JMJ

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX:

Construction Site

Tailmon looked sadly down at her hind paws.

She should not have made Kojiro stay behind. Guilt built inside her the further she went from the village. Gomamon had been correct in saying that Kojiro had a right to come with to help his friend. She just could not stand how everything was going. She could not bear the thought of both the humans being caught. They seemed so helpless, and not just because they did not have stronger digimon to help them. After all, they practically had a whole army to back them up. But they were so helpless in the fact that neither Kojiro nor Musashi had any restraint. They had no will to fight back against their own emotions much less virus mind manipulation.

However, she had to admit, that from the little she had seen of Kojiro when she had first met him in the soft green hills and watercolor trees of his own world, he did seem very different now. Maybe for the better too, but she still felt that he was not recovered enough to fight without at least one other human at his side. There was Nyaasu, yes, but another thing that humans really needed, Tailmon knew, was the support of their own kind. No creature could completely replace that need.

Maybe that was why she felt that she had done so wrongfully in not allowing Kojiro to help.

"You okay, Tailmon?" asked Agumon suddenly at her side.

Tailmon had slowed in her pace as the leader of the expedition, and Agumon, Palmon, Hawkmon, Neamon, and Gomamon (the others were elsewhere coming from different directions in the hunt for Musashi) turned to her with deep concern.

Red with embarrassment, Tailmon looked back ahead of her.

"Uh," she said. "It's just everything. We should keep going. We can talk after we find Musashi."

Agumon nodded in agreement, though his look of concern did not fade.

"Okay, Tailmon," he said.

"I talked to some gekomon, and they said that the construction for the new ruler is underway not far from here now," said Hawkmon. "We should be there soon."

Tailmon nodded, and on they headed little knowing of two pairs of eyes watching from the bushes several yards away …

#

"Nya …" Nyaasu murmured. "Ny-ot much further ny-ow."

"I heard them," answered Kojiro with annoyance as he followed Nyaasu after the rescue party.

Although they had heard "not much further", the pair was not prepared for the cliff anymore than the digimon were. Further back than the digimon, Nyaasu and Kojiro stopped in confusion as the rescue party stopped at the edge and looked down in shock.

Leaning down toward Nyaasu, Kojiro whispered, "What are they looking at?"

"I don't kny-ow, nya," Nyaasu whispered back with a scrunched face, and he held a finger to his lips as an indication to simply listen.

"Wow, just think of all the beans that could fit in there!" Neamon murmured just loud enough for the pair of stalkers to hear him.

That was hardly helpful, Kojiro thought.

Hawkmon, who happened to be next to Neamon, turned and after an odd pause staring at him, he said, "I don't think they have beans in mind for all that."

"What are they doing?" asked Palmon.

"Isn't it obvious?" Gomamon said simply. "They're building a trench!"

"But what for?" Neamon demanded.

Tailmon shook her head. "Does that matter? It's all just to keep Musashi from seeing what's happening to herself and to destroy the peaceful lives of the vaccine and data digimon."

"I still think it would be beautiful to see that thing filled to the top with beans," said Neamon with a shrug.

Gomamon slapped the ground with a flipper. "So, gang, are we going to check out this place or are we just going to talk about it?"

"Right," agreed the others.

"Let's go," said Agumon, and the company moved along the edge of the cliff to find a safe way down.

Hardly, two minutes passed before the shadows crept out of the brush and leapt to the edge in all curiosity, but not necessarily in eagerness. Nyaasu looked at Kojiro and Kojiro at Nyaasu, and both returned once again to the sight below them. During the course of the day and a half spent looking for Musashi's new residence, neither Kojiro nor Nyaasu had thought to expect something like this.

A long trench was being built there; though, if the digimon had not said that it was being built, Kojiro would have thought that for sure that the trench had always been there, and that the specs of digimon workers were doing something other than wasting their time building it. Nearby was a gorgeous waterfall that in its natural glory looked somewhat out of place against the mud, grime and ugly magnitude of the trench amidst leveled trees and crude tents and other shelters along the way. However what took Kojiro, and probably Nyaasu as well, more than anything else had to be the foundations of a magnificent building, which appeared to be situated in middle of what would be the circular shape of the trench. The enormity of this building would put the massive falls and the trench to shame when it was finished, there could be no doubt about that.

