Y/N: Woo! I was a mother and son duo this time around with Koushiro and Yoshie, I hope you enjoy their parts, and leave a review if you want. That's it from me!
U/N: Izzy :D Still hate him. but Kari is like, my favourite, so this was fun, and cute and a change of pace in a way-for me anyway-and you can see things are about to go down. Everything is building up :D it's exciting. Anyway, i hope you enjoy it... review please...?
Title: Digimon Adventure 04
By: Yukira and Urazamay King
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.
Part 4: Chaos
Chapter 36: Puppet Show
Koushiro:
I couldn't believe it. My mother had hacked into my computer.
My mother.
The woman who literally asked me weekly what her password was, who had to ask me whether or not an update was necessary for her computer, which was so out of date none of them really mattered anymore.
I just felt so violated.
And I needed a new password. Something my mother would never guess—though how she guessed my current one, I'd never know—maybe something to do with when I met Mimi, since my mother had no idea I felt human emotions in any form, and would never guess Mimi was a legitimate password source. Granted, if things went well—and we survived this upcoming battle at all—she might guess at something. I felt as though things with Mimi were progressing nicely, though there were times I couldn't tell if she liked me or if she was mad at me.
I didn't like not knowing. It was an obsession of mine, knowing.
I also wanted to know how the hell my mother hacked my computer and sent me a document using my newest program. She wasn't supposed to do that. It broke all of the elemental laws of my parents. I had a list. I made it when I was nine and had just finished reading a riveting text book on physics, where I came across the original elemental laws. It seemed fun at the time…before I knew that such a list was a cause for ridicule at school.
Everything I did was a cause for ridicule when I was younger. Even joining that soccer team my mother forced me on—"To fulfill your physical education requirement, dear," she'd said—where I'd met Taichi. Luckily, my mind was big enough to entertain me during my early years. It still entertained me for long hours every day, when I wasn't trying to prove to Iori that I was the most sociable of the two of us.
I figured in all honesty, he was more sociable than I was, but I found a thrill in disproving theories.
"She probably doesn't even know who you are," Taichi was telling Willis. They'd been arguing for a few minutes about my mother's document, and his lack of presence in it, while I was furiously trying to connect the vague impressions the others had given me about the Dark Ocean. It was near impossible for me to incorporate it into my make-shift map of the "Dark Digital Earth" as Taichi had dubbed it in one of his earlier argument points.
He kept glaring at me in between points, and it made me nervous. I couldn't figure out just what I'd done wrong—because as far as I knew, I hadn't done anything other than discover Fanglongmon's location!—but he did not seem happy with me.
Thinking anything was actually proving to be a sport at the moment. Between my utter exhaustion—I'd pulled an all-nighter the night before this mess, and only caught three and a half hours sleep before Mimi showed up at my door, effectively waking me up for the day—and the cut on my shoulder it was hard to process my thoughts. Well, harder than usual. Not hard, per say. I was still thinking more than Daisuke and the other band of misfits that joined the dark side, so that was something. My shoulder was burning, each time I jostled it a sharp pain shot down my arm to my fingertips making typing a pain—literally. I was pretty sure it was getting infected. Rolling around in the dirt and fighting against digital foes was not the most clean of jobs, and I didn't carry a first aid kit, or a water bottle. And I could've really used some water right then.
If this was how Taichi thought all the time—cloudy, taking a real effort—I could not blame him for not thinking nearly as often as he should before acting.
It was torture.
"Koushiro," Willis said, sounding as though he'd been repeating himself for awhile.
"Hey, snap out of it," Taichi said snapping his fingers in front of my face.
"You have my attention," I told them. "What do you need?"
Terriermon started giggling.
"He didn't hear the question," Agumon said simply.
"Any of the nine times it was asked," Terriermon laughed.
"Are you feeling okay?" Agumon asked, and I gave him—what I thought was—a reassuring smile. His face grew more worried and I knew I hadn't succeeded.
"M'fine," I said, shaking my head, and chastising myself for the use of improper grammar. "Help me up."
Taichi rolled his eyes, but took hold of my good arm and pulled up. I nearly dropped my computer during the action, but I was on my feet.
"We're leaving," I said. "We have to go fast. We won't last much longer at this point."
"We'll be fine," Taichi said. "It's the Dark Digital Earth now. We barely ever needed sleep in the Digital World."
"Yes," Willis said wryly. "But Earth is in the new title as well, and on Earth it's generally a good idea to restore your body's energy by sleeping six to eight hours each night. This is our second non-stop night. We're due to crash by like three in the afternoon tomorrow."
"Or earlier," I said thinking about visiting my mother just so I could have a nap, but thought better of it. We had a tight schedule. I just wanted this over with, so I could kiss Mimi like I promised Sora I would—and have been periodically thinking about doing since it was mentioned, when I wasn't trying to fight for my life or figure out the next step anyway—and then sleep for at the very least twelve hours before getting my shoulder looked at.
It sounded like a brilliant plan to me.
Except we couldn't accomplish anything with just two digimon and three digidestined—one of which leant his digimon to his new friend and protégé in an unsuspected act of kindness leaving himself next to useless in a fight should it arise. We wouldn't be able to take down a single Dark Master, let alone Daemon, Dragomon or Fanglongmon. LadyDevimon, maybe we could handle, but it would be much more intriguing to capture and interrogate her for clues of the kidnap victims' whereabouts.
