Author's note: Sorry for the late update. Life happened, or should I say I am currently learning a new programming language called C#?
Chapter 22 – Relaxation
Hackmon didn't know where he was at first. Under him stretched a sandy land. There were several people on it. He recognized his partner Meiko, who held her hands in front of her eyes. Another red-haired person had placed her left hand on the shoulder of the black-haired woman and somehow gave her a nod.
Next to Hackmon, Alphamon rushed to him. He dodged to the side and summoned three energetic beings who attacked the black knight with their blades. Suddenly he noticed that he wasn't at his rookie level, but he wasn't at his perfect-level either. Was that his ultimate-level?
In any case, Hackmon felt a tremendous power. His gaze wandered back briefly to the DigiDestined. He saw Meiko parting from the group, her arms outstretched.
"Meicoomon!" she shouted as she tried to run to her.
Hackmon wanted to say her name, but he couldn't. His voice failed. His mouth produced nothing. Instead, he flew over a cat-like digimon and said:
"Un Pour Tous!"
He crossed his two arms while one of his blade-like feet was in front of the other. Its shape resembled that of a triangle without the long sides. The three energetic beings moved a bit away from each other and also formed a triangle. One was on the lower left side, the other on the lower right, the last one hovering above.
All energetic beings began to light up briefly before changing their position, so that all rotated 180 degrees. Shortly after they had their position, the three already created an energy field, which shimmered greenish. Hackmon stretched out his arms slightly backwards before ramming them into the field. It gathered enormous energy, which briefly accumulated in a hemisphere before unloading itself into a powerful beam.
He himself felt Alphamon grab him from behind. Below the beam, he saw Omnimon pushing away the cat-like digimon. Nevertheless, they were grabbed by the beam a short time later.
After the jet had faded in the air, he hurled the black knight to the ground with his tail blade. He still realized that it disappeared due to a distortion. Hackmon himself watched the scene a little further. Meiko stood with Matt while Tai tried to get to them. He noticed that the ground became brittle because of his attack, causing Tai, Matt and Meiko to threaten to be swallowed up by the earth masses.
Omnimon himself raced to the three. Hackmon tried to save Meiko, but his body reacted against his will and behind him appeared a distortion into which he was dragged by an unknown force.
Desperate, he tried to get to his partner, but it didn't help. More and more he was swallowed by the distortion, although he did not want to. He tried to call for her, but her name sounded very quiet. Hackmon wanted to scream loudly in despair, but again his voice sounded very quiet.
Hackmon shuddered and shouted:
"Meiko!"
"What's going on?" she asked, looking at him.
She held a booklet in her left hand and a pen in the other.
"I... How? What? Where? Why?" the four-footed dragon looked through the room confused and recognized Izzy's study.
He had laid down on the floor next to his partner while she was sitting on the sofa.
"Did you dream badly, Hackmon?" was her question.
"Yes! You were swallowed by earth masses. I tried to save you, but my body reacted differently than I wanted! Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"What are you talking about?" she looked at him confused: "Don't you remember? We went to Izzy this morning because I have to learn with our friends for an exam. You lie down next to me on the floor and fell asleep within a few minutes."
"Ah... true, yes. Sorry."
"It's okay. The nightmare was certainly bad, wasn't it?"
"I wanted to save you, but I couldn't."
She put the pen on the table and began to claw Hackmon's head with her hand. He relaxed a little and closed his eyes.
"Who was the first president of America?" Tai asked as he read a question of his homework aloud, looking up briefly.
"George Washington," Akira replied, "The capital of America is named after him."
"Thank you," the brown-haired man wrote the answer in his booklet.
"Who followed James Madison as president?" was the brown-haired question.
"James Monroe," Akira replied.
"Thank you again."
"Hm... Which state was the last to join the United States of America and when?"
"Hawaii, August 21, 1959."
"Okay... This question is simple. Who had discovered America... That would be Christopher Columbus."
"It depends on what the teacher wants to hear... If he wants to know from a historical point of view, it would be the East Asians who crossed the Bering Strait from Asia. If the teacher wants to know which European was the first to enter America, the answer is Graenlendingar... This happened a good 1,000 years ago."
