Yang-Yin
Chapter Thirty-Six: "Fight Against Fate"
For a moment, nobody could act. Just a few seconds ago, Koichi had been right there—injured but still alive. And now, he was gone.
Gone. No body, nothing. The data that had once given him a form had now disappeared into thin air, leaving no trace that a boy named Koichi Kimura had ever existed in the Digital World at all.
Bokomon was trying to explain what Crusadermon had revealed about Koichi's "borrowed life" in this world, but Katsuharu could barely hear him. All that was in his mind was the memory of Koichi's hand slipping through his, inexorably tied to the sight of Koichi unraveling right in front of them.
A sudden jolt hit the train, and for a moment, everyone wondered if they were under attack. But there was no sign of an enemy around them, though the train kept shaking.
"We must be passing through the barrier!" Chiaki realized.
Katsuharu managed to remember he was their leader, and he ordered, "Everybody hang on!"
The kids and Digimon grabbed hold of whatever supports they could find. The train continued to rock, shaking them violently as they passed through the barrier. Everything around them seemed to warp, and there was a strange sense of pressure in the kids' minds. And then everything went black.
"Katsuharu?" asked Bokomon's voice after what felt like only moments.
Small hands shook him, and Katsuharu opened his eyes. Somehow, he'd ended up on the floor of the train, passed out. So too had the other Warriors, who were slowly waking up.
"What happened?" Teruo asked as he sat up.
"No idea," Katsuharu answered, sitting against the seat. "Everybody okay?"
"Actually, yeah," Teppei admitted. "Better than I was."
"Like we were never hurt in that battle," Chiaki realized.
On a hunch, Teruo pushed up his sleeves. The old burns that had been left behind from BurningGreymon's very first attack on them had been a constant reminder for him just what kind of danger they were facing. But now, his skin was smooth and unmarred, like he'd never gone through it.
"The scars are gone," he said, almost numb with shock.
"What?" Katsuharu asked.
Immediately, they all got to their feet, but once they had, they stared at each other in shock. The height differences among them that had become less and less obvious over the course of their adventure were suddenly back, and Katsuharu and Teruo found themselves towering over their friends.
"The Digital World must have returned you to the original state you were in when you arrived," Bokomon realized.
"That weird reaction…" Katsuharu murmured.
"It's probably the same thing Koichi always felt when he tried to go home," Chiaki said. "Only he didn't have…"
She cut herself off, and Katsuharu turned to look outside the window. DarkTrailmon had led them right to the underground station in Shibuya. Katsuharu made his way out the door, and the others followed him immediately.
"Well," he said, standing in front of the elevator. "No turning back." He turned around to look at the Digimon. "You guys stay with DarkTrailmon. We'll be back."
"Good luck," Bokomon replied.
Katsuharu nodded, and the four humans stepped inside the elevator. Chiaki waved sadly, and they watched their friends until the doors closed.
The ride up didn't take nearly as long as any of them remembered it taking to go down to the Trailmon terminal, and before they knew it, they were back in the bright, busy afternoon of Shibuya Station. The moment they stepped out of the elevator, a crowd of people pushed past them to use it, all going about their lives without any knowledge of the Digital World or the Legendary Warriors or anything else that the kids had come to know over all this time.
"Feels weird seeing this many humans around," Chiaki said quietly.
"Yeah," Teppei agreed. "So what do we do?"
"Same thing we said before," Katsuharu decided, turning back to them. "We get what we need—food, water, medical supplies, all of that."
"What if we run into our families?" Teruo asked. "How do we explain everything?"
"Don't know," Katsuharu admitted with a sigh. "Just try not to get caught, I guess." Solemnly, Teruo nodded. "Okay, guys. This is where we split up. Good luck, everyone."
Katsuharu and Teppei started down one side of the station, Teruo headed to another, and Chiaki looked for the exit. It was a strange feeling for them. Ever since they'd first met, they'd always been a team. The few times they'd split off, it was only because they'd been forced to in battle. The idea that this time—no matter how short—they couldn't depend on each other's support was almost frightening.
But there was still a job they needed to do, and letting this bother them wouldn't get it done any sooner. Without letting themselves look back, the team of four split into their original, separate lives, and went their own way.
"What a mess!" Teruo declared.
Instead of heading straight home, he'd taken a detour to the local cemetery to visit his long-dead brother. But when he'd gotten there, he found the grave was in shambles. Weeds had grown over the tombstone, partially obscuring the name, and litter lay all around.