It was hard to believe that just yesterday afternoon things were normal, peaceful.
I missed yesterday.
But I got Tentomon back today, so despite all the pain, tiredness, confusion, world unions, and enemies of every size and power level, it wasn't so bad.
"So we're headed to camp then?" Taichi asked.
"No," I said looking at him strangely. "We were summoned by our mothers. We have to go there first. Maybe we could get a car…"
"Woah," Taichi said holding his hands out in front of him. "Slow down. We're going to save those girls. We can talk to our mothers afterwards."
He was upset with his mother, I realized, because of her easy acceptance of Daisuke, and how she treated him like a second son. But wasn't a car a perfectly reasonable request?
"Logically, my plan is the best course of action," I told him.
"Logically, it's stupid," he said mocking me. I glared at him, and he glared right back. His eyes flickered to the goggles that I still had dangling around my neck.
I couldn't bring myself to wear them on my head. That would be like accepting the roll of leader, and taking it away from Taichi. He was still my leader. I didn't care who wore the goggles. I did whatever Taichi requested of me—short of giving him the goggles of course. I wasn't going to do that—and wouldn't know what to do with myself if I had to do the requesting as well. I was the logistics department, the researcher, the mathematician. I was whatever we needed me to be to figure out what needed to be done. I was the brains behind the operation. What the hell was I supposed to do while I was in charge? Tell Taichi to figure things out? No. That was all I was good at, the only thing that only I could contribute. That was the only thing I wanted to do.
Well, that and kiss Mimi. The more tired I got, the harder it was to keep that off my mind.
But I still had a lot of other things to think about to distract me: What was Fanglongmon's plan? What defense does he have guarding the girls we needed to rescue? What the hell did Iori think he was doing following Kurayami? How on Earth (or Dark Digital Earth I suppose) did my mother hack my computer? Why was Taichi so angry with me all of a sudden? Were Sora and Miyako alright? Why did Daemon want only Ken? Why was I one of the few that accepted Michael at all—me, the social reject?
A lot to ponder, but mostly the question I asked myself was this: When is Dragomon going to start his plan, when was he going to make his first move, now that Fanglongmon had made his?
I had no answers, and every guess I had lead to more questions.
And just what was it that Gennai was planning? His leader skills needed work. Maybe even more work than my own—the reluctant leader that pretended he wasn't one—and that was saying something. Mimi had been yelling at him a lot lately, and I couldn't bring myself to yell at him the same way, despite my frustrations, because I kind of knew how it felt to try and get something accomplished, but have everyone else trying to keep you from doing it, even though you know it's right.
Like just now, and finding our mothers.
"Clearly one of us lacks any common sense," I said.
"And it isn't me," Taichi and I said at the same time. I groaned. Why was he being so difficult? Another question I had to add to my never ending list.
"We'll just start walking," Willis decided. "Whatever happens, happens."
"That's just stupid," Taichi said, as I said "That plan is entirely illogical and lacks any form of planning."
I got an eye roll from both of them, and laughter from Terriermon. Agumon, however, seemed to be on my team, so I felt a lot better about things.
"Why don't we go find your mother?" he asked, making me grin like a fool. Take that, Taichi. From your own digimon.
"Because we don't have time. I shouldn't have left at all. Hikari is with Gennai, and I don't know how that's going over," he said. Knowing Mimi was in that group, probably not well. Throw in Takeru, the overly optimistic, and Jou the pessimistic expecting father and a couple of digimon who no longer know whose orders to follow—Gennai, their 'General' or their digidestined partners—and you have quite the ragtag group.
Not that we were much better.
Willis started walking, looking pointedly at Terriermon to get him to follow him. Apparently I was the only leader that wasn't able to get his way by using the goggles. They were kind of ignored, what with Willis and Taichi being such natural leaders and me…not.
I dragged myself along behind then, receiving a sympathetic look from Agumon. I didn't particularly want sympathy, but it was awfully nice of Agumon to notice that I was in fact nearly dead on my feet. Taichi was next to Willis, talking about Hikari again. I noted Taichi's reluctance, and Willis' awkward nervousness, and wondered why they were talking about her if neither wanted to.
"Gennai will protect her," Willis was saying.
"Takeru is with her too," I pointed out, joining the conversation, hoping it would keep me awake. "He'd never let anything happen to her."
"You're right," Taichi said grumpily, before muttering "For once" under his breath.
I honestly didn't have the energy to argue that I, in fact, was right about ninety percent of the time, and that the opposite was true for him, so I let it go. He was looking at the goggles again. I shifted my gaze away from him, hoping he wasn't glaring at me anymore.
"So…" Willis said slowly, drawing the word out. "Yamato joined the dark side?"
"It appears that way," I said.
"He wanted this," Taichi said. "But I can't believe he's evil, if that's what you're implying. He's my best friend. I don't know what the hell is going on in his mind, but he's not evil."
"He's not Ken," I reasoned. "He's not easily swayed."
"What's Ken got to do with this?" Willis asked.
"He's the opposite of Yamato in this," I explained. "He's the most easily swayed out of our entire team."
"Because of the Dark Spore," Taichi defended him.
