Chapter 17 – Light and Justice

Uneasy, Kari turned around in her bed. She just saw Nyaromon wagging her tail. Then the little digimon yawned and cuddled up to Kari's chest.

"Is there anything, Kari?" asked Nyaromon.

"I can't understand my brother... He just changed like that..." she sighed and turned around, so her partner was now on her back.

"Kari... It hurts me when you treat me like that."

The brown-haired woman turned around again and looked into her partner's brown eyes.

"I'm sorry, Nyaromon," Kari said.

She closed her eyes, one hand resting on the yellow fur of the in-training digimon. Then she sighed and reopened the lids. She gently stroked over the soft fur and simply enjoyed how fluffy it was.

Once again, Kari closed her eyes and eventually fell asleep. She just dreamed of someone calling her. In the dream, she wondered if it was the Homeostasis. She knew this being, which radiates a warm aura. But then she heard eerie voices singing an even more eerie song.

"Come, our Queen. We will take you with us. Into a land of magic! Come on, our Queen. The time has come. Become our queen!" they said in her dream.

Again and again. The melody sounded enchanting and yet also eerie. It sounded tempting yet dangerous.

The next morning Kari was like another person. She was silent all the time, but when she was approached, she became angry and shouted at her brother to leave her alone or he knew nothing about her.

Gatomon, who was able to return to her adult-level that night, was also worried and addressed her. But the brown-haired woman also reacted aggressively to her. A short time later, Kari left the apartment and went to school.

"I'm worried about her," her partner said, looking at Agumon.

"Me too," he replied, "She seemed like she had been replaced."

"And normally she wouldn't react so aggressively," Tai said, taking a piece of scrambled eggs between the chopsticks.

Then he brought the chopsticks to his mouth and ate the egg.

"I'm going to watch them. It's not the first time she's reacted like this," Gatomon said, referring to an event from four years ago.

At that time Kari was called to the sea of darkness by eerie figures. She had been behaving strange for a couple of days and seemed like she had been replaced. In this sea, Kari encountered Divermon, which they wanted to make their queen. Just because she didn't want to leave the eerie figures alone. Did the characters want to call them again?

The cat-digimon jumped off the table and went through the cat flap into the open. She knew exactly where Kari's school was. She went to school with T.K., Davis and Cody. T.K. and Davis were in her class. Cody himself, however, in another, because he was younger than her. He was just thirteen years old, two years younger than T.K., Davis and Kari. That's why he was smaller than his friends, but he didn't care. Cody himself was much wiser and more grown-up than, say, T.K. or Tai, and was a rational thinker.

When Kari was sitting in class, she didn't notice anyone, not even the teacher. He asked her a little, but she did not answer, which made the teacher angry.

"Yagami! Answer the question!" the teacher said.

The brown-haired woman stood up and asked,

"Sorry. What did they say?"

"Are you not doing well, Kari?" T.K. whispered to her, "You look pale."

"Takaishi, if you have something to say in front of the class, just get out of it," the teacher reprimanded him.

"Sorry. I just asked Kari if she was okay..." the blonde-haired man explained.

"And why are you asking that?"

"I've known her since I was little."

"I see..." he said.

Meanwhile, Kari stood up.

"May I go to the hospital room? I don't feel so good," she said.

"Okay, but Takaishi should accompany you," the teacher decided.

She nodded at him before she slammed into the door. She would have fell to the ground, but T.K. had been fast enough to catch her. As a precaution, he put his hand on her forehead. Strange. She didn't have a fever, but she behaved as if she had it.

Kari thanked him and let himself be led to the hospital room without resistance. Once there, Cody was just being treated. The doctor, a friendly and old lady, smiled at him before noticing that two people were entering the room.

"I'll take care of you right away," she said, briefly tying the thirteen-year-old's arm: "That might be enough. Rest a little."

"Thank you very much," Cody replied, looking briefly at the bandage after leaning back into the chair.

"Yagami? What's going on?" the doctor asked, pointing to a bed: "Sit down."

She knew full well that the brown-haired woman was sometimes very weak. This was due to a heart defect that Kari has. Sometimes her heart beat very irregularly, which is why she had weak seizures.

"I am well..." replied the brown-haired woman.

"Yagami, I know you," she said, "You have a weak heart and you don't cope with some things so well. Are you not feeling well?"

"Yes..." she replied.

"Good... I'll give you the needed medicine right away," the doctor went to a closet and picked up the medicine.

Meanwhile, Kari lay down and closed her eyes. T.K. himself stood next to her. A worried face was reflected on his face. What was going on with her again?