Kojiro shook his head in disbelief and a little bit of fear.

"This isn't going to be good, nya," Nyaasu muttered.

Throwing his direction to Nyaasu, Kojiro glowered.

"What do you mean 'going to be'?" he demanded, and his expression quickly turned near frantic. "This is bad enough right now!"

Nyaasu waved a paw carelessly aside. "Relax, Kojiro. All we gotta do is find Musashi, nya."

"And then what?" asked Kojiro ominously.

"Would you quit being pessimistic and just come on," Nyaasu growled, irritation growing. "Help me find a good way down."

"Shouldn't we just follow the others?" asked Kojiro, pointing a thumb behind him.

Nyaasu shook his head. "No, they'll see us, stupid, nya!"

With a weary roll of his eyes, Kojiro reluctantly followed the cat on a mission.

In that way Musashi and Nyaasu proved alike. Once they had their mind on something they never gave it up. Not ever. The thing that had Kojiro worried the most was that once those opposing stubborn forces met, what would happen then? Galaxies could explode, especially with some dark virus backing up Musashi. Though, he had to admit that it would not take much to get Musashi going if she was suddenly offered anything she could possibly want, and suddenly told that she had to give it all up by a nagging cat.

"Oh," he moaned.

"Don't worry, Kojiro, nya," said Nyaasu with a grin as he scanned along the cliff for a suitable passage of descent.

"I can't help it," Kojiro replied.

Rocks and roots stuck out now and then, but if the duo could find an easier slope, that would make it better. Eventually, Nyaasu chose a spot that did not look at all safe to Kojiro, and he could not believe that Nyaasu would attempt such a climb, but perhaps the cat's patience had run thin.

"Maybe," Kojiro said, treading words sensitively so as not to sound too much as if he was arguing, "we should just go follow Tailmon. We're already here; they wouldn't send us back now."

"Oh, we'll be fine, nya," said Nyaasu, strangely cheerful, and this just made Kojiro all the more uncomfortable. Statements like that could be described as nothing other than the famous last words before excruciating pain however cliché the phrase.

He could not help the heavy sigh, but in compliance, he turned around, facing the jungle and carefully, oh, so very carefully, made his descent. Nyaasu quickly followed. It was only now that Kojiro thought that Nyaasu probably chose this spot because of the shorter length down than had been discovered thus far. A relatively easy, grassy slope met the cliff partway. In the red glow of the setting sun, Kojiro had not noticed it before.

Still, that did not make the first part of the climb very fun.

Step after careful step, near loosing footing and hand gripping, Kojiro constantly had to remind himself that not long ago he had experienced a far more perilous climb. Somehow it did not help as much as he wanted it to, except for the fact that suddenly he felt a rustle at his feet.

"Ack!" he cried.

Nyaasu turned in wide-eyed surprised, but his concern proved minimal, not that Kojiro had long to wonder about it. Falling backwards, Kojiro grabbed in vain with adrenalin burning fingers. He fell with a thud on the ground buried in the long grass of the easy slope.

Hopping the rest of the way off the cliff, Nyaasu bounded beside Kojiro who returned him with an annoyed squint as he rubbed his back tenderly.

"See? I told it wouldn't be so bad, nya?" the pokémon chirped, and up again in an instant, Nyaasu scurried down the rest of the hill.

"Wait!" Kojiro moaned.

Struggling to his feet, first on his knees then pushing upwards, Kojiro looked up at the massive falls, which looked much bigger even from the fifteen foot cliff to here. The very little that was left of the sun, glowed along its misty edge as if it had a light all its own. Wait a minute, maybe it did. Yes, Kojiro thought that some glow peered from behind the falls. The light of some building was what it looked like to him.

"Nyah!" called the impatient Nyaasu.

Blinking to his partner, Kojiro gave a sharp nod, whether or not Nyaasu saw, and hurried down the hill with him.

"I think," Kojiro said, and he paused.

A raised brow met him in return as Nyaasu slowly stopped and turned to him, face and shoulders slumping with irritation that was not at all lost upon Kojiro.