"The Dark Spore that has been removed in its near entirety?" I asked, eyebrow raised. "He hasn't had a complete Dark Spore in his body for seven years. He merely has traces of it. Enough to remind him of his darker period as the Digimon Kaiser, in any case. Enough to remind him just how it felt to be in possession of that much power, to rule over the weaker creatures and to rid himself of any and everyone that stands between him and ultimate success. He did unforgiveable things once, but we still forgave that. He might have—on a subconscious level—realized that if we could do it once, we'd forgive it again. He wanted this, or else Fanglongmon wouldn't have got him."
"You're saying that he wants to be evil," Willis asked wryly. "And that's why he's been helping us save the Digital World."
"I'm saying that Fanglongmon preys on the weakest point in the mind. He got through to Daisuke, most likely because of his desperate need to be wanted, to lead. He and Taichi had argued about that not long before he disappeared, and everyone was looking to Sora and Taichi for guidance, correct?" I said. Willis and Taichi both nodded. "Therefore he felt as though he'd lost the competition, lost his place. Fanglongmon simply offered him what he wanted, and in his moment of hesitation, Fanglongmon took residence inside his mind. This is all speculation of course, but based on Gennai's information, this seems the most likely reason."
"That doesn't explain Ken though," Willis pointed out.
"I'm getting there," I said, stopping to yawn into my good shoulder. I couldn't use my bad hand, and I was carrying a computer with the other. I hoped they didn't notice my injury had gotten worse…
"Is it because Fanglongmon found the small recess in his mind that still thrived on the power of the Dark Spore, and stretched it out?" Agumon asked excitedly.
"Yes," I said happily. I hadn't expected Agumon to be the one to guess at it. It was a pleasant surprise, especially with the look Taichi had on his face when his digimon partner—who was known to be less intelligent than even him—got it before he did. "The need was there. Fanglongmon wouldn't have been able to create that need. It had to be there, and he focused on it. He made the part of Ken that wanted it bigger. He no longer cares about a single one of us, including Miyako, his girlfriend of nearly seven years. I have doubts that even Wormmon is on his list of priorities right now. He was nothing more than a mere 'insect' the last time the Kaiser was around. He'll seem like nothing more now."
"Do you not like Ken?" Taichi asked bluntly.
"He's grinding on my nerves," I said passively.
"Then this is probably all wrong. You just don't want him to have been brainwashed," he said shrugging.
"I'm not wrong Taichi," I said angrily. "Ken is arrogant and prideful and incredibly intelligent…in one corner of his mind. Fanglongmon found that to be worth notice."
"So you're just jealous that he found Ken's 'small corner of intelligence' worthwhile and ignored yours," Taichi surmised.
"He tried, okay?" I shouted at him. "He asked me whether I wanted to go where people would actually care what I had to say. Where my intelligence would actually be useful, and nobody would take me for granted or put the weight of the world on my shoulders time and time again. But I said "No." He couldn't have me Taichi, because I was loyal to you and to Mimi and to the rest of the team. I. Said. No."
There was an astounding silence. Both Willis and Taichi were staring at me with wide eyes. Terriermon hid himself behind his partner's legs. Agumon rested his clawed hand on my bad arm. I tried not to wince at his kind gesture.
"Ken didn't," I said angrily. "But he could have if he really wanted to."
I heard snickering, and whipped around to face him.
"There is nothing funny about this," I snapped.
"I didn't say it was," he said defensively.
"Who laughed?" I asked.
"No one," he said slowly.
I groaned. I was starting to hallucinate. This did not bode well for my brain…
But I heard it again.
And it wasn't any of my friends. I'd been facing this time. I gulped and shifted my eyes around the surrounding area. There were trees and road signs, but no person.
"Good God," Taichi complained. "Koushiro's gone loopy. Nothing good's gonna come from that."
"A third of the group's intelligence is gone," Willis said solemnly. "Mine's the only substantial bit we've got left."
"I'm going to take offense to that," Taichi said with a laugh.
"Hearing things are we?"
"Who are you?" I asked.
"No one is there," Taichi said. "It's not funny anymore, Koushiro. Are you okay?"
"Boo," the voice whispered behind me. I turned abruptly and ended up facing a tree.
"Oh no," I said. "Back away…"
"You're okay. Nothing's there," Taichi said putting a hand on my good shoulder. It would have been incredibly kind of him…had I truly been going crazy.
"Are you sure of that?" the voice said louder.
"Puppetmon," Agumon gasped.
"Oh," Taichi said. He didn't apologize for insisting insanity, but I didn't care at the moment. An X virus infected mega level Dark Master was hiding behind a tree, and we had two small, unintimidating rookie level digimon.
"Terriermon," Willis said, noting the same problem I had. "Now."
But when I turned to see if he was digivolving…I saw that he was frozen in place.
"What—What's happening?" Terriermon asked surprised, as his arms and shoulders began to move against his will.
"Dance for me, won't you?" Puppetmon said with his whiny laugh. His fingers were moving in time with Terriermon's odd movements. He'd made him into a puppet!
"How are you faring Agumon?" Taichi asked his partner.
"Not much better," he said. His head and clawed hands were shifting at odd angles. It didn't look comfortable in the slightest.