"Is everything okay with Kari, T.K.?" asked Cody, who stood up to see what was going on with Tai's younger sister.

The doctor came back, holding a bottle of medicine in one hand and a spoon in the other.

"You'll be better in a few minutes, Yagami," she said, opening the bottle.

She poured the substance on the spoon, while Kari straightened up and then took the medicine.

"Just rest, Yagami," the doctor instructed her: "Oh right, Hida. I've spoken with your mother, she can't pick you up."

"They shouldn't treat me like a child," Cody said, sighing.

"Sorry."

"What exactly happened, Cody?" was T.K.'s question.

"I fell and it was assumed that my arm was broken, which fortunately is not the case," he said.

"You're lucky," replied the blonde-haired man.

"Takaishi, Hida, I'm reluctant to interrupt you, but you should go back to class," the doctor said.

"Okay... I'll come to you at the break, Kari," he went back to her and smiled at her.

But she did not respond to him, because she had already fallen asleep. T.K. sighed and left the hospital room with Cody and a bow.


During the break, T.K., Davis and Cody talked about Kari's health. Everyone was worried about her. That's why they visited her in the hospital room. She was still asleep, and the doctor told them to be quiet. That's why they went back to the schoolyard. However, a short time later, Cody noticed Gatomon hiding in a tree.

"Gatomon," he said, and went to the tree.

His friends also rushed to the tree.

"Hello. Something is wrong with Kari," she said, "It was like when she disappeared."

"Then we should have an eye on her!" Davis decided: "I'll go back to the hospital room-"

"The doctor said we should leave her alone," T.K. interrupted him.

"Oh yes!" the red-brown-haired man snorted at him: "If she disappears again, it's your fault."

"And you know very well that Kari is sometimes very frail!"

"Hey, hey! Stop it, you two!" the thirteen-year-old stepped in and stood between the two.

Because he knew they were going to start a fierce argument.

Suddenly Kari was tormenting behind them. Davis was the first to notice it and rushed to her.

"Kari? Shouldn't you be in the hospital room? Or are you better off? Yes!", he nodded briefly: "You're better off again. I'm happy about that."

She ignored him and wanted to move on.

"Kari?" asked Gatomon, jumping from the tree right in front of her: "Is everything okay?"

"Yes..." she replied monotonously: "I'm fine."

"You're not doing well," T.K. said, reaching for her arm: "You're completely. Rest."

"No. I'm fine," she insisted.

"You're really not doing well, Kari. Don't overestimate yourself," Cody said, worried.

"I want to see the sea," Kari began to move again.

"The sea?" her partner repeated: "You're way too exhausted."

"I want to see the sea, Gatomon... It gives me strength."

"But then we will accompany you," smiled the red-brown-haired man, his hands crossed behind his head.

"I want to see the sea on my own," she said.

"If you're not careful, you'll be run over by a car!" shouted Gatomon: "Come on. We are your friends. That's why we want to help you."

"Okay... If you insist," said the brown-haired woman.

Together they left the school grounds, crossed the road and went to the beach. The sea roared gently. Kari looked at the power of nature with gloomy eyes. Coincidentally, there was also Armadillomon on the beach, which joined the group.

"What are you doing here?" the armadillo asked.

"Kari wanted to go to the beach," his partner explained.

"Hm... But she doesn't look good at all," Armadillomon said.

Suddenly the brown-haired woman began to sing:

"Come on, our queen. We will take you with us. Into a land of magic! Come on, our Queen. The time has come. Become our queen!"

Again and again she sang these lines, while her body dissolved more and more.

"Kari!" the thirteen-year-old shouted in horror, touching her arm.

"What's going on?" asked Davis.

"It's happened before," T.K. said.

Armadillomon stunned his partner while Gatomon jumped on her head.

"Kari!" she said in panic.

She did not respond. Suddenly, she, her partner, Cody and his partner, disappeared from the sight of their remaining friends.

"What?!" the red-brown-haired man said in shock: "What just happened?"

"They traveled in a different world," T.K. said, "I call home so Patamon can come here."

"Wait a minute. That has happened before, hasn't it?" he tilted his head to the side.

"Yes. Me, Patamon and Gatomon were looking for her here on the beach.", the blond-haired man looked at the sea: "Back then we called her and so a gate to another world was opened."

"This time it's just like that, isn't it? We have to go into this world!" Davis exclaimed, holding up his digivice in the air: "Open up! Gateway to the world in which Kari went!"

"It's not going to work," T.K. said.

"Do you have a better idea?!"