It wasn't that the cemetery was a mess; on the contrary, all of the other graves were well-tended and beautiful. It was simply the lone one for Takehito Kagami that was abandoned to the wild and the trash. Without a second thought, Teruo got to work cleaning the area as best as he could. He pulled out the weeds and carried them and the litter to a trashcan halfway down the street. Much of the garbage he could do little about—cigarette butts and broken bits of glass that were too small for him to pick up or he was at least cautious about touching with his bare hands. When he was done, there was very little vegetation in the grave's immediate vicinity and there were good-sized holes in the dirt. But it was far better than it had been before.
"I can't do much about the tombstone itself," Teruo said, "but I'll wash it the next time I come. You deserve better than this." Then, realizing that he needed to introduce himself, he added, "I'm Teruo, by the way. Your younger brother. You wouldn't know me, and I didn't know you. Mom didn't have me until a few years after you died."
He should have felt silly, sitting there and talking to the ghost. There was nobody there, and any thinking he needed to do, he could have done silently. But there was just too much going on right now, and he knew he had to find someone to talk to.
Besides, his best friend had been a ghost the entire time. So it wasn't that silly after all.
"I'm sorry I didn't come earlier, but it wasn't till now that I realized how important it is. A lot of things have happened to me these past few months. I like to think I've grown up. Who couldn't, what with what I've seen? And now, with my best friend dying…" He shrugged. "I don't know. Everything about death used to scare me so much. Mom and Dad tried to protect me all my life. They wanted a lot of kids, and they only managed to hold onto one. If I got hurt even slightly, they freaked. If I got sick with a cold, Mom took me to the doctor right away. I remember twisting my ankle at school during P.E. and going to the emergency room when Mom came to pick me up, even though the school nurse checked me out and said it would be fine. If she knew what I was doing now…"
He sighed. "Maybe it's best if I don't answer that one. But they were always so scared that I'd die that I was afraid of death even more. Now that I've faced all of this, I think I've accepted it. that it's going to happen. I just remember the look on Koichi's face when we tried to hold onto him, and he just…thanked us. Like, even though he was dying, it was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him."
The grave was silent, but Teruo nodded as if it had given him an answer. "Maybe that's it. Maybe just because we were his friends and we loved him and we were there with him in the end. I think that's when I knew that I was ready to come here, face what ultimately happens in the end. I can't say I'm ready to face that if I can't face a grave and if I can't face life. I wish that Mom and Dad could understand that. There's a difference between living and surviving, and I'm tired of just being a survivor."
He stood up and dusted his hands off. There were dirt stains all over his pants, but he'd change when he got home. He was about to turn when he remembered something:
"Takehito, the next time I come, I'll bring flowers. I promise."
Chiaki could hear her brother on the phone when she got home, and it was only her love for her family and the fact that she realized now how much she'd missed them during her journey that kept her from rolling her eyes. It figured, no matter what was going on, Isamu couldn't put his life on hold.
Nobody saw her as she made her way into her bedroom, grabbing her backpack and emptying out the contents. She smiled as she saw a lyric sheet from chorus; she'd forgotten about the concert she had been practicing for so long ago. It was strange seeing how much things had stayed the same while she felt like she'd changed so drastically.
Bandages and other medical supplies went into the bag, along with some bags of dried fruit and nuts and a large bottle she filled with water. Her stomach growled as she grabbed rations, so she checked in the refrigerator for anything she could eat now.
"Mom's rice balls," she whispered with a smile, slipping one out. There weren't enough rice balls to take for her friends, but there was plenty of rice left over, and she tucked it away in her bag.
She went back in her room and threw a spare set of clothes and a jacket over the food and medicine. It looked like she had everything in order, and she started to zip it up, but the next thing she knew, a small pair of arms wrapped around her.
"You're home early!" exclaimed the cheerful voice of her little sister, Haruka.
"Early?" Chiaki repeated in surprise.
"Yeah!" Haruka said. "You and your friends were going shopping—did you buy me anything?"
That was right. Chiaki suddenly remembered—Amaya and the other girls had asked her to go shopping with them after school. She'd just told Haruka before dropping her off at home, but on her way to see Amaya, she'd gotten Ophanimon's call.
"Hey, 'Ruka," said Isamu as he started to walk by. "Keep it down. Besides, you're not supposed to be in…hey, Chiaki. Didn't you say you were hanging out with Amaya?"
Chiaki couldn't turn around. There were tears in her eyes, and she knew she couldn't let them see it. No time had passed at all since she'd left. She couldn't believe it.
"…You okay?" Isamu checked.
"Yeah," Chiaki answered easily, keeping her voice under complete control, the way she'd learned a lifetime ago in chorus. "Just a little stressed. I've got a project to work on with my friends, so I've got to meet up with them in a bit."
