It didn't take them very long to realize that it was still August 1st. Only three hours had passed. Both surprise and joy overcame them at once that they almost forgotten to hide the Digimon from their friends.

Yui, Sara and Haruna were running towards the returning group.

"There you are! What happened?"

"Where were you all for the past two hours?!"

The eight of the Guardians had been best friends for three whole years, even though they were all very different. The redheaded tomboy, Beth Pantheon was the fearless and often unlikely leader. Zaira Baker despite her grim semi-Goth demeanor, was unwaveringly loyal. Streetwise Theo was the fire guardian. Kylie was a shy bookworm with a kind heart. The brainy Sara Goodman, the water guardian, was her best friend. Bouncy haired Yui Kasuga, the guardians of the stars was flighty and caring all at once, Haruna the unconventional prep was the guardian of Earth. And finally, Dana the youngest, who had a way with animals.

"Friends of yours?" asked T.K., sitting up.

"The missing three to eight guardians." Beth smiled, "The ones who were accidentally left behind while we were pulled into the Digiworld."

"Digital World!?" Yui proclaimed. "So, you took a trip down the rabbit hole, huh?"

"Is that where that wave - portal took you?" Sara asked.

"We'll explain everything." Kylie stepped up, "But first we need to get to Hikarigaoka as soon as possible."

"I still can't believe that we're back." Mimi said with great relief.

"Yeah, well, don't get too relieved yet. We still have to deal with Myotismon." Matt reminded.

"Should we be worried about these talking critters?" Sara G asked Kylie.

"Critter?" Patamon pouts. "I was told I was quite handsome, though I was Angemon when I noticed it."

Kylie explained. "Girls, you already know the seven children, no doubt. The little lifeforms with them are digimon, sentient creatures created by both data and a magical source."

"We'll get to that later." Theo piped up.

"Hey!" Koromon suddenly spoke up. "How do we get to Hikarigaoka?"

"I've got an idea." Tai informed.

Meanwhile in the Hikarigaoka District, Nerima Ward mainly, Myotismon's forces have already gone out in search for the eighth child. From the roof of their temporary hideout, Gatomon and Demidevimon were observing the view.

"So the eighth child is near here?" Gatomon wondered.

"Yeah. Isn't that right, Lord Myotismon?" DemiDevimon asked, turning to his Master. "Er –something wrong, sir?"

The moment he'd turned around, he and Gatomon could see that the vampire was shielding himself in the shadows of the rooftops, almost slumped against the wall.

"Unfortunately, until the sun sets, I must wait in the world of darkness."

"My poor darkling..." Lady Despair kneeling over her heaving offspring.

"What's wrong with him?" Gatomon asked.

"He's not used to this world's summer season, its sun seems to have a drastically weakening effect on him." Lady Despair replied, without sparing her a glance.

"Begin the search without me. Here." Myotismon tossed to Gatomon a tag with a pink crest. The symbol

Gatomon catches it. "You can count on me, Lord Myotismon."

"I will take him underground until sundown," Lady Despair add. "I will have to find a spell to shield him from sunlight if we wish to have the advantage. Find the 8th child and don't tarry!"

She then descends down the stairs and leaves with Myotismon. Demidevimon tries to follow after them only to slam right into the door as it closed.

The buses boarded with children leaving for Odaiba. Summer camp was cancelled because of the unexpected snowstorm, so rather than stick to the original plan of sleeping over for the night, they had decided to head back for home.

However, Tai had to put his plan into action. With the guardians offering to look after the eighth children and get them home safely, it was easy enough to convince Mr. Fujiyama to drop them off at Hikarigaoka.

Once inside the bus, Beth and the older girls informed the other three a quick summary of their adventures and what needed to be done. Some of the larger digimon were in the overhead bins with the luggage.

Izzy checked his laptop to see if the digimon analyzer still works. "It's alright. It's still working properly in this world."

"That's great." Tai said.

Sora was seated on the other side of them with Joe just one row behind her. She had her digivice out hoping to pick up any sign of the eighth child yet only saw the blinking dots that represented her chosen companions. "The Digivice is also working too."