"First contact Izzy... He will certainly have an idea how to get into this world."

The red-brown-haired man grumbled and put his digivice back in his pocket. Then the blonde-haired called Izzy and then at his home.


Cody opened his eyes with difficulty. Next to him stood Armadillomon, who had been trying to wake him up for a while. When the thirteen-year-old rose, he did not believe his eyes. Everything was so grey and scary. A grey sea roared, and, in the distance, there was a lighthouse that cast a black light.

Cody was looking for Kari, who stood a few meters away and looked out at the sea. Next to her was Gatomon, who was trying to get her attention. She hopped up and down in front of her. But it didn't work. Kari started singing this song again.

The cat-digimon sighed heavily and looked to the side. She smiled a little, because she saw Cody and Armadillomon running at her. They came to a stop and looked at the brown-haired, then they looked at Gatomon.

"Where are we?" the armadillo asked.

"We are in the Dark Ocean," the cat explained, "I've been here twice."

"We definitely shouldn't stay here... I feel bad," Cody said.

"Yes. But no matter what I do, Kari doesn't react to me," Gatomon sighed.

"Now I'm here. Together we could take Kari away here."

"Good."

With combined forces, they somehow managed to get the brown-haired woman away from the sea to a nearby city. It seemed completely ruined. The houses were partially at risk of collapse and sometimes Cody even thought he could see gloomy figures between the alleys.

Eventually a simple house was found, but the thirteen-year-old felt that it wasn't safe here either. But what could he do? A little later, everyone except Kari sat on the floor. The brown-haired woman herself looked out the window at the sea and muttered some things to herself.

"What are we doing now?" asked Armadillomon: "I want to go back..."

"Me too. But I have no idea how," Gatomon sighed.

"And we have to kind of bring Kari back into reality," Cody said.

All three sighed and looked at her. She was still watching the sea. Suddenly it knocked on the door. Gatomon floundered while Armadillomon hid anxiously behind his partner. The thirteen-year-old's eyes were wide open, and he breathed in and out uneasily. The door was ripped open and several dark figures entered. They didn't seem to be from any matter.

"What are they?!" was Cody's question.

"I've seen them before... They wanted to make Kari their queen!" said Gatomon.

"Doesn't matter... Digimental of knowledge, beam!" the thirteen-year-old summoned the Digimental.

"Armadillomon armor-digivolved to... Digmon!" his partner shouted: "Gold Rush!"

In doing so, Digmon fired all his drills from the body onto the dark figures.

"Kari! I have to digivolve as well!" said Gatomon: "Let's do it!"

But she still didn't respond. Determinedly, she bit Kari's hand. With a sound of pain, her eyes widened and she looked through the area in amazement.

"Where am I?" she asked, confused.

"Not now. I must digivolve, Kari! Best to my ultimate-level!," her partner said.

"Okay," she took her Digivice out of her skirt pocket.

"Gatomon warp-digivolved to... Magnadramon!"

The dark figures were pushed back by the light of digivolution alone. Magnadramon shot out at the house because it was too big for her, and spit fire on the rest of the figures. Digmon himself also went out of the house and thrust his drills into the ground, which were renewed after each attack.

"Rock Cracking!" the earth became brittle and the figures fell into a hole.

But the more figures dissolved, the more came.

"To the sea!" cried the pink dragon after she had ejected a boiling hot mist.

"Okay!" Cody confirmed her words, and everyone fled to the sea.

"And what do we want there now, Magnadramon?" asked Digmon.

"We can fight better here!" she said, flying into the air, causing several lightning strikes.

The figures were struck by the lightning and dissolved, but more came. Kari got down on her knees and held her head as if she was in pain.

"It doesn't help," she sobbed: "They keep coming back. They want to make me their queen! They call me! They want me to rule over them! I don't want that!"

"Kari?!" Cody turned to her in horror: "Calm down."

"They call me. Tai... T.K... Help me... I don't want to be with them!" she began to cry, repeatedly crying for her brother and T.K.

"Calm down, Kari!" the thirteen-year-old shouted.

"Kari!" her partner shouted, before she saw a spear racing on her.

One of her eight wings was pierced by the spear, causing her to slam to the ground.

"Argh!" she screamed out loud.

"Golden Ru- Argh!", Digmon was also hit by a spear on the shoulder: /Why am I just so weak? I can't protect anyone like that... Cody.../

"Digmon!" cried Cody, rushing to him: "Come on, you can do it!"

The dark figures approached them and the thirteen-year-old had to deal with the fear. Desperately, he shook his partner so that he could continue to fight. But this one remained.

