Play of Spirits
Chapter 26 - Soggy Forests

It felt oddly quiet without the company of Bokomon and Neemon (since Kouichi was quiet as it was and Takuya more than made up for conversation). It was relaxing either way, though. The sun peeked through the forest canopy and Takuya and Tomoki told tales of their brothers.

It made Izumi a little wistful, but she supposed she had two little brothers at the present time to do the trick.

'Ooh,' she said, stopping the pair. 'Meat apples!'

And so they settled down and made a quick camp to roast those meat apples.

The conversation kept up. Izumi confirmed she had no siblings of her own, but told of her cousins in Italy. Tomoki told of how he managed to beat his brother at every game they played, but seemed to fail at the life lessons. 'I think I get it now, though,' he said proudly. 'Or a little better, at least.'

'Good on you.' Takuya clapped him on his back. 'My brother and I usually wind up fighting before we manage to play any games together.' He launched into another story, how it had been cloudy one day and they'd argued about who got to use the controller and Shinya had roped their mother onto his side.

'He came running after me with an umbrella when it started to rain,' Takuya said affectionately. 'He can be a brat at times, but he cares.'

'Lucky,' Izumi said. 'It rains more often here than where I used to live, so I keep on leaving my umbrella at home and then having to call my parents to pick me up from school.'

'Nobody shares their umbrella?' Takuya asked. 'That sucks.'

Izumi frowned. 'Well, I wouldn't say my classmates like me very much. Because I'm a foreigner, and I don't like the same things they do and don't try to pretend I do… Not that it sounds like trying to fit in works any better, looking at Junpei.'

'It's weird.' Takuya leaned back to stare through the forest canopy. It was starting to get dark, now. The sky was alit with colour. 'It's like a seesaw. You need to find the right balance, I guess, but shouldn't that sort of thing come naturally?'

'Ni-san says you need to be able to pick up social cues and then compromise enough so that you don't lose your own self in doing it,' Tomoki offered. 'I mean, he's always saying complicated stuff like that and I never really got it, but I guess he meant you need to give them a little, but not too much?'

'So I don't give enough and Junpei gives too much.' Izumi pondered that. 'Yeah, I guess that makes sense. But there's no changing Japan's attitude to foreigners.'

'Why?' Takuya asked. 'We're fine.'

She smiled. 'Guess we are. Maybe I'm projecting a little.' She remembered that girl, at camp. She'd offered a hand and then pulled away, and that had hurt more than just being ignored or belittled. But… 'I shouldn't have shouted at her. Maybe we could have found some middle-ground where her friends wouldn't interfere.'

'Huh?' Takuya and Tomoki gave her blank looks.

She explained what had happened at camp as the coloured sky grew dull and dark.

And then they felt the first drops of rain on their hands. They all wore hats, so at least their heads were dry at first, but drops rolled off their meat apples. And then their clothes were soaked and their skin and the fire went out, and the forest's trees weren't thick enough to filter out all the rain.

'Where's the village?' Takuya shouted as they bolted. 'There was a village around here, wasn't there?'

'Their huts are made out of twigs, though,' Izumi pointed out. 'That's hardly going to help.'

And the ground was getting slippery, making it harder to run.

'Is it just me,' said Tomoki, 'or is the rain getting heavier?'

'Of course it is, sugar,' a new voice giggled. 'Got to douse that fire-stick, don't I?'

They spun around. Tomoki slid with a cry and Izumi just managed to catch him. Still, neither of them could make out the speaker: that unfamiliar voice teasing and threatening from the trees.

Takuya found them, eventually. 'Ranamon.'

'Right you are, sugar.'

'Sugar?' Izumi repeated, then shook her head. Why should she care how the digimon spoke? What mattered was who it was. Ranamon, who Takuya had once become. But now he had his fire spirits.

'What's the deal?' Takuya asked, apparently wondering the same thing. 'We were getting along just fine before? What gives?'

The water nymph answered with a jet of steaming water that Takuya dove into a puddle to avoid. That left him mud-splattered and disgruntled and shivering – and Izumi and Tomoki honestly weren't that better off.

'Fine, fine. I'll fight if you want a fight that badly.' And Takuya pulled out his D-scanner and transformed.

Izumi and Tomoki inched away from the battlefield.

But it was more of a one-sided battle, to be honest. Takuya wasn't exactly a slouch, but Ranamon was faster, and the rain made all of Agunimon's fire darts sizzle out before they even got close. And when Takuya tried something stronger, she'd giggle and dodge out of the way and then retaliate with a burst of water that had the fire warrior hissing in pain.

At least with the rain, there was no danger in the forest accidentally catching fire.

Izumi grabbed that thought. That also meant there was no chance she'd catch fire, either, if she evolved and joined in the fight. And Takuya was struggling on his own, was at too much of a disadvantage…

'Go,' said Tomoki, tugging at her sleeve. 'I'll be fine. I'll scream really loud if something happens.'

That's right. Tomoki had no spirit at all right then. But that was a bravery in and of itself. 'You're growing up, kid,' she grinned at him.

He beamed back, and that smile saw her off.

'Takuya!' she yelled as she slid her way through the puddles and the mud. Her arms grabbed the trees to balance herself – and that actually worked pretty well, she reflected. Still, she'd probably be more useful if she could grab Ranamon instead of the trees.

Except Ranamon was so darn slippery, as Izumi discovered when she finally got a hold, only for the water nymph to slide right out.

