"Oh, what about this one?" Mirai asked, pulling a shirt-dress off the rack and holding it up to Chika, flipping it back and forth. "I bet it would look super cute on you!"
"I don't know," Chika said, taking it from Mirai uncertainly. She held it up, examining herself in the mirror. "I think it's too bold for someone like me, but I'm sure you would look good in it."
"You really think so?" Mirai asked, taking the garment back and looking at it in a new light. She started to hold it up, then shook her head to rid herself of the thought before it could fully form. "Never mind that, we're here for you, remember?"
Mirai had suggested to Chika that if she wanted to get Taki's attention romantically, then perhaps the next step of Operation: Win Taki's Heart would be to upgrade her image. Therefore, they arranged to go shopping Saturday afternoon. Mirai, eager for her first real shopping date with a friend, had arrived in a pair of flair shorts and a sporty blouse, her goggles securely on her head next to her hair buns. She had been excited about Chika's choices in fashion, and was a little disappointed to see that her outing clothes consisted of a light blue cardigan and a plain, almost matronly skirt.
"I know, and I really appreciate it," Chika said, watching Mirai hang the rejected item back on the rack, "but please feel free to look for things you might want, too."
"Oh, what about that?" Mirai asked. She was pointing at a mannequin further inside. A powder blue floral print, Chika was just starting to consider trying on the spring dress until she spied the price.
"It's lovely," she said sadly, "but I would have to save up for it. There's no way I can afford that, even if I ask my parents for help."
Mirai blanched as she, too, saw the sign, and quickly steered them out of that store. The next couple of stores posed the same problem. No matter where they looked, an all-new outfit was out of the price range for a middle school student. Deciding to take a break, they stopped into a donut shop. They ate their snacks dejectedly.
"What's even the point?" Chika whimpered. "It's not like I even see Taki outside of school."
"You never know," Mirai said, remembering when she had come to this same shop with Taki's family once before. "But at those prices, you've got a point. Maybe we start small, like a hair accessory or something."
"Should I get a haircut?" Chika asked, trying to examine her hair in the window.
"I don't think you need to do anything that drastic," Mirai mused. "I like your bob. A simple clip or ribbon could work, right? Even a necklace would do."
Mirai, who had always received accessories as gifts, was completely unprepared for the sheer variety offered by the accessory store down the street. Even if it was all aimed at kids like them, it offered so many different styles that Mirai did not know where to look first. She hoped that Chika did not notice her internal panic, and was somewhat relieved that Chika seemed just as overwhelmed as she was.
"I don't know where to start," Chika finally said. She was looking at a wall of headbands, but Mirai could tell that she wasn't really seeing them.
"Do you want to try a headband?" Mirai prompted. Chika seemed a little startled, but at least her eyes focused on the objects in front of her. It was a start. "It's a pretty simple addition to your current hairstyle."
"What kind do you think would suit me? There are so many," Chika wondered, considering the headbands more seriously.
"Hmm… Well, what kind of look are you going for? And don't say 'the type of girl Taki likes,' because one, that's a mystery, and two, you shouldn't change for a boy like that. I want to know the kind of person you want to become, and we can style from there," Mirai said, praying that her kids' show knowledge wouldn't fail her now. In truth, fashion bewildered her – try though she might, she could never quite get her wardrobe to do what she wanted. Chassy always looked amazing, but Mirai was becoming convinced that her sister could make a burlap sack look like the height of fashion.
"I never really thought about it, at least not that way," Chika said. "I guess… someone a bit more confident? Taki makes friends so effortlessly, and he can talk to just about anyone. I really admire that."
Her cheeks were dusted pink, so Mirai bit her tongue to keep from insulting Taki like she normally would. Now that she had seen Taki in action at school, she was starting to understand what it was that Chika saw in him.
"Oh, Mirai, look at these, they're so cute!"
Chika had found a basket of animal hairclips. Her eyes sparkled as she sifted through the options, eventually pulling out a little orange fox and a white wolf. They were flat, save for the glass beads that made up the eyes and nose.