"Um..."
"You know a lot from America..." Mimi marvelled.
"No, not really," she said, pulling out a cell phone behind her booklet and showing it to the others: "I only read what's on the page."
"That's cheating," Joe said: "I don't spit. As a doctor, I have to learn so much."
"As a policewoman, I don't need to know that much. I just have to be physically fit," she smiled.
"But you also have to deal with the legal system of Japan," Cody replied: "So... I myself want to become a lawyer."
"Wow... Not bad, Cody.", T.K. was impressed: "I think I become an author and write about our adventures in the digital world."
"That's certainly going to sell well as a novel," Sora said, "I'm going to create a fashion line or run a boutique."
"Sounds pretty exhausting to write such a novel... My dream is to open a series of noodle soups," Davis said.
"We know that... I myself want to become a kindergarten teacher. I really like kids," Kari smiled.
"If everyone already presents their professional wish... I want to be an astronaut," Matt said, nodding firmly, "What's your career wish, Yolei?"
"Pilot... or just a housewife," she replied.
"Scientist," Izzy suddenly said.
"Huh?" said Ken, somewhat astonished.
"I want to become a scientist and explore the digital world further. And what do you want to do, Ken?"
"I also want to be a police officer... or even a detective."
There was a brief silence. Everyone looked back at their notebooks, mobile phones or Izzy on his computer.
"What about you, Meiko?" Tai asked her, "What do you want to be?"
"Me? Um..." the black-haired woman began to stammer: "I... Um... I..."
The brown-haired woman found it kind of amusing as she stammered and barely got anything out. After a while, however, he said:
"Calm down, Meiko... If you don't want to name your career wish, that's okay."
"It's just like that... that I want to become a scientist... I'm a bit embarrassed..."
"Why that?" asked Akira.
"Um... My father is also a scientist. That's why I found it a bit embarrassing, because I would like to follow in my father's footsteps."
"But you shouldn't be embarrassed, Meiko," Davis laughed, after which Tai threw him.
"Don't laugh at her!" he hissed angrily.
"Thank you, Tai..." Meiko said, smiling at him.
He answered the smile and went to her before gently brushing a strand out of her face. Everyone else looked at the two in disbelief, but remained silent.
"Are you two in a relationship?" Joe asked at one point, turning the two red.
"Wow... Congratulations to you two! Especially you, Meimei," said Mimi, who promptly made sure that the two turned even more red.
"Actually, it was pretty obvious," T.K. said.
"Yes... It was obvious," Kari agreed.
"I can't do it more!" Yolei suddenly shouted, slapping her head on the top of the table: "I desperately need something that relaxes me. My head is smoking because of all the learning!"
"I could use a break," Cody replied, stretching a little.
"Isn't there a school party at your new school, Tai?" asked Sora.
"Yeah... However, it still takes a good three days for the festival to begin," he said.
"How about we rest in a hot bath?" suggested Ken: "I think our Digimon would also like a bath. What do you think, Wormmon?"
His partner sat on his lap and looked up at him briefly before nodding.
"I also need a break. Translating the legend is exhausting. Still, thank you for your tip Ken," Izzy said.
"You're welcome," he said.
"What a tip?" was Palmon's question.
"He had told us that the knights were once called Royal Knights in the legend," Tentomon explained.
"The Royal Knights?" Gomamon and Patamon repeated.
"Wow... I bet these guys are incredibly strong!" enthused Armadillomon.
"Considering that Omnimon is a part of them, yes," Biyomon said.
"What?!" said Hawkmon and Wormmon, terrified.
"Now that you're talking about it," Agumon began, "I remember very darkly that as Omnimon I was a member of the Royal Knights."
"I remember it very darkly," Gabumon said.
"Why is that?" Gatomon asked her.
"We don't know," the reptile digimon replied.
"We only know what we said," the yellow dinosaur replied, "What do you mean, DemiVeemon?"
He was deeply immersed in his thoughts.