"And that was just about what we need to do." Beth was finishing explaining.

"I am worried," Sara remarks. "What will the High Council do, or should we maybe inform the Aurors about this? I don't think this Lady Despair, or the digimon are something we can handle by ourselves."

"We'll send an anonymous tip to the nearest Auror office once we're back in the city," Beth planned. "Then we guide the kids to their homes before we send word out to everyone in the Order."

"But there's a whole bunch of kids living in Hikarigaoka, how will we know?" Yui questioned.

"With these." Sora held up the digivice to Yui. "The digivices alert us if another chosen child is near."

"What are those things? Is that what's all the rage among kids these days?" Mr. Fujiyama walked up.

"No, that's not really…!" Joe said with great alarm.

"Let me have a look."

"You can't!" Tai said.

"Don't be stingy. After all, I'm letting you get off at Hikarigaoka."

"O-Okay." Sora handed her digivice to the teacher.

"That's good manners you've got there, Takenouchi. You're an obedient girl, unlike some other kid I know!"

"It's okay to just let him take a look at it." Izzy assured Tai.

Theo nods. "Yeah, you're only in trouble if he actually steals it."

"I felt like we were being attacked by an evil Digimon or something." Tai said.

"Professor Fujiyama is an evil Digimon?"

Zaira rolled her eyes. "Really?"

"Yeah, very much! If you forget your homework, he snares you with his tickle attack! It's really awful!"

Just then a hand fell on Tai's shoulders.

"I only heard that last part." Mr. Fujiyama said before he started to tickle Tai.

It was actually a very funny sight though.

Myotismon's army spread out in the search. Some searched from the skies, while others searched the sewers. Still others with enough of a human shape, like Wizardmon, or who were small enough, like Gatomon, searched as they walked around. Wherever they went, traffic signals would blink like crazy and cell phones went out of service.

"You still haven't found the child?" Myotismon had responded from Gatomon's report.

He was currently in his coffin with Lady Despair staring down the other digimon present.

Gatomon was kowtowing to both her Master and his creator. "Yes, sir. At the very least, the child doesn't appear to be within the vicinity of Hikarigaoka." The cat digimon replied.

Myotismon then sat straight up in his coffin. Demidevimon.

The bat digimon flapped down, having several crests, each exactly the same.

"What are those?" Gatomon blinked.

"Don't be so surprised, I've copied the eighth child's Tag and Crest. The one you have is also a copy."

"Then where's the original?"

A quick glance revealed it was held in Myotismon's right hand.

"Here in my grasp. Even though it is a copy, it will still react when the Chosen Child is nearby." The vampire replied.

The copied tags are handed out, but Lady Despair comes to a disappointing realization.

"That nosy Sea Witch must have her hand in this," Lady Despair hisses. "Unless it's the original tag, we won't get a reaction out of these damn things!"

Lady Despair grabs the tags from DemiDevimon, and pricks her finger to put a drop of black blood on the tag copies.

"But...I CAN make these things react when the guardians, or the Chosen Children when they are near," Lady Despair compares. "We can be assured that THEY will find the child first! Find those fairies and filthy children, and we'll find the eighth Chosen."

"This time, make no mistakes. You must find that child." Myotismon ordered.

"Yes sir!" Both Gatomon and Demidevimon bowed

"Those insolent children…and those paltry interlopers… I will do everything in my power to eliminate them!"

The moment the buses stopped at Hikarigaoka, the children with their digimon were dropped off with the guardians keeping a close eye on them. Sara's twin brother, Tony, was leaving with friends and agreed to keep an eye out. The group up on a bridge that overlooked the street close to the apartment buildings.

"Well, here we are." Theo shrugged.

"Wow! You used to live in that big castle, Sora?" Piyomon asked Sora.

"It's not a castle. It's divided into smaller rooms inside and a lot of people live there." Sora explained.

"Did you live in Hikarigaoka, too, Sora?"

The girl nodded.

"Sora and I were in the same class." Tai informed. "Third Elementary School, Class 1-2."

"Huh, I was in Fourth Elementary School." added Matt.

"Th-Then…" Joe stammered. "That means you weren't lying in order to trick the teacher?"