She could hear Isamu snickering. "Didn't even think about that before heading off with Amaya, did you?"
The memories of Zoë's rough time with the other girls came back to her. Maybe it was being back here, practically reset into the same body and place as the Chiaki of the past when her spirit was the Warrior of Water, that made her feel so ashamed again of her previous life and even more determined to change.
"I don't like Amaya," Haruka said, pulling away from her sister. "She's always mean to me."
"Yeah, she is," Chiaki agreed. "She's mean to a lot of people."
"Why are you friends with her?" Haruka asked.
"I'm not anymore," Chiaki insisted, her voice harder than she'd intended.
There was a brief silence before Isamu answered, "Good for you. You should be looking for real friends, not to be someone's groupie."
She couldn't stand it any longer. Turning around, she ran over and grabbed her older brother in a hug. He nearly jumped with surprise, but he cautiously hugged her back before she pulled away.
"What was that for?" he asked, giving her a puzzled look.
Chiaki wiped her eyes. "Just…thanks. For being a great brother."
Isamu watched in confusion as Chiaki then hugged Haruka with the same desperation. Still, he had to admit, he had to like this change. It looked like one of his little sisters was finally growing up.
Katsuharu looked out at the platform as the train came to a stop, almost expecting to see Koichi there, waiting for them. He couldn't get it out of his head. If only he'd done something different. If he'd just told Koichi not to go. If he'd managed to hold onto him.
Teppei looked over at him cautiously before asking, "You okay?"
"Yeah," Katsuharu lied. "Here's our stop."
Shinjuku Station was just the same as it ever was, full of people too busy with their own business to realize what was going on in the world all around them. Life, death, joy, sorrow—it didn't touch them, not if it was going to interrupt their routine. Katsuharu had been a cynic for as long as he could remember, but it seemed like now, it was worse than ever.
He should have been able to do something.
As they walked down the street toward home, Teppei gave another careful look at his oldest friend before saying, "You know, it's weird knowing Koichi lived here too."
Past tense. Katsuharu noticed it immediately. Teppei was always too blunt, even when he was trying to be sensitive.
"Yeah," he answered.
Teppei was blunt and he hated silence, but he was perceptive. He caught on quickly to Katsuharu's lack of response and promptly shut up. Katsuharu couldn't help but be grateful for it.
Katsuharu's apartment building was the first stop, and without a word, both boys entered. It was instinct, just the way it had always been between them. When they walked through the door, there was no surprise from Kasumi or Kiyoshi, two of Katsuharu's sisters, to see them.
"Hey, little brother," Kiyoshi said. "What are you guys up to?" But Katsuharu brushed past her toward his bedroom. "Hey!"
"Sorry," Teppei apologized, quickly following him.
Kiyoshi huffed as Katsuharu slammed the door behind them. "What was that about?"
"Give him a break, Kiyo," Kasumi insisted. "Looks like he had a rough day. Still no excuse for how he acted, though…"
Katsuharu gritted his teeth as he heard his sisters complain from behind the door. Noticing how tense he was, Teppei said, "Don't let it get to you, man. They don't know anything."
"Yeah," he answered, finally taking a breath. "You didn't have to come."
"Hey, it's not like we haven't always had each other's back," Teppei insisted. "You'd do the same."
Still holding the doorknob in a death grip, Katsuharu nodded. "Yeah."
Teppei picked up Katsuharu's backpack as they both started rummaging through the room. "Well, it looks like time didn't pass around here, so my folks shouldn't be home. We can grab food at my place and keep Kiyoshi and Kasumi from getting suspicious."
"Yeah," Katsuharu answered, throwing a spare set of clothes in the bag. "Give me a minute to grab the med stuff, okay?"
"No problem," Teppei answered, finding a water bottle and tossing it over to him. "Fill this up while you're at it."
Katsuharu caught it easily. "Got it."
Bandages and antiseptic were never in short supply around the Kobayashi residence, thanks to having a doctor as an in-law, and Teruo was probably the only one who had as impressive a first aid kit as Katsuharu did. Saline solutions, soap, and antiseptics were in one compartment, along with disposable gloves. Tweezers, scissors, and hospital tape were in another. Rolls of bandages and gauze pads were in another, and another was for adhesive bandages and butterfly stitches. A final compartment contained over-the-counter medication, a thermometer, and burn gel. The kit would easily take up most of the room in his backpack, forcing them to use Teppei's for food.
Katsuharu looked on the whole kit in shame. All the advanced medicine in the human world wouldn't have been enough to save Koichi. They'd tried. They'd bandaged him and done all those things for him in the past, but it was never enough to get at the underlying problem. You couldn't put a band-aid on a broken bone and expect it to do any good.