"Now what?" Willis asked slowly.
"We fight him ourselves?" Taichi suggested tentatively. He didn't look too thrilled by the idea. For that matter, I wasn't either.
"That is not a viable option," I pointed out.
"Puppet Pummel!" Puppetmon cried out, drawing our attention back to him…only to frantically try to avoid a large wooden hammer. Willis—who was too my right—went to one side, and Taichi—on my left—went the opposite way. I pushed Agumon as best I could towards Willis, and Taichi tackled Terriermon. But we all made it out safely…so it was worth it.
"No!" Puppetmon whined. "Stay still. I can't win if you don't play fair."
"You can't win anyway," Taichi said, though his tone voiced his doubt.
"I'm gonna get you now," Terriermon announced. "You can't make a puppet outa me!"
"I already did," Puppetmon said smugly. "So there. Puppet Pummel!"
"Run," Willis said, nudging me and Agumon to the side.
"Puppet Pummel!"
"Now," Willis said. Agumon and I nodded and started moving, slowly at first. Agumon looked over at Taichi a little forlornly, but shook it off. We needed to move before Puppetmon actually caught us.
"Puppet Pummel!"
There's nothing like an adrenaline rush to give you that second—or fourth maybe in my case—wind, while running for your life.
"Keep going," Willis shouted.
"But what about Taichi?" Agumon asked.
"Terriermon and he will have to take care of each other," Willis said solemnly.
"They'll be fine," I said. "Taichi's always got a plan."
Hikari:
The pink light that surrounded us made me feel right at home—partly because it felt good to be swept off my feet—literally, because I was just so tired, but also I felt like I was lighting up because of my crest. Lopmon didn't seem quite as pleased as I was to be being carried over top of Japan. She was fidgeting in my arms as I held her close.
I loved Lopmon, I really did, but I couldn't help but feel sad as I remembered holding Gatomon this very same way. But now she was gone... Piedmon had her.
"What's that?" Lopmon asked me.
I looked down to where she was pointing and said, "That's a library."
"That's not what I meant." Lopmon giggled. "Right there."
I looked down, searching for something she might be pointing to as we shot across the city in the giant tube of pink light.
"The light!" Lopmon cried out, trying to help me. She wiggled out of my arms and climbed down my leg and reached into my pocket, pulling out my digivice which was glowing a light pink colour. "Why is it doing this?"
"I... don't know." I admitted as I took the digivice from her. Was it because I had been thinking about Gatomon so much? I didn't know the answer to it in any case so I put it back in my pocket.
I looked to the others who all seemed to be off in their own world. Mieyomon was focusing on directing the large pillar of pink light in where to go, which made sense, but I wasn't sure why Mimi was in her own world. She was watching the landscape shoot by as if it were a very boring movie that she had been forced to watch. Jou was in a state of shock it seemed as Gomamon clung to his waist. Patamon seemed to be having a great time with Takeru and the other digimon though as the two were spinning around and doing summersaults in the air. I laughed at them and smiled when Takeru noticed I was watching. He smiled nervously back and then continued playing with Patamon, Demiveemon and Otamamon who were all having some sort of competition. Gennai was in the center of us all looking as though he were trying very hard to look dignified, which, considering he was flying in a pink tube magical sparkling light and holding a giant white and pink egg, he was doing surprisingly well.
As we floated above a lake everything seemed to be going fine... until...
"What's that...?" Gomamon asked, looking through squinted eyes as he dug his claws into Jou to keep safe.
"What's what?" Patamon asked. "Oh I see it. It's kind of pretty." He was staring behind me so I spun around quickly to see what they were looking at. I was shocked to see a ball of what seemed to be fire move quickly toward us.
"That can't be good." Lopmon said in shock.
"Lopmon is probably right..." Demiveemon surmised.
"Meiyomon!" Mimi called out. "Do something!"
Meiyomon turned quickly toward the ball and shot himself out of the pillar of light and into the air in front of us. He floated there for a moment as the pillar lost all control and Meiyomon waved his hand forming a barrier around him. As the ball of fire hit his barrier it caused a loud and fiery explosion. I found myself screaming and throwing my hands over my ears as Lopmon climbed to my shoulders to get ready to protect me.
I looked to Meiyomon who was falling through the sky, plummeting toward the waters below.
"Patamon!" Takeru cried out, as Otamamon scrambled through the air to wiggle himself into Takeru's arms. "Get him!"
"Right!" Patamon cried out. "Patamon digivolve to... Angemon!" Angemon shot from the pillar of pink light which had stalled, stopped moving completely, to save Meiyomon. He was diving after him, catching him right before he landed in the water.
"Yes!" Takeru cheered happily.
"What was that?" Mimi asked Gennai.
"I do not know." He admitted. "It was presumably an attack from a nearby enemy digimon."
"Well let's show this enemy digimon what we're made of!" Mimi cheered, looking around at the digimon we had left. She looked at Lopmon for a moment before remembering that Willis wasn't here, and then she turned to Jou and Gomamon. "Are you going to help Angemon?"
Jou didn't answer, he was staring at the sky, ignoring us all.
Gomamon looked to Jou for confirmation before turning to Mimi and saying, "I'll help!"
"ANGEMON!" Takeru screamed suddenly, "LOOK BEHIND YOU!"