"DemiVeemon... DemiVeemon! DEMIVEEMON!," the four-footed dragon shouted.
"How? What? Is there anything wrong with Quetzalmon? Oh... She's already dead..." the little blue dragon stammered, looking to the ground depressed.
"Is there anything wrong with you DemiVeemon?" asked Davis, somewhat anxiously: "You're still grieving for this quetzalmon that you barely knew."
"I get the feeling that I knew her somewhere... but from where?"
"So I didn't know any Veemon or ExVeemon who was friends with Quetzalmon," Wanyamon raved: "And be quiet now! I want to keep sleeping!"
"We're talking about the Royal Knights, Wanyamon," Agumon said.
"Do you want to know a few members?" was the question of the in-training digimon: "Let's start with me, Dynasmon, the leader and guard Alphamon, his right hand Omnimon... the strategist Duftmon, who with the virus type Gallantmon, the newest member Jesmon, his master Gankoomon... the largest of us, Examon... I can't remember more... or are my memories too blurred..."
"All mentioned digimon connect one aspect. The system doesn't display any data," Izzy said.
"Doesn't matter!" Akira exclaimed angrily: "I want to relax now!"
"Maybe you should call your sister and her boyfriend... They certainly want to come along," Yolei suggested.
"Good idea. I'll call them right away."
A short time later, everyone found themselves in front of a thermal bath. Sera and Shin were very happy about the proposal and rushed to the bathroom at a fast pace. When everyone wanted to choose their kimonos, traditional clothes that looked like a combination of coat and dress, Akira and Sera chatted a bit.
"Do you already have a kimono, Akira?" her sister asked her.
"No... not really,"" she gazed at the selection.
"So I take the white one. And you?" she gently placed a hand on her sister's shoulder.
"Hm... I really can't decide."
"Then take the blue one!" cried Wanyamon in her arms.
"If you want to, Wanyamon..."
"Or the purple one."
"You're no help..." Akira sighed.
She liked to find something suitable in terms of fashion, because she was very picky and she was also very sensitive to certain fabrics, as they scratched on her skin. In addition, she wore only certain colours that matched her mind. She preferred dark colours such as wine red, blue, grey and black over popping ones such as yellow, orange, white, green and so on.
"Okay... I'll take the blue one," said Wanyamon's partner, picking up the kimono.
A short time later, she was in one room with Wanyamon, Sera, Kari, Gatomon, Yolei, Hawkmon, Mimi, Palmon, Meiko and Hackmon. The latter had his red cape removed from his partner so that it would not get wet when he was swimming in the water.
"Ah... I totally forgot how pleasant such baths are..." Akira's older sister groaned with delight as she supported herself with her arms at the edge of the pool.
"Yeah... There was no such thing in America," Akira replied, sighing relaxed: "But I think you want to relax because of something else."
"Akira!" she shouted.
"Come on. We live in the same apartment, have you forgotten? I hear a lot of things you do with Shin at night," she smiled at her.
"There are some things I don't want to talk about!," she dipped under the surface of the water and stayed there for a few seconds.
Akira herself laughed happily and brushed Wanyamon over his fur. He had settled at the edge of the pool. He didn't necessarily want to get into the water because his fur was sucking like a sponge and it took hours for it to dry completely.
"Hey! Don't swipe my coat like that!" he immediately complained: "Otherwise I'll be round like a bullet!"
"Really?" she tilted her head to the side and smiled, "I want to see that."
"Don't wag it!"
"Okay, okay. You are grumpy," she nudged him, laughing happily as he accidentally jumped from the edge into the water.
"Bah!" he screamed in panic: "Hey! I can't swim in this form!"
Immediately she fished him out of the water and dropped him off again.
The other female DigiDestined and her partner had watched the scene and could hardly hide their laughter.
"You can tell they get along well," Mimi said.
"That's true!" Palmon agreed.
"I think they both searched and found each other," Hawkmon said.
"Do you think so?" asked Yolei.
"Yes," the bird replied.
"They definitely have a good relationship," Sora said, leaning relaxed against the pelvic wall.