Even as the heavy frown creased his face, Kojiro tried to pretend he did not see the typical disgust in regarding his thoughts. He used to be much better at ignoring it, but lately everything seemed to hit a nerve.

He squeezed his eyes shut briefly and shook his head into a more suitable expression.

"I think Musashi is behind the waterfall," he said.

Nyaasu's head swung to the waterfall, and after a moment of inspection, he turned back and asked curiously, "What makes you say that, nya?"

"She wouldn't be in the half finished castle, would she?" asked Kojiro.

Nyaasu shrugged. "Maybe if she's surveying the work site, nya."

"It's getting dark, though," said Kojiro.

With one last look at the waterfall, Nyaasu squinted quite hard. This time when he returned to Kojiro, he said, "Nya, I kny-ow what you mean, believe it or ny-ot, nya. I think there's a cave behind those falls. It would be a good spot to survey everything in comfort if they got a nya-ice little base there or something, nya?"

"But there's an awful lot of digimon out there," said Kojiro, leaning forward with a hand over his eyes, even though the sun was almost completely vanished, and he had nothing from which to shield his eyes. "How are we going to get past them all?"

"You mean, how are you going to get past them all, nya?" asked Nyaasu innocently.

Kojiro's eyes narrowed to the side where Nyaasu smiled brightly in return. Before he could reply, however, Nyaasu went on.

"Easy!" Nyaasu cried. "We put you in disguise!"

Kojiro straightened and crossed his arms. "With what?" he wanted to know.

Nyaasu scratched his chin thoughtfully, and after a moment Kojiro could actually see the light bulb emerge above his companion's head. He could not help but cringe.

"We get some of these leaves," Nyaasu said, pulling some off of a nearby shrub, "Put them over you, and then …" he paused. "Nya … Ny-o! Over there. There's some tarp, nya!" He thrust an eager finger to a piece of broken fence upon which a filthy tarp hung. "Then we put the leaves on you and—"

#

"They're gunna see me …" Kojiro squeaked.

"Shhh, quiet, nya," said Nyaasu. He looked at the strange green, walking shrub beside him.

"But the viruses," Kojiro said. He was starting to feel very hot, and shivers ran up his spine so much that he felt his body quiver. A feeling of nausea was even growing in his stomach from the fear of something discovering them. "You should be in disguise too!" he whispered hoarsely.

"Ny-obody here will recognize me, nya," said Nyaasu with careless shrug, "and ny-o one will ny-otice you either."

"But they'll see through my disguise," said Kojiro.

"Oh, come on, Kojiro," Nyaasu grumbled. "Cut it out, you're starting to sound like Frodo Baggins in Mordor. We've been in phonier disguises than this, and ny-o one ny-oticed, nya."

"But no one was looking for us," said Kojiro, "and besides there was no viruses."

Nyaasu shook his head. "Nyah …"

"Don't you 'nya' me, Nyaasu," Kojiro whispered. "This is serious."

Without warning, Nyaasu climbed up the branches of his disguise and grabbed Kojiro by the scruff, standing on his chest. Glaring him right in ripped out eye holes, he hissed. "Get a grip, Kojiro! It's too dark for anyone to notice. The only way anyone will ny-otice is if you draw attention to yourself, nya!"

Kojiro let loose a gulp, and Nyaasu dropped to the ground.

"Come on, Kojiro," Nyaasu said. "You kny-ow how to do it. Just think of the mission in mind and forget that anyone might recognize you. That's how we always do it, isn't it?"

"I … I don't think about it when we're in disguise normally," Kojiro admitted.

"Exactly, nya!" Nyaasu whispered. "Just don't think about it. Ny-o one kny-ows you're anything but a weird digimon, and if anyone stops us, I'll do that talking, nya. Besides, this is about Musashi. You wan-nya rescue her, nya?"

Kojiro nodded.

"Then just focus on that, nya," said Nyaasu.

Again Kojiro nodded, but this time not without a moan before they crept passed the still busily working digimon with their noses in the trench and the castle contstruction.

No one noticed them. No one stopped them. It seemed everything was going according to Nyaasu's plan. after all. Maybe the bad luck streak of Team Rocket had left them. Maybe … Kojiro could only hope, but he quickly reminded himself that Nyaasu and Kojiro were on the right side this time, even if they were sneaking around without telling Tailmon and the others.