We all spun around to see Angemon flying back toward us with Meiyomon in his arms, seemingly unconscious. I felt bad seeing him like that... he was Iori's younger brother—and Iori was trying to save those closest to him, and now here he Meiyomon was, in pain... I only hoped that he'd be better by the time Iori came back around to us. Following Angemon was another ball of flame.
I watched in suspense as Angemon flew straight up to avoid the blast. Relief washed over me as he saved himself before the realization that the ball was now headed straight for us hit me.
"What do we do?" Mimi gasped. "Gennai! Do something!"
"Like what?" He asked in shock. "What can I do?"
Takeru flew through the air, past Gennai and toward Mimi. "Ready?" he asked her as he grabbed her waist.
"Ready for what?" She asked in shock.
"For this." He said as he literally threw Mimi downward. I heard her scream as she flew in slow motion down the anti-gravity pink light. Takeru moved to Jou next and threw him along with Gomamon which seemed to bring Jou to his senses suddenly. Next he moved to Gennai who pushed Takeru off of him and followed Mimi and Jou himself.
Takeru came toward me quickly. We both looked toward the ball of fire which was close now.
"You can thank me later." Takeru said as he grabbed my hand and jumped out of the pink light, dragging Lopmon and I with him. I tried not to scream as we fell toward the water from where we had been in the sky. I watched over my shoulder as the ball of flames hit the pink pillar and shattered it. My eyes scanned the sky for Jou, Mimi, Gennai and Gomamon but I couldn't find them—they just didn't seem to be anywhere—had they been hit? Were they falling now that the pink light had dissipated?
"MARCHING FISHES!" I heard Gomamon scream, drawing my attention toward the water below as colourful fish seemed to pop out of the black water around us. I looked to my left to see Jou and Gomamon on a raft of fish with Mimi and Gennai on a similar one not far behind.
I closed my eyes as Takeru and I landed roughly on the fish. It was gross—I couldn't deny that—they were wet and slippery and well... fish—but I couldn't help but be grateful due to the fact that they had literally just saved my life.
"I never thought I'd get to use this technique again!" Gomamon laughed, "I feel so honoured to be helpful for once!" Mimi and Takeru laughed at him, which I didn't understand—I figured it must have been something before I came around to help them out.
"Oh hey!" Otmamon laughed excitedly as he began to speak quietly to the fish.
But other than Otamamon no one spoke as the fish swam us through the waters. The shore seemed so distant, which was rather upsetting. I didn't want to be in this water any longer than I had to be... the Dark Ocean had always had connection with me, just as I had with it, and it wasn't something I was proud of, and so to be sitting on fish who literally lived in the dark ocean was not something I was happy to be doing. But at the same time, at least they were keeping the water from touching me.
But if all the water in the world had turned into Dark Ocean water I'd have to be sure to not eat seafood ever—EVER again.
"Just let me in!" Gomamon tried. "Please? The fish are getting tired Jou—I can swim faster and give them a break!"
"No!" I growled, "You're not getting wet!"
"Why not?" Gomamon whined.
"The Dark Ocean water could have some sort of strange effect on you. I can't have you turning evil... I need some stability." Jou responded.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Mimi and Gomamon shot accusingly as one.
Jou ignored them and stared down at the water around him.
Demiveemon was sitting on Takeru's shoulder whispering to him quietly. I looked down to Lopmon who was playing with her ears absentmindedly and staring off into the distance with a frown on his face.
"You miss him?" I asked her.
"What?" She asked. "Oh... no. Not Willis. I'll see him soon enough."
"Then who do you miss?" Takeru asked her, moving closer to sit next to us. "Terriermon? Or...? Who else is there?"
"Your mommy?" Demiveemon asked.
"Do digimon even have mothers?" Takeru asked.
Demiveemon shrugged his shoulders, "I've been alive a long time. I have no idea. Don't remember."
"Not my mom." Lopmon said, looking up at us all. "I don't know. But I've been missing her a lot more lately... I think it's time to figure out what—or who it is that I'm looking for." Lopmon said with a very determined air about her.
"Well whenever you're ready," I told her with a smile. "My promise still stands. I will help you find her no matter what... whoever she is."
"You're a good friend Hikari." Lopmon said hugging me. I hugged her back, smiling.
"So you don't miss Willis at all?" Demiveemon asked with a grin.
"Well maybe a little!" Lopmon laughed. "But not Terriermon. I like not having to argue all the time." Lopmon smiled up at me again, and I just smiled back. It felt weird to be having touching moments while sailing through the Dark Ocean waters after having just been attacked by an unseen foe while Meiyomon was somewhere, presumably hurt, or even dying as Angemon did... whatever Angemon was doing.
"Do you?" Takeru asked me, and then seeing the confused look on my face he added. "Willis, do you miss him?"
"What?" I gasped, "Oh... I... yeah, I guess—Yes. Yes I do."
"You don't sound so sure." He told me, raising his eyebrows at me.
"I'm sure." I said flatly.
"So you and Willis are a thing now..." He said simply as if it weren't awkward at all, which wasn't true—it was very awkward for me to talk about for some reason. "Do you... love him?"
I wasn't sure how to answer that, because I didn't know exactly what love was... I'd have to be sure to talk to Sora about it later. "I don't know..."