"Just like us, Sora," Biyomon said, swam toward her.
Meanwhile, Hackmon put his head on the edge of the pelvis and looked at a sign with an indistinct expression on his face. He himself could not read this, but that was not important either. Much more he thought about his nightmare.
"Hackmon?" Meiko asked him.
He didn't answer and just kept staring at his sign. His partner formed a bowl with her hands, collected water and let it trickle down from above on the head of the four-footed dragon. He was terrified and clapped into the wet. Moments later, he reappeared and looked at his partner angrily.
"Hey!" he complained.
"Don't think about the nightmare, Hackmon. Relax, that's why we're here," she smiled.
"Okay," he replied in a much deeper voice than usual.
The voice itself resembled that of his earlier life when he was still a messenger of the homeostasis. Everyone was terrified and looked at him in disbelief.
"What's wrong?" he asked again in his normal pitch, looking uncertainly at his partner: "Did I say anything wrong?"
"No..." she shook her head.
He looked at her in question before smiling and collecting water in his mouth. Then he splashed Meiko with the collected wet.
"Hey!" she cried, laughing cheerfully.
"Now we're quit," the four-footed dragon replied.
After everyone had put on their kimonos again, they found themselves in a dining room. The men themselves seemed very relaxed.
"What are we doing now?" asked Wanyamon, somewhat impatiently.
"We get something to eat," Sera replied, "What do you want, Wanyamon?"
"Hm... I try what Akira takes."
"Good. Do you please get fried noodles with chicken, Sera?" her sister asked her.
"Okay," Sera replied, walking away with Shin and a few other people.
"I want something in tempura dough, Meiko!" shouted Hackmon.
"Agreed. Vegetables, chicken or shrimp?" was her question.
"Doesn't matter! Mainly something in tempura dough!"
"Alright," she nodded to him and walked.
After a good five minutes they came back. In their hands, they held black boxes of food in them. After everything was unpacked and they started eating, Matt asked:
"Can we actually come to your school festival, Tai?"
"Of course. Friends and family members are welcome at my school at parties," he said, putting a bite of rice in his mouth.
"What will there be at the festival?" was Kari's question.
"All sorts of things," Akira replied: "A school cafe, theatre, food stalls, competitions... I believe in one you can even throw a few teachers in a water vat when you hit the target."
"Sounds like fun!" exclaimed Wanyamon.
"It is. I'm looking forward to throwing my history teacher in the vat!"
"You're horrible," Shin said softly, eating a piece of vegetables.
"What did you say, Shin?" asked Sera's sister.
"Nothing. I just talked quietly about my work."
"Okay..."
"Speaking of work... Why are there so few people here?" asked Joe at one point.
"As you know, I work for a special police unit," Shin began to explain.
"We didn't know that!" exclaimed Mimi.
"No matter. I made sure we could spend a few hours here undisturbed," the man smiled.
"It's nice when you have connections," Ken said, giving Wormmon a piece of meat that he immediately ate.
"Kind of remind me of Mr. Nishijima..." recalled Sora: "He had also once made sure that we could spend our time here undisturbed."
"Yes," Izzy nodded briefly: "He sadly died a year ago..."
"Let's not remember him any more... We should enjoy the rest of the day here," T.K. said.
"Exactly! There's great food and an awesome noodle soup!" exclaimed Davis.
"You're just thinking about noodle soups, Davis," Cody noted.
"They're delicious!" said the red-brown-haired man.
"Yeah!" agreed Yolei, who had also picked up a noodle soup herself.
After they had all eaten and spent the rest of the day in the thermal bath, they took the bus home. The Digimon had already fallen asleep, so that the DigiDestined and Sera and Shin talked quietly. They made up among themselves that they would meet at Tai's school when the school festival took place.
A few days later, everyone found themselves at Tai's school. Sera, Shin, Izzy and Tentomon settled in the school cafe and talked about the digital world.
"So... So the digital world had many reboots before we were even brought there," said the redhead.
"Exactly," the man confirmed.
"We ourselves experienced three reboots on our journey through the digital world," Akira's sister said, taking a sip of her tea.