Baromon had said it was destiny. That no matter what any of them had tried, it wouldn't have altered Koichi's path.
"Damn it, it was a choice," Katsuharu hissed. "He could have chosen different!"
He wasn't sure if it made it any easier to bear. His fingernails dug into his palms as he silently raged at the universe and at Koichi for stupidly letting himself get killed when he could have just stayed with them and lived. But no. Koichi had to be the hero, and he had to make them pay for it.
"It's not fair," Katsuharu insisted under his breath.
There was a knock at the door, and then Teppei's voice asking, "You still in there?"
"Yeah," Katsuharu asked, regaining control over himself. He stood up and filled up the water bottle. "Just a second."
In the mirror, he thought he saw Koichi standing over his shoulder, looking apologetic. The way he always had when he knew he'd done something that Katsuharu thought was wrong.
"You had a choice," Katsuharu insisted, staring hard at the image.
The water bottle was filled, and then began to spill over onto his hand. Katsuharu looked away to turn off the faucet and cap the bottle, and when he looked back, the image was gone.
"You had a choice," he repeated before picking up the first aid kit and heading back to his room. Once they had everything packed in his bag, they headed out, without another word to Katsuharu's sisters.
Stocking up at Teppei's apartment went quickly. Spare clothes went at the bottom of his bag, and on top of it went whatever snacks they could carry. It wasn't enough that they'd be able to live off it, but as emergency rations, they'd work just fine. As Teppei said, his parents weren't home, but he petted the cat with unusual affection before they left.
"You okay?" Katsuharu checked as they walked past the park. Despite everything he was going through, it hadn't escaped his notice how Teppei didn't even have the chance to say goodbye to his family.
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Teppei insisted, shifting the weight of his backpack. "What about you?"
Katsuharu shrugged. "I can't get it out of my head. I keep thinking, if I'd just done something differently, maybe he would…"
He stopped cold and stared ahead. Teppei came to a halt just as quickly. Impossibly, several feet away, there they were—the bullies they'd once been, picking on Tommy just the way they always had. They were wearing the same clothes, as if no time had passed. As if they'd never been to the Digital World in the first place.
"…No way," Teppei breathed. "We went back in time?"
"That explains everything," Katsuharu realized.
Somehow, he'd made the decision before he even realized what it all meant. Before Teppei had the chance to stop him, he broke into a sprint toward the train station.
"Katsuharu!" Teppei called, using the D-tector so he wouldn't alert their past selves. "Katsuharu, get back here!"
But it was no use. He was a man on a mission, racing against destiny. Desperate to stop it all, Teppei switched to Chiaki's and Teruo's channels.
In Jiyuugaoka, Teruo placed the last of his supplies into his soccer bag and left, thankful that he hadn't run into his parents. In Shibuya, Chiaki was just about to walk out the door to meet with the others at the station.
That was when two separate events brought them to the same conclusion.
Takuya went running out of his house, desperate to reach the Shibuya Station before six. Teruo stared in shock as his one time friend and current enemy barreled past him, not seeing anything other than his destiny in front of him.
"Oh, no," Teruo realized, breaking into a run.
"What's this?" Isamu asked as his phone got a text message. "'A game to decide my destiny?'"
"What's that mean?" Haruka asked, showing her brother the same message on her phone.
"I don't know," he answered. "Hey, Chiaki, did you…"
"Don't answer it!" Chiaki insisted, racing for the door. "I'll be back when I can!"
At the same time, in different wards of the city, all four of the Legendary Warriors had realized the same thing. Chiaki and Teruo whipped out their D-tectors as Teppei's call went through.
"Takuya's right in front of me!" Teruo cried.
"Don't do anything!" Teppei warned.
"We can't risk anything happening to the timeline," Chiaki agreed.
"Yeah, well, I don't think Katsuharu's thinking straight," Teppei said.
"I'll be at the station soon," Chiaki insisted.
"Good, be ready to stop him," Teppei warned. "I just know he's about to do something stupid!"
Katsuharu couldn't get to Shibuya Station fast enough. The moment the train stopped, he sped off, looking around in desperation. All around him, kids were already beginning to arrive, hurrying toward the underground station. He watched his and his friends' past selves go by, along with Ophanimon's Warriors before they'd been corrupted. But try as he might, he couldn't find Koichi.
He'd said that he'd tried to get to the elevator, and then he couldn't remember anything else after. Katsuharu knew that was where he had to start, and he made a beeline for the elevator. He'd just gotten there when he saw him—frustrated, slamming on the shut doors, and just as desperate as Katsuharu.