"Well it's yes or no." Lopmon said slowly, "You've got a fifty percent chance of being right."
"I..." I tried.
"Well...?" Lopmon and Takeru said together.
"I think I do." I concluded finally. Which was true of course—that was indeed what I thought... and I honestly hoped it was true. "I don't know—it's complicated." I laughed nervously, "Why couldn't we just be in love Takeru? Talking to you is so easy! We would be a great couple!"
Takeru stared at me, his mouth open a little, eyes wide. I wasn't sure what I had said though—what had I done wrong? He shook his head quickly and said, "Yeah," before laughing nervously, "Wouldn't that be funny? Us liking each other? Pshh!"
I could see that the situation had suddenly become awkward for him so I nodded and looked back to the others.
"Oh hey!" Jou said suddenly, "Mimi—you're supposed to call Koushiro when we know where we're going."
"Right!" She cried out suddenly, forgetting her promise. She pulled out her cell phone quickly and dialled Koushiro's number. "Hi!" She smiled as he answered. "We know where to go. It's Pine—Oh you already know? Why didn't you call me? You forgot? You forgot to call me?! But—No! No I did not! Whatever Koushiro Izumi. I will meet you there." She snapped her phone shut and looked to the rest of us. "Why does nothing ever go right for me? My mother's being stupid, Koushiro's being stupid, everyone's being stupid and—where the hell is Palmon?!" She cleared her throat and forced a smile. "So who's hungry?"
"ME!" Takeru let out an exasperated yelp as he fell back onto the raft of fish. Mimi, Lopmon, Gomamon and I laughed at him but Jou and Gennai remained perfectly serious.
"There's Angemon!" Gomamon cried out suddenly, cutting into our laugh as he pointed to the sky. He was right. Angemon was diving through the sky toward us. I could see the relief in Takeru's eyes as Angemon came back safe, but I didn't feel the same. Meiyomon was nowhere to be seen.
Angemon swooped down next to Takeru and I, hovering in the air. "Takeru, I think you should come see this." He reached his hand out for Takeru to take.
"What happened to Meiyomon?" Mimi asked sharply. "Where is he?"
"A digimon known as Wisemon was attacking us." Angemon stated.
"Wisemon?" Gennai asked sharply, suddenly interested, still clutching the egg tightly. "He's working with Fanglongmon! Did you destroy him?"
"No, he got away." Angemon said simply.
"Of course he did..." Gennai muttered, "We've been chasing him for years, he's one of Fanglongmon's leading minions—he's practically a god! He has so many tricks up his sleeve and it's impossible to destroy him."
"We'll just add him to the list..." Mimi said monotonously.
"Yes, well," Angemon said, "Wisemon told Meiyomon that his siblings are in danger and Meiyomon rushed off to save them.
"What? So he just left us here?" Mimi growled.
"It's not the first time he just up and ditched us." Gomamon said simply. Jou elbowed him lightly. "What?" Gomamon asked, "It's true!"
"Takeru, come with me." Angemon said. Takeru nodded and stood shakily on the fish raft and then leapt into Angemon's arms. "Are you coming?" He asked me.
I looked to Jou and Mimi and then to Takeru. "But—where will we meet up?" I asked Mimi and Jou.
"The camp." Mimi said. "We'll have the fish take us to shore and then we'll take a car or something—maybe grab a pizza on the way." She was joking of course... I think. "Just go straight there though. We all need to get there together... even if we're all spitting apart."
"Right." I smiled at her, standing up with Lopmon in my arms. "Good luck guys!" I said as I jumped into Angemon's arms.
"I'm staying!" Demiveemon said quickly, leaping back onto the fish raft. "I'll protect Jou and Mimi!"
"I'll help!" Otamamon, who was still on the raft cheered.
"Looks like we're in good hands then." Mimi smirked.
I smiled at them all as I looked over Angemon's shoulder just as he flew off. I waved to the others as the fish raft Takeru and I had been on melted into one with the others. Mimi and Gomamon waved farewell, but again Jou and Gennai just looked sad, solemn.
I turned to look ahead as Takeru asked, "So what's so important?" to Angemon who was flying quickly across the sky.
"You'll see." He said.
We didn't talk until we had made it all the way to the shore, but Angemon didn't stop there, he flew down the streets until we came across a very dead looking area of town. It looked as if every sort of natural disaster that could possibly happen, had indeed happened. Right here.
Angemon landed and shifted back to Patamon instantly, floating to rest on Takeru's head.
"So what is it?" Lopmon asked. "If this is your interpretation of something important then there's something wrong with your head—oh wait sorry... I'm used to insulting people living with Terriermon..."
"He has a point though," Takeru said, "Patamon, what is it?"
"Takeru?" We all spun around quickly and gasped at the sight of Takeru's father. He looked tired, worn out and depressed. His clothes and face were covered in dirt and his hair was a mess, and he looked like he had just been in an apocalyptic war, but most of all he looked like he had been crying.
"D-dad?" Takeru asked, stepping forward and hugging his dad. "I was actually starting to get worried! This place is a mess! We're working on fixing it though—"
"Have you seen your mother?" Mr Takaishi asked flatly.
"No—why?" Takeru asked quickly.
"She's gone—I don't know where she is."