#

Just as Kojiro and Nyaasu had suspected, a little building stood behind the falls. Unlike they had expected the building was no base with searchlights, or a guard tower. It was not fortified in any way. Nothing even camouflaged it once one stepped behind the falls, and the pair of house lights at the front door glowed with a blinding intensity if one happened to look right at one, especially after having become so accustomed to the dark.

"It's uh … the Seven Dwarves' cottage," said Kojiro, mouth dropping in disbelief, "in a cave behind a waterfall."

Nyaasu leveled himself beside him on a vine. Both had climbed the easy vines and stepping stones up the side of the falls, Kojiro, of course, without his disguise now. They were still hidden amongst the moss covered stones and the vines at the edge of the cave as they looked in at the unusual sight.

But! Nyaasu thought. If a TV set can be in the middle of the desert, a cottage can be behind a waterfall, nya. Ny-o comparison.

He climbed up onto the flat surface of the floor of the cave, and Kojiro followed quietly from behind. The feeling of being quite spy-like took over Nyaasu now as it always did when Team Rocket sneaked about. Sure, technically, on occasion, Team Rocket agents could be called spies, but that did not change the tingling sensation of the sound of "Secret Agent Man" playing in one's head. Though, as he looked at Kojiro, he found himself slightly disappointed to see that Kojiro apparently did not feel the sentiment as he had in the past.

It's okay, he's still not well, nya, Nyaasu thought. Besides, Musashi was in danger. He doubted that Kojiro even on normal circumstances would be in the mood for feeling the thrill of espionage.

Perhaps it was a bit of the adventure side of the cat instinct kicking in, but the adrenaline, the sneaking about, and the anticipation of reaching destination had to be one of the things he liked best about his job back in his own world, especially when he was the one leading these sorts of operations. Musashi often took the fun out of it when she was in charge.

Oh, ny-eah.

They still had to face Musashi.

Creeping up to the cottage, he then leapt up and pressed himself up against the wall; again Kojiro followed his example without a word. Nyaasu pressed a finger to his lips for silence regardless. Kojiro nodded seemingly in understanding, but a few moments after tiptoeing slowly along the cottage, Kojiro whispered, "How are we going to find Musashi?"

Nyaasu glared, but replied anyway, "We find a bedroom. There's probably only one, nya. Look through the windows." He could not see through them himself as the windows were too high.

Leaning in with hands to shield his eyes against any glare that reflected on the window, Kojiro peered carefully inside.

"It's just a hallway here," said Kojiro, glancing down at his partner, "and it's empty."

"Keep checking, nya," Nyaasu replied.

Both seemed to have forgotten to keep silent, but at least their voices remained hushed.

They checked around the house, each window showing no sign of the bedroom or Musashi. According the Kojiro, most rooms appeared quite empty, in fact; though he had seen a couple digimon talking together in one room.

Finally Nyaasu said, "Then we got to climb to the roof. There are only maybe three rooms up there, nya." Without waiting for a reply, Nyaasu took to the charming, flower and vine covered trellis up to the second storey of the cottage.

Kojiro hesitated, twiddling his fingers with uncertainty. Nyaasu looked down to see what was holding him up.

"She's not going to be very happy, Nyaasu," Kojiro muttered, his eyes lowering with his growing ill ease.

"Who said anything about Musashi being happy?" Nyaasu asked simply. "Of course, she's ny-ot going to be happy. That's why we got to conk her out and drag her away, nya."

"Out the window?" asked Kojiro.

Nyaasu had to think about this one, and he paused before replying, "We'll worry about that later." Here, a careless shrug activated. "Besides, you said the place was empty, nya."

"I just said it looked empty, that doesn't mean it is," said Kojiro, now even more uneasy than before as he shrunk into his shoulders and shivered.

With a shake of his head, Nyaasu climbed again, not caring now if Kojiro followed or not.

"I'll check the windows first and then call you up when I find her, nya," Nyaasu thought out loud.

It was the very first window as he reached the second storey.

He saw her.