"What am I supposed to do?" he asked himself, "There's no point! No! I can't think of that! I must not give up! But... Digmon, Magnadramon... You can't do it anymore."

Suddenly, a gigantic red-strapped crocodile with two tails shot out of the water. It landed on the sand and angrily snarled at the dark figures. Then it fired a ray of energy at some of the figures. These dissolved, but they did not renew.

"It's the king!" said one of the figures, panicking.

"Run! Flee!" said another, before all the dark figures fled to the city.

The crocodile turned to the humans and digimon and growled:

"You dare enter my kingdom?!"

"Wait," Cody exclaimed, "We got here by accident!"

"It's true," Magnadramon said, "Kari was called by these figures."

"Nothing but lies!" the crocodile raved: "You want to take away my kingdom like these figures!"

"We don't want that," Digmon said, "Believe us!"

"I'm supposed to believe the word of two serum digimon and one human?!" he growled angrily: "Well... Free me from this Black Ring, then I will believe you."

Kari also rose and looked at the crocodile. Then she saw a black ring on one of his tails. Carefully she went to him and inspected the ring. It already cut into the flesh of the digimon. Nevertheless, she tried to remove the Black Ring. But it didn't work out.

"I'm sorry, but it doesn't work," she said.

"Tch," the crocodile said, hitting the ground with its tails: "Since I have this ring, I have been in pain."

"I have an idea," Cody said, "you just have to keep your tails up. As long as you can. As a result, less blood is brought into the tails and the muscles narrow. After that, we can remove the ring."

"If you think it works," the crocodile lifted his tails.

After a good thirty seconds, he let them sink again. Carefully, the brown-haired woman removed the ring and dropped it to the ground before destroying it with her foot.

"Here we go," Kari said, smiling at him: "The ring is gone."

The crocodile moved its tail in front of the long muzzle and examined it.

"Good... As I said. I now believe you that you do not want to take away my kingdom from me," he nodded to them.

"Who are you?" asked Magnadramon.

"My name is Leviamon..." he paused briefly: "I was once a member of the Demon Lords."

"Demon Lords?" they all repeated.

"Did the digital world have a few reboots?" asked Leviamon.

"Yes," Kari confirmed.

"I see.", the crocodile closed his eyes: "The Demon Lords had once tried to subdue the digital world... But were defeated. I was able to escape to the Dark Ocean, and since none of them had dared to come here, I stayed here."

"What happened to the others?" was Cody's question.

"I don't know. I don't care about them either... However, a while ago I was able to look at your world because a distortion had opened... You banished one of the Demon Lords here, didn't you?"

"We still don't really understand you," Kari admitted.

"Never mind then. But be careful about this Demon Lord who has been banished here. He will probably try to attack you again at some point," Leviamon said.

"Ah! Now I know!" the thirteen-year-old said: "Deemon. Deemon is likely to be the one, right? He was wearing a robe."

"Deemon... No wonder I didn't recognize him. The Deemon I know is not wearing a robe. But he is very strong. Beware of him," he warned her.

"Don't worry. We are DigiDestined! We have already defeated some enemies!" said Digmon euphorically.

"However, you should be careful. Deemon or even with a Demon Lord is hard to defeat," the crocodile replied.

"How many of you exists?" the brown-haired woman asked.

"Existed," Leviamon corrected her: "We were seven. I think there's only me and Deemon left. All the others were killed and their data was absorbed."

"Data absorbed?" repeated Magnadramon: "I thought no one could do anything like this except these Gizmon."

"It's strictly forbidden. When a digimon absorbs the data of others, it is killed, and as punishment its data is also being absorbed," the crocodile explained: "Even I have absorbed data. I have even heard of cases where the king of the digimon has personally hunted down such criminals."

"King Drasil, right?" suspected Kari.

"Yes..." the crocodile confirmed, gritting its teeth.

"Speaking of king," Cody began, "these dark figures have called you king..."

"I am the king of the digimon living here..." Leviamon said, "I rule over them and protect them from the dark figures."

"What are these figures?" was Magnadramon's question.

"I don't know," he sighed, "Anyway. Do you want to go back to your world?"

"Yes," everyone shouted unison.

"Good," he nodded briefly: "There's a place here where distortions regularly occur. You haven't been here for a long time, so you can go through it. But me and the digimon here can't do it."

"Why?" asked Digmon.

"A protective measure," said the crocodile: "Get on me, quickly. There is not much time left. If you stay here longer than one day, you cannot return."

"Okay.", the pink dragon closed her eyes and digivolved to her in-training level.