Takeru's face fell instantly as worry and sadness washed over him. "D-Do you know... anything?"
His father shook his head. "I'm searching though... I promise I'll find her."
"No." Takeru said. "You need to stay safe! I'll find her! I have a digimon to protect me."
"Actually..." Mr Takaishi said, "So do I." He reached into his pocket and pulled something out before holding out his hand and showing us a digivice.
"What?" Takeru gasped, "You have a digivice—a digimon? Since when!?"
"Since roughly an hour ago." Mr Takaishi said. "He's just over there." He pointed behind us causing us both to spin around quickly to see a familiar digimon with a pointed hat and a cape. "It's the same one that was haunting the video—"
"Wizardmon!" I let a cry escape my lips as I grew more excited. I ran toward him, leaving Takeru and Mr Takaishi behind. As I came closer to him I tossed Lopmon into the air and fell to my knees to hug him. Lopmon landed on my back smoothly as I held Wizardmon tightly. "Wizardmon!"
"H-Hikari?" He stuttered. "What are you... is... is Gatomon...?" I pulled away from him and shook my head.
"No..." I admitted. I could see the sadness on his face as I said it. I smiled though, "But I'll find her. And now that you're partnered with Mr Takaishi I'll know just where to find you when I do. She'll be pretty happy to see you!"
"She hasn't forgotten then?" Wizardmon asked.
I shook my head. "Of course not!" I insisted. "When you find a best friend, you're best friends for life Wizardmon. You and her were—and still are best friends."
"What does that make you?" Wizardmon asked. "If I'm her best friend then—"
"I'm her best friend too silly." I smiled at him.
"You can have more than one best friend?" Lopmon asked. "Does that mean Terriermon is my best friend? Ew..." She laughed a little, and then asked me, "Who is your second best friend then Hikari?"
"Takeru." I said simply.
"Not Willis?" She asked.
"Him too!" I insisted. "I have a lot of best friends." I told her.
"Like me?" She asked.
"Like you." I smiled. I stood up suddenly and looked back to Takeru and his father. "Let's get back." I said.
"I will come with you then." Wizardmon smiled, following along behind me.
As we came closer I heard them arguing though.
"You can't tell me what to do!" Takeru snapped. "I'm eighteen years old!"
"You're not old enough to be making rash decisions like this!" Mr Ishida argued. "You're still a child!"
"No I'm not." Takeru said, "You lost your chance to tell me what to do when you walked out on me and mom. You're still my father—but you're not my dad. You never have been and you never will be."
"You're mother and I are dating." Mr Ishida said.
I could see the shock on Takeru's face at these words, but he shook them off. "So? Willis and Hikari are dating, but that doesn't mean Willis is suddenly my best friend too—you're not my dad until you can prove yourself as one and I'm going to go save the world—save my friends, my brother, and my mother whether you like it or not. So if you don't agree—too bad." Takeru spun on the spot and looked to me, "let's go." He grabbed my hand and began dragging me.
"It was nice seeing you Mr Ishida—and you too Wizardmon!" I said as I waved over my shoulder.
"I'm sorry Takeru, I thought this would be good for you to see—but I was wrong." Patamon said from Takeru's head.
"No." Takeru said, "You were right. Now I know that I have to save my mother... because no one else here is capable of doing so." He sent a glare over his shoulder toward his father and then looked on ahead, his expression lightening instantly. "Wanna get some pizza?"
I looked in front of us at a pizza shop with a broken front door due to the attack.
I looked to the clock tower nearby and then out to the water toward Mimi and Jou, and then back to Takeru. "Sure." I laughed as he dragged me toward the front door.
Yoshie:
"This place doesn't look too bad," I commented, as we got out of Yuuko's car and walked towards the door of the flower shop. The windows were all intact, and the door wasn't broken down. It was open, just a little, but it wasn't torn apart, I took that as a good sign.
"Be on your guard though," Yuuko said. "Just in case."
I tightened my grip on my pot handle. It would need replacing. I'd done battle with it loads of times already, and it was dented so badly it would be a pain to try and use it for cooking. Perhaps, when this was over, I would be able to mount it on our living-room wall, as a reminder that I too could help take out the bad digimon, not just Koushiro. We finally had something in common.
"What is it exactly that we're looking for?" I asked, brandishing my pot as I peeked around the door—like they do in those police drama television shows—before declaring the flower shop "Clear."
There was some damage done to the inside, but I supposed that the digimon didn't find it very amusing to destroy a shop when there was much livelier prey running and screaming as they tried to get away. Yes. Humans were more 'fun' to chase than potted plants.
The walls were lined with shelves, the shelves decorated with flower arrangements and various potted plants. I noted that the display arrangements were made of everlasting flowers, rather than fresh cut blooms. It made for less expensive damages, that's for sure, and they still looked beautiful when they were scattered on the floor.
"Herbs," Yuuko said. "I know she has a section of them. We were just talking about them last week. She said there'd be plenty of parsley if I wanted to try baking some into bread."
"That actually…almost normal for you," I said in surprise.
"Yeah, Hikari suggested it," Yuuko said sheepishly. "I wanted to do something with parsley…she wanted to be able to ingest it."
"You'll have to invite me over for some when this is over," I told her.
