif, and both he and Shaun helped with the design. And I admit to some fudging on my part when it comes to time—technically, both parts of chapters twenty-four and twenty-five are simultaneous with one another and with chapter twenty-six, but things don't always work out that way length-wise when it comes to writing. On the bright side, however, this chapter makes "Yang-Yin" the longest fic I have written to date, both in terms of word-count and the amount of chapters. Here's to another twenty-five.