"Koichi!" Katsuharu shouted as his friend ran for the stairs.
Immediately, Katsuharu chased after him, but somehow, Koichi always stayed a few steps ahead of him. The entire world seemed to be trying to hold him back. People pushed past Katsuharu as he tried to catch up, slowing him down. Koichi didn't hear him calling for him, most likely from being so dead-set on finding Koji. Each delay made Katsuharu more desperate than the last. He just knew this was where it happened—whatever it was that had made everything go so wrong.
He could hear Baromon's voice right next to him, see him keeping pace while repeating his hateful words:
"There are many possible futures, but this is the one constant. His choice is the same every time, and for all you can deny and defy fate, you cannot do the same for choice."
"Shut up!" Katsuharu muttered, his eyes squeezed shut. He couldn't fail. He couldn't let Koichi die. He was going to stop it.
A sudden cry of surprise drew Katsuharu's attention. Koichi was right in front of him, within arm's reach. And he'd lost his footing and was going to fall.
Katsuharu reached his hand out and grabbed onto Koichi's wrist. Then, to his surprise, he saw Koichi turn to him, smiling sadly.
"You're right, Katsuharu," he insisted. "I made a choice. You can't change it, so please, just accept it."
And once again, his arm slipped through Katsuharu's grasp…
There was a thud, and people gasped in horror all around him. Katsuharu awoke to reality again to see Koichi lying in a heap on the floor below, with people murmuring in fear about what to do with him.
"Katsuharu," came a voice, and he turned to see Chiaki behind him. Behind her were Teppei and Teruo, who'd clearly raced all the way over to try to catch up with him.
"I couldn't stop him," Katsuharu said numbly.
"We know," Chiaki answered.
"Was it…" Katsuharu started, briefly looking back at the unconscious Koichi. "Was it fate?"
"No," Teruo insisted. "Just…an accident."
Katsuharu nodded in shock, barely believing anything that had happened. Finally, smiling slightly in sympathy, Teppei put out his hand. Though Katsuharu balked initially, Teppei insisted, "Come on. The others are waiting."
Finally, Katsuharu nodded and took his friend's hand. It was solid, the grip firm as it helped pull him forward and away from the mistakes of his past.
They reached the elevator just after six, in time for all of the kids to have departed and presumably come back. The Trailmon station was empty for a moment before filling with the black mist that summoned DarkTrailmon, along with Bokomon, Neemon, Patamon, and Lopmon.
"You're back!" Bokomon cried. "We were beginning to worry!"
"Sorry," Chiaki apologized as they walked over. "We had a lot to take care of."
Seeing the depressed looks on everyone's faces—particularly Katsuharu's—Bokomon asked, "Is anything the matter?"
Katsuharu was about to answer when he heard footsteps. He looked over, along with everyone else, as a familiar figure limped toward them, coming to a stop, and giving them an exhausted smile.
"Koichi?" Teruo asked in shock.
He looked terrible, but he smiled at them all the wider, and that was enough for everyone. Katsuharu was the first to run up to him, grabbing him in a tight hug. Without any hesitation, the others grabbed on too, still clinging to him even when Katsuharu let go.
"I can't believe you're back," Katsuharu said.
"Me neither," Koichi admitted, rubbing his wrist. "Between the attack and the fall, I shouldn't have made it. Something must have broken my fall."
Katsuharu glanced down at Koichi's wrist and saw several scratches, from someone grabbing onto him and losing his grip. It had been just enough. Katsuharu grinned and hugged Koichi again.
The others all watched, smiling, until Katsuharu let go. When he did, Chiaki said, "Come on, Koichi. You look pretty beat up. We'd better take a look at you."
"Yeah," he agreed, limping away with her and Teruo. "My head and ankle are killing me."
"Don't worry," Teruo said with a grin. "I've got a huge first aid kit—tons of bandages and cold compresses."
Katsuharu watched his friends load into the train, completely unable to stop smiling as he whispered, "I told you."
"Who are you talking to?" Teppei asked, walking next to him.
"No one," Katsuharu answered, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder and following him inside.
Chapter title comes from Power Rangers: Time Force, whose general theme was essentially fighting against fate. Originally, this chapter was going to be two chapters—saving Koichi and settling things with everyone's families—but for the sake of timeline and lack of material, I merged them. And honestly, I like it better this way. Katsuharu's hallucinations were inspired by the Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy episode "Redemption Day," where the Magna Defender had repeated visions of his dead son as he tried to complete a mission that would sacrifice his life in order to save the rest of Terra Venture. "Redemption Day" also inspired the reunion with Koichi, as it was based off of the Rangers' reunion with Mike.