"How did you survive this?" asked Izzy.
"We were taken to safety by someone," Shin said.
"Ah..." Tentomon said: "We've seen two reboots ourselves. Once when we defeated Apocalymon... and the other time when Yggdrasil, with the help of Meicoomon, wanted to destroy our world and forced a reboot for it."
"But this reboot cost all digimon their memories, apart from Hackmon and Alphamon."
"Could we please change the subject, Izzy?" the insect asked, "I don't remember it very fondly."
"Okay..." he sipped something on his Olong tea and then tilted his head a little to the side.
On his tongue spread a pleasant, bitter taste, which he himself always liked.
"Where are the others?" was Tentomon's question.
"Akira and Wanyamon are scared off with a creepy room and a few other students," Sera explained, "And as far as I've noticed, Matt, Sora, Gabumon and Biyomon are on the roof of the school."
"I saw Mimi, Yolei, Palmon and Hawkmon at one of the competition stalls... I think they're competing in a beauty contest," the man said, "as far as Davis, Joe, DemiVeemon and Gomamon are concerned. I recently saw them fishing for goldfish... I met Ken, Cody, Wormmon and Armadillomon in the hallway, as well as T.K., Kari, Patamon and Gatomon."
"Everyone has their own interests..." smiled Akira's sister and took another sip of her now lukewarm tea.
The four had no idea that Tai, Meiko, Agumon and Hackmon were standing in front of the school cafe and were considering going in. The partner themselves stood next to their partners and once again pretended to be stuffed animals. Suddenly the door was opened and a waitress smiled at them. Or rather, she smiled at the brown-haired man.
"Tai? Nice that you're there," she said, "Do you want a cake? It is free."
"As long as my girlfriend gets a free cake, I'll take a piece, Sakura," he said.
Sakura cast an angry glance at the black-haired man. In her mind, she threw thousands of curses at her. How could she take away her swarm? She didn't look so good with her long black hair and stupid-looking glasses.
"Sakura?" asked Tai, "We're still waiting for an answer."
"What?" she looked angrily at Meiko, who shrugged: "And who is that?"
"I... I... uh..." stammered the black-haired one.
"That's Meiko. We have a relationship," the brown-haired man explained.
"I see."
The three continued to talk. Hackmon himself seemed immersed in thoughts. The nightmare of a few days ago still plagued him. Suddenly he started to hear a voice. He couldn't classify it, but it sounded very familiar. He quickly took a look left and right to see if there were any people. Meanwhile, Sakura slammed the door in front of Tai's nose. The brown-haired man laughed a little.
"Looks like we're not getting a cake," he said with a laugh.
"Looks like that," she replied, with a slight laugh.
"It's a pity... I would have liked to have had a piece of cake," said Agumon, whose stomach began to growl.
"But there are still food stalls in the yard. There we can get something to eat," smiled the black-haired: "You can eat something in tempura dough again, Hackmon."
He did not respond. He tried to listen to the voice far too much. This was indistinct and he himself only caught a few words.
"Hackmon?" asked Meiko, kneeling down to him.
"What?" he looked at her and then to a hallway.
"Does the nightmare still bother you?" was Agumon's question.
"Yes," he said, when he suddenly started running.
"Hackmon!" his partner shouted in horror.
"Damn," Tai raved: "We told him that he couldn't just move like that."
The three rushed after him, but he had already disappeared from their field of vision. They ran up the stairs while Hackmon hid in the shadow of the steps. As Tai, Agumon and Meiko passed him, he stepped out of his hiding place and hopped on the window sill. He recognized a flowerbed and a glitter, which did not seem natural.
/What is that?/, he asked himself and rushed down the stairs to see the glitter more closely.
Meanwhile, Tai, Agumon and Meiko reached the roof.
"He's not here," the black-haired woman sighed, "Where can he be?"
"Hey. Don't worry. The most important thing is that you keep calm," the yellow dinosaur said.
"Agumon is right. If you were Hackmon, where would you go?" the brown-haired man asked.