"Aww, you can boop their little snoots!" Chika said, poking their noses. "Oh, but maybe they're a little immature if I'm trying to get Taki's attention…"
"Taki can deal, especially since he's plenty immature himself. Oh, speak of the devil," Mirai grumbled, eyebrows knitting together as she read the caller ID on her phone. Frowning, she stepped away from Chika as she answered. Chika could only hear a bit of the conversation, and had to glean what she could from Mirai's increasingly annoyed expression. "Hello? … You're in the…? What are you doing there? Wasn't today our off day? I'm kind of busy. … Ugh, fine, I'm coming already." She turned to Chika apologetically. "I'm really sorry to bail suddenly, but it sounds like Taki accidentally crashed my sister's date and he needs me to bail him out. See you Monday?"
"Of course! Good luck. I hope he's okay," Chika said, recalling Chastity's many suitors and shivering a bit.
"He'll be fine," Mirai said dismissively as she turned to leave. "Probably. Oh, and I like the white one better!"
Chika blinked, confused as Mirai ran off, before she remembered the two clips in her hands. She put the fox back, smiling at the little wolf as she made her way to the checkout. It might not be much yet, but it was a start!
Twenty minutes earlier, Chastity, Jonah, and their partners were climbing through the rocky terrain the team had finally cleared two days prior. Jonah led them south off their previous route and up into one of the hills. Chastity was grateful that he had warned her that they would be exploring some of the rougher terrain, as she had originally planned on dressing up a little when he first requested her company. She was also grateful that neither of her parents questioned her when she asked to borrow some of their waterproof make-up sealer.
"What exactly are we looking for?" she asked, leaning over Jonah's shoulder as he palmed over some gravel. Pandamon, too, appeared curious, while Floramon did her best to keep from appearing bored; she had grown quite tired of the lack of fertile soil.
"Gemstones, gold, anything valuable, really," Jonah said, glancing at her momentarily as he stood up. Slowly, he moved to another area, and continued his survey.
"Oh? What for?"
"I figure as we get closer to the capital, we ought to have something we can use as currency, or at least be able to barter with. Delumon was all sparkly and pompous, remember? Without any money we might get stonewalled in our journey."
"Isn't that just how he evolved?" Floramon asked, to which Chassy nodded her confusion.
"True, but one's experiences and environment certainly play a role in how we evolve," Pandamon said. "Jonah's deduction is not baseless."
"And it doesn't hurt to be prepared. The more bartering chips we have, the better. Simply being DigiDestined will only get us so far," Jonah added. He picked up a rock, examined it, and put it back. Chassy frowned a bit at the logic but did not argue. She understood where he was coming from.
"What made you pick this area?" she asked instead, taking a broad survey of their surroundings. What little she knew about prospecting told her she should be looking for a difference, however minor, in the color or shape of the stones. She hoped the Digital World still followed that logic, or at least the video game logic of "make the rock stand out." Chassy came up empty.
"We are looking for rocks," Jonah said, nonchalant as he eased himself down around a prominent boulder. He helped Pandamon and Floramon down, then held out his hand for Chassy. She took it, tentatively at first, then more firmly as she felt the loose gravel underneath her feet. "Shiny rocks, but rocks. If we don't have any luck here, I might have to ask if Kudamon could show us around the mountain he used to live on."
"Oh yes, it's quite hard to find, but I've heard rumors that you can find blue diamante in that mountain!" Floramon said. "We get travelers through once in a while who are looking for it."
Jonah nodded, filing the information away for later. He continued on his hunt, periodically instructing the Digimon to crack unusually lightweight rocks, hoping that they might be geodes. Chassy stuck close, unsure how to be of help but knowing that she didn't want to stray far. After a while, she suggested,
"Should we maybe try to find a cave? Gems and things are usually deeper underground, right?"
Jonah paused in his examination of stone, considering Chastity's words carefully. He set the stone back down and stood up, nodding.
"You have a point. We might check the rivers and streams, as well. It's possible they've picked something up at some point."
Floramon perked up at this, determined to find a stream for them to search so she could soak her roots. As they went, they fell into relative silence. Chassy tried to be comfortable with it, she usually didn't mind long stretches of silence when she was with Jonah, but she couldn't shake her own anxiety. Was this a date? Was she just convenient company? She couldn't be sure.
"Why did you not suggest any of this to the others?" Pandamon asked. They could just hear a river rushing nearby, although it remained out of sight. "We might have been able to cover more ground that way."