Matt confirmed. "It's true that we lived in Hikarigaoka."

"Yeah, I remember a little of it." T.K. agreed.

The children all confirmed that they all lived in the area years ago, it made the older girls exchanged glances. Then Izzy voiced their thoughts aloud.

"This can't be a mere coincidence."

For the next few minutes the guardians accompanied the children as they trekked through the area, reminiscing about their old neighborhood. It was nice seeing their faces light up as they recalled old stores, parks and other sections.

"T.K., you may not remember, but we used to play around here a lot." Matt was saying.

"But I do feel like I know this place." T.K. smiled brightly.

"How long did you live in Hikarigaoka, Izzy?" Sora asked.

"I think I even stayed less a year… Probably a couple of months." The ten year old boy replied sitting on guard rail.

"For that short time, why?" asked Yui.

"I don't know."

"I can answer that question for you!" Joe then walked up.

"But you didn't know Izzy at all back then." Tai reminded him.

Joe replied haughtily. "Because if I make the right calculations it should be enough. Izzy and his family moved away because of a terrorist bombing in 1995!"

"So it was just a no maj randomly attacking the area?" Zaira looked around.

"Maybe you don't remember it, but there was a terrorist bombing here in Hikarigaoka four years ago. And since they never caught the group responsible for the bombings." Joe added. "My parents figured it had just become too dangerous to live here anymore, so we moved out to Odaiba."

"That's right!" Sora blinked. "It was the same with my family! I remember they mentioned something about a bomb!"

"Spring 1995…" Beth was calculating thoughtfully. "I remember we were halfway through our first year as guardians when the whole bombing in Hikarigaoka went down."

"That was while you were all still in boarding school abroad wasn't it?" T.K. questioned.

Haruna looked thoughtful. "Yes, but our term the year afterwards when studying magic abroad was full of political slandering and a time of teenage rebellion against a corrupt authority figure that took over the school…"

"Uh…?" The eight kids and Digimon looked both dumbfounded and intrigued.

Sara G. looked sheepish. "Long story, we'll tell you guys a summarized version later."

Tai looked up, "Now that you mention it, I feel like that's what happened."

As they talked, multiple police cars with blaring sirens start passing by.

"What's that?" Mimi asked.

"Could it be Myotismon?"

"In broad daylight?"

The group followed the police cars to see a woolly mammoth digimon running amuck.

"That's Mammotmon!" Izzy used the digimon analyzer. "He's a Perfect-Level Digimon who has enormous ancient power. His special attacks are Tusk Strikes, where he fires his two tusks and Tundra Breath, which releases a cold blast from his nose."

A cop car pulled up before the group. "It's dangerous here! Find shelter!" The officer tried using his radio to call for backup except it was on the fritz. "Hello? Hello? I request some urgent backup! Hello?! That's weird…"

Mammotmon's ears twitched and he turned in their direction.

"He's seen us!" Tai yelled.

"Hurry and get out of here!" The officer sped away.

Mammon roared before he charged at us. In response, Piyomon ran forward "Let me handle it!"

"Piyomon!" Sora called out.

"Piyomon digivolve to… BIRDRAMON!"

Sara G., Yui and Haruna's jaws dropped.

"Watch the redhead work!" Beth said cracking her knuckles. In a flash of pink sparks she took on Digix form. "Alright, it still works here too!"

"You got a new transformation while over there too?!" Yui cried in amazement.

However their awe was nothing to the children's reactions as Mammotmon fought Birdramon and Beth. For the destroyed sections had started to awaken old memories and flashbacks to that fateful night.

"Monsters!" T.K. yelled. "Two monsters!"

"What are you talking about, T.K.?" Tai asked.

"That's it! I remember now!" Matt suddenly exclaimed. "A long time ago, T.K. insisted that he saw monsters but Mom scolded him. I couldn't say anything."

"When did this happen?" inquired Izzy.

"The same time as the bombing."

They followed so as not to let their comrades out of their sight.

"This is where the terrorist bombing took place!" Joe gaped.