Unfortunately, Musashi was not asleep, though she wore a most delicately pink nightgown. She wore a green, putty facemask of some kind, a nightcap designed to protect her hair in curlers, and she stood in the glow of the a nightlight, too low for Nyaasu to make much out of the quality of the room, not that he was paying any attention to that anyway. All that registered was the dresser upon which her hand rested and the very tall wooden headboard of what Nyaasu assumed to be a sumptuous bed. Then of course was Musashi herself looking rather staunch while glaring condescendingly down at the little digimon — it looked like one of those koemon too!

She was giving him an earful, whatever was going on.

"How can you make a mistake like that?" she demanded. "I said I wanted tea and you bring me coffee? What's up with that!? You're all worthless! That's what you are! Well, you're a monkey, what should I expect besides monkey business?" Here she let out a growl.

"Do you, uh … want me to get you some tea then?" asked the koemon hesitantly.

"No! I'm tired," snapped Musashi. "Get me some tomorrow. Steeped extra! I want the taste really strong."

"Yes, Musashi-sama," said the koemon, bowing exaggeratingly low before taking his leave.

Slamming the door shut behind the digimon, she flared into the room, and after a moment or two of steeping in her anger, she threw off the nightlight and everything went dark.

Nyaasu blinked and then ducked low, fearing that his very recognizable silhouette would be seen by Musashi against what reached around the corner from the glow of the house lights.

"Nyaasu," Kojiro whispered from below.

Widening his eyes, Nyaasu glanced down at the ground. He had almost forgotten about Kojiro.

"Is she in there?" he asked.

Nyaasu nodded. Then with a swooping paw, he motioned Kojiro up beside him, but not without also pressing s severe finger to his lips.

In silence, Nyaasu watched Kojiro climb the trellis. Each step of a black boot caused the wood to creak and groan beneath his taller, heavier body in comparison to little Nyaasu. Kojiro too took great interest in this fact, and had a constant lookout on his feet, not to mention the fact that he had to pause wide-eyed and frightened of falling at every step and the fact that his boots often got stuck in the trellis and vines.

"Shh …" Nyaasu hissed.

"I'm trying!" Kojiro spat angrily, and he almost lost his footing again.

Luckily, he was now high enough for Nyaasu to slap a paw over his mouth to stop the full effect of his yelp as he caught himself. Though even muffling Kojiro, Nyaasu had to glance behind him at the darkened window to make sure that Musashi had would not come to investigate. Kojiro, meanwhile tried to shake his head out of a face full of kitty fur, and eventually had to push the paw aside with a hand.

"I don't like this," whispered Kojiro.

"I don't like this either, ny-ow sh-h-h-h," Nyaasu hissed and shook his head with disgust. "Nya."

"Then let's not bonk her on the head," whispered Kojiro. "Maybe she'll just come with us."

"Well, we have to let her fall asleep first, nya," said Nyaasu.

"Not if we're not going to bonk her," Kojiro said.

Nyaasu growled. "Stop arguing with me. Do you want to get Musashi or ny-ot?"

"Not like this," Kojiro returned.

"She's going to hear us, you kny-ow, nya," whispered Nyaasu, shaking a threatening fist, which Kojiro simply ignored.

"We should just talk to her, not make her angry," Kojiro insisted.

"You weren't making all this fuss before, nya," said Nyaasu.

"I didn't think about it until now," hissed Kojiro, "but I did say I thought this was a bad idea. Even if your plan does succeed she's going to explode when she wakes up from you conking her on the head."

"We'll tie her up!" Nyaasu growled, his voice rising slightly. Kojiro was really starting to get on his nerves.

"Are you sure that will hold her?" Kojiro demanded.

"Then we'll chain her up, nya!" Nyaasu cried.

Kojiro's eyes popped in surprise.

"Well, extreme times mean extreme measures, nya," Nyaasu said, "She'll thank us later," He was looking quite haughty even as Kojiro's face contorted into a look of horror. "Once she calms down then we'll have a good talk with her, nya. You can talk about all those virus digimon and how they trick people and stuff. Then she's gotta see the light, nya, nya." He grinned in spite of himself. "Then we can go—"

Kojiro cringed. "Nyaasu!" he cried.

Too late.

Nyaasu turned around only to get a face full of metal baseball bat before he sailed across the cave.