Jonah helped Floramon around a seeming dead-end, answering only once they were moving again.
"I didn't want to trouble them with it. This is time consuming and... maybe just my own paranoia," Jonah admitted, his eyes dark. The way he paused made Chastity think he was going to say something else. She waited expectantly even as she climbed up the steep embankment after him. Jonah opened his mouth to continue but was interrupted by a boy's scream and the sounds of a fight. Caution thrown to the wind, the children and their Digimon scrambled the rest of the way up the embankment and looked down at the river rushing far below.
Running along the riverbank was Reppamon, Taki on his back, a pair of ogres hot on their heels. Chastity recognized one of them as Ogremon. She assumed at first that the other was simply a red Ogremon until she saw that it lacked horns. It was the one hurling electricity at Reppamon. In a bid to help, Floramon tried to reach out with her vines, but they did not even manage to reach the next ledge down. The movement was enough to get Taki's attention, and he waved.
"A little help!" He called out to them before he had to duck from another incoming ball of electricity. The two older DigiDestined struggled to find a way down, and Jonah cursed. At least, Chassy thought it was a curse; she had never heard the word before and could only infer its meaning from Jonah's tone. They turned around, sliding down the embankment they had just climbed in the hopes of finding another route.
Down below, Reppamon veered left along the bank of a tributary stream, giving Taki enough time and cover to call Mirai for help. He knew she was busy, but this was an emergency, right? Surely his life was more important than whatever shopping trip she was on. He just hoped that she could find somewhere to safely gate from in time.
"Perhaps we should gate out," Reppamon suggested below him. Taki bit his lip, glancing back over his shoulder where his assailants had just rounded the corner. The red one flickered with the virus's shadow, the green one doing the same only a moment later.
"No, we're the DigiDestined. We've gotta purify these guys, right?"
Reppamon nodded, but Taki did not miss the glare sent his way by his partner's tail.
"Crush puny human," the Ogremon growled as it advanced. "Haouken!"
Taki pressed himself as flat against Reppamon's body as he could, feeling the dark energy against his back even as his partner deftly sliced the attack with his tail. They continued running, hopefully towards the warp point where Mirai could offer them back-up. Internally, he questioned whether he could take on one of the ogres long enough to buy Reppamon some time. They dodged around another attack, and Taki watched as it disintegrated a boulder. He scowled. Probably not, then.
A light shone in the hills above, and Taki cheered as Mirai and Dracomon came running into view moments later. Mirai had her Digivice out, just about to Digivolve Dracomon. Unfortunately, the light and Taki's shout had alerted the red one to the arrival of the newcomers, and he chucked his club at Dracomon, beaning him square in the face and knocking him out. Mirai blanched.
"Puny Digimon crushed. Crush puny human next!" the ogre Digimon said, charging at Mirai, who took up a nervous fighting stance. Ogremon took advantage of the distraction to rush Taki and Reppamon, club raised to smash them into smithereens.
In the end, they ended up saved by Darcmon and Pandamon. Upon seeing Darcmon, both ogre Digimon retreated, running down a narrow path that gave Darcmon pause. She allowed them to get away, returning to check on the others.
"What were you thinking, coming to the Digital World by yourself?" Jonah turned to Taki, cold fury in his scarlet eyes. Taki shrank under his gaze, as did Kudamon upon degeneration. "We're a team. You cannot run off on your own, because you risk your own safety and the safety of everyone else who has to come rescue you! And based on where you were running from, you were somewhere we hadn't even explored yet. I could maybe understand if you warped somewhere that we were already familiar with, but that was just foolish."
"I'm sorry," Taki mumbled, knowing it was pointless to argue with Jonah. He sounded appropriately apologetic as he added, "I thought I would be okay with Kudamon with me, but I was wrong. I'm... we're sorry for causing you all trouble."
"Okay, I think that's enough for today," Chassy said hastily before Jonah could continue his lecture. By some miracle she managed to get them all back to the human world with no further incident. She and Mirai waited in the park until well after Jonah and Taki had gone their separate ways, waiting for Dracomon to get his wits about him again before sticking him in Mirai's Digivice.