Digmon also returned to Armadillomon before jumping on Leviamon's back. The others also jumped on his back before the crocodile went into the water. Then he swam off in quick moves. Cody quickly noticed, however, that something had become stuck between his red scales. When he touched it, the object lit up, causing Leviamon to become frightened and briefly submerged.

"Sorry," he said, "I was terrified."

"Okay..." the thirteen-year-old replied, removing the object: "What is this?"

"A crest.", Kari's eyes widened with astonishment.

"Probably your crest, Cody," Nyaromon said.

"Wow... That's great. Then I can digitize to my perfect-level soon!" cried Armadillomon with delight.

The crocodile remained silent and swam even faster until its eyes on the water saw a distortion.

"There!" he said: "There's a distortion there. I'm going to throw you straight through it, okay?"

"But what will become of you?" was the question of the brown-haired.

"Don't worry. I like to live here. Here I am protected from King Drasil and them. And... Don't worry about these figures. They will not call you anymore. I scared them too much for that."

"Thank you," she sounded relieved.

"I have to thank," he braked, briefly throwing the DigiDestined and their partners from his back into the distortion: "Fare well!"

The four were swallowed by the distortion before Leviamon dived into the water. He swam through the grey sea for a while. Somehow, he was happy to meet these people and their Digimons, even though he believed that he would never see them again. Meanwhile, the four traveled back to their world, the real world, through the distortion. Suddenly, Armadillomon landed on someone.

"Ow!" Davis complained, "Can't you be careful?!"

"Kari!" T.K. exclaimed with delight and immediately hugged her.

"T.K.," she replied.

"We're back!" the armadillo rejoiced.

"Leviamon really brought us home," Nyaromon said.

Izzy, Tentomon and Dorumon looked at the four in disbelief. Suddenly a distortion had opened on the beach, where shortly afterwards Kari, Nyaromon, Cody and Armadillomon also appeared. The thirteen-year-old looked at the coat of arms, his coat of arms. He wondered what it meant.

"Izzy... What does the symbol mean?" he lifted up the object slightly.

"That?" the redhead asked, examining the symbol more closely: "I don't know."
Dorumon approached and declared,

"This is the crest of justice."

"Wow. Then you have a crest, Cody!" said Davis, putting his hand on the boy's head.

"Where were you?" asked Tentomon.

"In the Dark Ocean," Nyaromon replied, "There we were persecuted by dark figures... until the king appeared."

"The King?" the insect repeated.

Meanwhile, Dorumon also listened to the in-training digimon.

"Yes... The king. He said he was once a Demon Lord," she continued.

"But Leviamon is very nice. He even helped us," Kari said.

"I don't quite understand it... But I'm glad you're back," smiled the purple digimon.

"Exactly," T.K. rejoiced, smiling at Kari.

She answered his smile happily.

"Do you think we're going to see Leviamon again?" asked Cody.

"Honestly, I don't think so..." his partner admitted.

"However. You can explain a lot to me," Izzy smiled: "I'm really excited."

"I also want to know about your little adventures," Tentomon said.

"Me too!" exclaimed Davis.

"Then we should go to me," the redhead suggested.

Everyone agreed and went to Izzy.


Leviamon swam straight through the grey sea. He was looking for Deemon, because if he wanted to attack the real world, he would show no mercy.

Suddenly, however, he felt the presence of one of them. Immediately the crocodile turned and swam to the shore. From afar, he saw a familiar figure. When Leviamon came to the land, he looked at this figure, which he had not seen for a long time. Angry, he hit his tails on the sandy, grey ground.

"What do you want here?" he growled.

"You gave too much informations," the digimon replied.

"So you knew from the beginning that I was here, am I right Alphamon?" he asked.

"Do you really think I'm so stupid, Leviamon?"

Leviamon recognized something between the thumbs and index fingers of the black knight. Without even asking, Alphamon replied,

"These are the remains of Apocalymon. I think Deemon would be happy if I gave it to him."

"What?" his eyes widened in horror, before he began to growl: "What happened to you, Alphamon? You would never help anyone like us!"

"I changed, you should know that best, Demon Lord."

In doing so, Alphamon attacked him. Leviamon was not very agile on the land, so he tried to save himself in the water. But the black knight was faster and thrust his OwRyuken blade into him.

"Grah!" Leviamon shouted before dissolving into data.

Alphamon watched the data a little before going in search of Deemon. He found him quite quickly and just as quickly the black knight disappeared in a distortion. He was pleased that everything went according to King Drasil's plan.