It's as if history was repeating itself as more familiar objects were demolished. The group took cover under the bridge but kept getting hit by the attacks.

When Mammotmon attacked Sora and Tai, Birdramon became Garudamon to shield them. As she did so, Tai remembered one important detail to the memory.

"That night…It was Greymon!"

The incident from four years ago. On the night of one spring day, light suddenly emitted from Tai's father's computer monitor. The first to notice it was Kari, who was still too young at the time to even attend kindergarten. She felt a presence of some kind from within the monitor, even though it showed nothing on display.
Her older brother, Tai, was the second to notice. As Tai watched, an egg even bigger than an ostrich egg popped out of the screen. From that egg hatched a round, pink creature— Koromon. Tai and Kari hid Koromon from their parents. But not for very long.

Koromon evolved into a bigger form, gaining arms and legs to achieve the appearance of a small dinosaur named Agumon. The Agumon at that time was a whole lot bigger than the Agumon that currently stood before Tai and his friends in 1999.

"I thought that it only looked that big to Kari because she was still small back then. But as she kept describing it, I began to remember more about the Agumon back then too. It was bigger than an adult."

"So that's why Kari said that I was small this time when she saw me," Koromon with them now muttered to himself.

The large Agumon, from four years ago, had run off into the town during the night with Kari on his back and with Tai chasing after him. Then, a creature that appeared to be a giant bird had appeared in the skies of Hikarigaoka.

Agumon and that bird Digimon had fought, and Agumon had evolved into Greymon. Even that Greymon was a size larger than the Greymon that they knew now. The two giant Digimon unleashed light right in the center of Hikarigaoka's streets.

Garudamon then seized Mammotmon and pulled it upwards before letting it fall. She and Beth glanced to each then nodded once before unleashing their final blow.

"Shadow Wing!"

"Incandescent beam!"

The flaming phoenix flew straight towards the feral digimon, engulfed it in flames, and disintegrating it into data. The group ran over, Sora rushing forward as Garudamon became Pyokomon and fell right into her arms.

Everyone looked around the highway. It was as though they stepped back through time… and it was a foreboding omen of the upcoming destruction if Myotismon is not defeated. The signs of battle remained, pedestrian bridges were destroyed, and giant holes gaped in the middle of the streets. Fortunately no one was hurt.

"The two disappeared somewhere after the fight." Tai finished.

"So that's why it was labeled a terrorist attack." Joe acknowledged.

"I knew it!" Haruna cried, "I knew something otherworldly had happened, but the ministry of our homeland wouldn't release any information!"

"I'm just glad it wasn't an Obscurus as I feared." Zaira said grimly.

"It must have been a different Koromon. But… When I met Tai for the first time, I felt nostalgic." Koromon admitted.

The wailing of sirens wailing alerted the group that the authorities were on their way.

"This is bad! If they catch us, they won't stop interrogating us!" worried Joe.

Izzy agreed. "Yes, they won't let us go that quickly."

They hurried towards a park close the rail station as they discussed what they'd uncovered.

"I've been wondering about this for a long time now." Izzy was. "Out of all of those children at camp, why were we the only ones who were chosen? But now I've finally figured out a clue to solving that mystery."

"It was because of the incident from four years ago." Mimi mentioned in understanding.

"Yes. All of us are linked by the fact that we have already seen the Digimon four years ago when we used to live here!"

"Then that must mean…" Matt guessed.

"There is no doubt about it! The eighth child must have also witnessed that event!" Izzy concluded.

"But something is amiss here. There must have been crowds of children who'd witnessed the incident at Hikarigaoka. So, why is it that seven of you had moved to Odaiba, was just happen to be the chosen ones?" Sara G. questioned.

"And why didn't any of the grown-ups see the battle either?" Dana wondered, "This was way too big for the Ministry to ignore, meaning they probably must've modified memories."

Joe then said worriedly. "But maybe Myotismon's already found him! If the eighth child saw the incident, then the child must live in Hikarigaoka, right?"

"That's not true." Motimon interrupted. "Since Mammotmon was wandering around here alone, then the others must still be scattered and searching for the eighth child."

"Then there's still time…" Beth murmured.

To be continued...