"Hm..." she pondered and stepped on the railing: "I see him! He's at the flowerbed!"
" Then we go to him!"
Everyone walked down the stairs and entered the small backyard, where Hackmon apparently talked to himself.
"Master... Where are you?" was his self-addressed question.
Meiko approached the four-footed dragon and knelt down to him.
"Is something wrong, Hackmon?" she asked.
He briefly shook his head and then looked at his partner.
"It's just... It's nothing," he said.
The black-haired woman looked at him with a questioning face. What was wrong with him? Normally Hackmon trusted her. Why didn't he want to tell her anything? Something seemed to depress him. But what? And why did he call anyone his master? Who was his master?
"Hackmon... What's going on with you?" was Meiko's question.
"Nothing," he lied, looking to the side, making his statement not very credible.
"You're a little depressed."
"I... I will tell you one day... But not today... I... "I have to sort my thoughts.", the four-footed dragon sighed heavily, before smiling broadly: "So! I'm hungry now! I want something in tempura dough, Meiko!"
"Good," she smiled at him: "Then let's get something for you."
"Awesome!"
Both went back into the building.
"I think Hackmon is slowly beginning to remember who he used to be," Agumon said, looking after the two.
"Do you think so?" Tai tilted his head slightly to the side.
"Yes... When we saw Hackmon from the roof, he was not alone. The homeostasis was with him."
"You can see the homeostasis?" the brown-haired man's eyes widened.
The yellow dinosaur nodded before continuing:
"I could see it all at once. It seemed to be talking to Hackmon... I will ask the Homeostasis about this... or more precisely, I will ask him as Omnimon."
"I see... You and Gabumon talk to it, right?"
"But only recently. We felt his call to us and when we were in the digital world Primary Village, the night you slept, we digivolved to our ultimate-level and fused into Omnimon before we visited the Homeostasis. We learned a lot from it. Among other things, that we were once members of the Royal Knights."
"We know that now."
"In addition, one day we will have to fight Alphamon again to kill him."
"I can understand that... It was stupid to think you could save him..."
"Death is sometimes redemption... I learned this from Meicoomon's death," Agumon looked briefly at the floor before looking at his partner again.
"One more question, Agumon. Legend has it that the Royal Knights fell into an argument... What were you arguing about?" asked Tai.
"Who was the better leader. I and Gabumon felt that we should not follow King Drasil unconditionally and without questioning him. Alphamon trusted King Drasil and his judgment strongly, too strongly. You should know, Tai. Alphamon was created by King Drasil to control him and the Royal Knights and then step in and stop them during a rampage... However, King Drasil eventually began to negatively affect Alphamon... I don't know how, but it has had an effect. I and Gabumon became more and more at odds with Alphamon until we attacked each other."
The brown-haired man listened tensely to his partner. What he said sounded credible and at the same time implausible. He didn't know much about King Drasil or even the Royal Knights, but what the yellow dinosaur told him sounded incredible.
"When we attacked each other for over three hours, the other Royal Knights started arguing too. All I know is that Gallantmon and Jesmon sided with me and Dynasmon on Alphamon's," Agumon explained: "After arguing for several hours, a digimon appeared which we thought was dead, and attacked us. He killed one by one... So it killed me... As I later learned from the homeostasis, only four survived. Alphamon, Jesmon, Dynasmon and another whose name the Homeostasis did not want to be named. Together they were able to seal this digimon into the Dark Ocean... But the seal became weaker and weaker due to the many reboots and at some point it broke out again."
"Who exactly was this digimon?" the brown-haired man asked.
"I don't know, Tai. I can't remember him..." suddenly Agumon's stomach began to growl.
"This information is very valuable, Agumon. I'm going to tell Izzy."
"Wait! The homeostasis asked me not to tell anyone because it could endanger your life," the yellow dinosaur asked, before his stomach asked for food again.
"Okay...", Tai briefly closed his eyes: "Let's leave it at that."
"Thank you, Tai... I'm hungry now."
"Then we follow Meiko and Hackmon and get something to eat."
"Definitely," Agumon nodded and walked back to the school building with Tai.