"Yeah, and we can share our tale with the children," she said confidently.
I was glad for that confidence. She never second guessed it anymore. She was determined to just not think of any negative possibilities, and I found myself leaning on that, thriving in it. Koushiro would be fine. He was smart. Probably the smartest person I knew.
And if he'd just email me back or call me or something to let me know that he was fine…well, that would just be very much appreciated.
I headed over to the far wall. There was a lot of greenery displayed—a good place to look for herbs I thought. Yuuko decided to search the storeroom. There were a lot of aesthetically pleasing bonsai trees, each one unique in both shape and container, a few potted plants that had yet to bloom. And a large bin of decorative foliage that I'd seen Mrs. Takenouchi use in bouquets—mostly when Masami was feeling romantic and bought me flowers on his way home. I really ought to have come out to this little shop more often. There was a lot of beautiful stuff I could spend hours looking over. I simply did not have the time to do so at that point. I had to force myself away from one particularly beautiful bonsai in a pink, glass container in order to keep searching for the herbs.
The bin of foliage rustled though, stopping me in my tracks. I poked it with my pot, ready to attack if necessary. Fortunately, I only saw some lighter green leaves when I searched it, and one particularly gorgeous blue and pink bloom—perhaps Toshiko misplaced it, I didn't bother to change it. There were no digimon spiders or rabid dogs or whatever other kind of digimon there was, so I just left it where it was.
"Any luck?" Yuuko called out.
"No," I said. "Do you think the boys have emailed us yet?"
"They could've…maybe. If Koushiro is more diligent than Taichi, there'd be a chance anyway. Or maybe Hikari made them answer. I don't know. We'll find out when we get back. Don't lose hope though. We'll hear from them."
"I just wondered," I said with a sigh.
"Did you hear that?"
"Shh!"
"But she said Koushiro."
"Shh! They'll hear you."
"And Hikari and Taichi!"
"They could be enemies."
"Maybe they know where Mimi is…"
"In the Digital World," I told the voice coldly. "With my son. Who are you?"
"I told you to be quiet Tanemon. Now they know we're here!"
"But she said Mimi was in the Digital World. She said with her son. That means she's one of their moms. Moms are nice, Yokomon. We'll be fine," the one I assumed to be Tanemon said.
"B-but—" Yokomon said.
"Come out," I said a little softer. "Come out where I can see you."
"Okay. There's no need to get all huffy about it," Yuuko said coming out of the back room. She looked between me and the pot of foliage. "You are not talking to me at all…are you?"
"No," I said. "Something called a Tanemon and a Yokomon are hiding inside the plants."
"Yokomon? As in Sora's Yokomon?" Yuuko asked.
"Sora! You know where Sora is?" cried a pink digimon as it clambered out of the leaves. The gorgeous bloom was attached to her head, making me feel like an idiot for not bothering to check it out when I'd first seen it. "Is she okay?"
"We don't know yet," I said. "Koushiro should be emailing me…but I haven't gotten it yet."
"Mimi was always complaining about how he never got off of that computer of his," a small light green digimon said as she followed Yokomon out. This had to be Tanemon. Her head was home to two light green leaves…again, a blow to my detective skills… "I hope they're alright."
"They will be," Yokomon said. "As soon as we get there."
"So you need to find them?" I asked.
"You take care of this will you?" Yuuko asked. "I think I remembered Toshiko saying something about an office…." She headed off in another direction entirely, searching for the herbs. I, on the other hand, was desperate to know something, anything that meant my baby was safe.
"Motimon will have found him," Tanemon told me, as though reading my mind. "He wasn't out as far as we were, he was closer to The Temple. Gennai would've brought them there first."
"And Gennai would have found them?" I asked, hoping this Gennai person was a nice, trustworthy person.
"Gennai knows just about everything about the Digital World," Yokomon announced. "He's been there since the very beginning."
"Maybe even longer," Tanemon said.
I wasn't sure about that, but they seemed to believe it.
"Found it!" Yuuko shouted from somewhere within the shop's office…wherever that was.
"Shh!" Yokomon said. "The bad guys might hear you."
"Couldn't you just…fight them?" I asked.
"Not until I find Sora," she explained. "I'm not at a high enough level to do anything."
"So if we help you get to Sora…"
"I'll be able to help fight and fix everything," she said.
"Then you'll just have to come with us," Yuuko told them. "But we're leaving now. We got what we came for, and we've got a schedule to keep." We didn't… "If you're coming, let's go."
"We'll come," Tanemon said quickly. "It'll be safer…er…for you…if we went with you."
"Right," Yuuko said dryly.
I smiled. If Koushiro didn't think my last email was worth a response, I now had something to tell him that would guarantee an answer. These two needed to find their partners, and Yuuko and I needed to find our children—and the other children as well, they all needed to be safe—it seemed like a fair trade to me.
"Let's go then," I said. "What are we waiting for?"
Next on Digimon Adventure 04: Oh no! Puppetmon is gaining the upperhand, and Taichi and Terriermon have been separated from the others. Will they manage to pull off a win? Or will they cave under the pressure? Sora—reeling after a high-stakes battle—is still trying to find herself and most importantly, closer over her crest, and Satoe has to come to terms with her daughter's dreams, before something terrible happens and it's too late to apologize….