Still, Takuya suddenly whooped so hopefully that meant he'd gotten a hit in.

'You alright?' Agunimon asked, using Arbormon's shoulder to support himself temporarily. 'Uurgh, this is worse than playing soccer in the rain. My attacks are all useless.'

'Then how about you grab Ranamon, and I plummet her?' Izumi suggested. Not that she typically went around punching people, but couldn't go too badly, right?

It did, when Ranamon decided to swell to four times her size and grow an extra few… appendages.

'What the heck?' Takuya spluttered, waving his arms where they presumably stung.

'Another beast spirit, I guess,' Izumi frowned. That was hardly fair. They didn't have beast spirits. Half of them didn't even have the spirits that fit them best (which might be a good thing, if that meant they'd be fighting against Arbormon and Wolfmon on top of the other two) and Tomoki didn't have any spirits at all, for the moment.

And if they were having such a hard time with the human spirit, what were they supposed to do about the beast spirit?

Hide behind trees when it started to spit ink everywhere, apparently. Acid ink, because where it hits the tree steams and there are dark patches left behind, alit by Agunimon's constant – though currently watered down – flames. Flames struggled against water. And Arbormon was even more off-balance than usual and waterlogged on top of that.

What she wouldn't give to be flying instead…

But the Spirits of Wind didn't magically appear as though heeding her call. They had to be near the village, and the hollow tree in which they slumbered. So it was something else. Maybe she just wasn't ready yet. Or maybe they'd run in the other direction by mistake.

No… She wasn't ready yet. She didn't feel ready. Walking around with Arbormon's legs still made her fell unsteady and she still was unsteady. Maybe it was a matter of practicing with those loose joints and stiff bones. Or maybe it was getting used to moving the way she wanted to.

She wasn't a dancer, but maybe it was something like that, like dancing.

Not that the rain and the puddles and the mud and running dirt were really helping matters.

Maybe she could try that now, though. Agunimon was scurrying around gracelessly too. 'Do you know how to dance, by any chance?'

'Dance?' Takuya snorted. 'The fancy ballroom stuff? No way. But we've messed around with the radio.'

Maybe it was worth a shot.

'Try it again?'

'To what music?'

But did they really need music? They had the rain, and Ranamon – or whatever Ranamon had become – tapping out the beat. She wobbled as she dodged: dodged left, then right, then left again. Yes, there was a rhythm there, and if she listened hard enough, there was a song as well. The pattering of rain. If she could get into the rhythm, maybe she could catch the slippery water spirit, whose larger body didn't seem to have slowed her down at all.

There! Finally, she felt the satisfying smack of fist against flesh. And again. No kicks for now, though. She didn't there. And then she heard a screech which was presumably Takuya doing something. Was he kicking or punching too, or was he using his flame attacks for something?

She opened her eyes. When had she closed them, anyway? Maybe because it was easier to hear the music and dance to it when she wasn't distracted with what she could see in front of her: a slippery ground and trees all round that all created an obstacle to trip her up.

And maybe it was a good thing she had closed her eyes, because opening them actually wasn't that useful. There was mist everywhere.

Huh, she thought. Must be Takuya's handiwork. And since she'd been working just fine with her eyes closed and getting hits onto the water spirit, an effective one.

The digimon shrieked and spat more ink. Izumi closed her eyes again, and dodged. Something hissed. The digimon shrieked again.

And then she was gone and the rain slowly let up.

Izumi opened her eyes again. The trees that were hit the most were groaning but none of them had fallen, surprisingly. Tomoki came out from behind one, wringing his hat. Agunimon shook himself like a furred animal and Izumi wished that would be as effective with her but it felt like the water had seeped into her very bones.

'Guess we won,' Takuya said tiredly.

'Dunno about that,' Izumi sighed. 'It's not like we could punch a massive squid – or whatever that thing is – unconscious. Way too squishy.'

'At least neither of you got hit with that ink,' Tomoki fussed. 'That stuff ate through the trees!'

It was a bit of an exaggeration, but it would've been nasty on skin. Still, they were all soaked, and Agunimon had wandered away from the pair of them, trying to light some sodden wood and create a fire.

In the end, he sighed, defeated, and devolved back into his human state. 'I guess we're better off getting to the village. Indoors is dry, hopefully.'

'And if Ranamon was following us and causing the rain, then that means they mightn't have gotten any,' Izumi agreed.

And they set off in what was hopefully the right direction, stomachs only half-full since they'd abandoned their dinner to the rain as well.

.

Breezy Village was in the direction they'd gone, thankfully. And Izumi was right: it was rain-free. The Floramon was as welcoming as they'd been the first time they'd passed them, and warm soup (despite how it was made, and they were far more amiable to the eccentrics of the Digital World by then) was just what they needed to settle their stomachs and warm their souls.

They checked out the hollow tree while they were there, but the spirit of wind still slumbered. It looked brighter though, or maybe that was just her hoping for it, hoping for a sign.

Still, she had a feeling she was on the right track. She had to know herself better, body and soul, and dance to the music of the world before she could control the wind spirits. And that was exactly what she was working towards.

And having a digimon spirit which was like walking on skittles was a good way to get better at that. And so was hanging out with her new friends.

Maybe that was the whole point. Maybe the world brought the five – or six, once they met Minamoto Kouji – of them together for that very reason: so they could learn from each other, and grow.