Chassy filled Mirai in on what it was that she and Jonah had been doing before Taki showed up. Mirai had hoped to hear a bit about Chassy's date, but instead she basically got a business report. She frowned. Even as she was thinking up contingency plans for a lack of appropriate currency, her mind kept wandering back to her sister's mood.
"You two are home early," Taeko said once the girls returned. "I thought you both had plans today. Did something happen?"
"Taki happened," they said in unison as they traipsed upstairs to release their Digimon and get cleaned up. By the time they returned to the living room, their Mama had put her book away and turned on the television for a bit of background noise. She raised an eyebrow expectantly.
"Taki interrupted Chassy and Jonah and then called me to bail him out," Mirai explained. She turned to her sister with a grin. With their Mama around, Chassy couldn't escape through DigiDestined business. "Speaking of which, until Taki rudely burst on to the scene, how was your date?"
Chassy turned beet red, sitting up straighter in her seat as she went rigid with embarrassment.
"I-I-I-it wasn't a date!" she stammered.
"Wasn't it?" Mirai asked. It wasn't teasing, but genuinely curious. She knew Chassy had a crush, and from the way she fussed over her appearance this morning she had assumed it was a date. Chassy deflated a bit.
"I mean, I wanted it to be, but it's so hard to tell with Jonah. I can never tell what he's thinking and he's always so... I don't know... task oriented? Even today..."
"What were you two doing?" Taeko asked. Chassy could feel her sister's eyes on her, warning her to be careful about how much she shared. She did not want to lie to her parents, so she thought about how to explain without mentioning the Digimon or the Digital World.
"Mostly we were just walking around town, but he kept taking note of where the vending machines and benches and things were – anywhere we might be likely to find lost change. Although he left all the lost coins where he found them." As weird as it sounded, he had done so before. She had noticed that any time they took the train somewhere, he would watch the vending machines as they waited, mentally tracking how often they were used, and how often the patrons were wont to drop their coins.
Her Mama gave her a sympathetic look, patting her knee affectionately.
"Well, you can't really blame him. I'm sure it's a habit from growing up on the streets."
"I know, I just wish that he wouldn't treat every outing like a chore. I don't even mind helping, but I'd like to know that he actually wants my company and I'm not just a convenient extra set of hands or something."
"Were you the only one he asked along?" Taeko asked, doing a poor job of hiding her grin.
Chassy nodded, ignoring the necessity of having their Digimon partners with them. Her Mama didn't need to know about that.
"Then I think it's safe to say that he wanted your company specifically, Chassy."
"Thanks, Mama," Chassy smiled. For the first time that day, she noticed how tight her face felt from the make-up and sealant. "Could you help me remove my make-up? I don't know what I'm doing with the waterproof stuff."
"Uh... you might want to wait for Zoya for that. She's always getting on my case that I'm being too rough on my skin."
"Where is Zoya, anyhow?" Mirai asked.
"She got called into work," Taeko sighed. Mirai was pretty sure Zoya worked at a travel agency, but she had always been unclear on the details. She just knew that it was Zoya who usually handled things when her dads needed to go on business trips. Taeko scowled as she continued. "I guess they were dealing with a particularly difficult client – Zoya's specialty. Speaking of which, we should order delivery. She's not going to be in the mood to cook tonight."
Mirai hummed to herself as she entered her bedroom, happy to have finally changed into her pajamas after her bath. She had scarcely shut the door behind her when a small rock bounced against her window. Startled, she rushed to the window, fairly certain she knew who the culprit was. Sure enough, Taki was down in the yard below, waving his phone at her. Brow furrowed, she grabbed her own phone and saw a series of missed messages.
Come to your window
I'm outside
Hello?
HelloHelloHelloHelloHel
Returning to the window in order to see his reaction, she typed, "What do you want?"
He looked happy enough as he read it, eagerly returning her message.
Let's go to the Digital World for a rematch against those ogres
Mirai blanched, nervously looking around her room before madly typing back.
Are you crazy? Do you want me to sneak out?
That's the idea
No!
There was a pause, as Taki frowned at Mirai's message. He clearly wasn't expecting that reaction. He had already gotten chewed out for going to the Digital World by himself once today, and now he was suggesting sneaking out on top of that? It was a bad idea. She knew it was a bad idea. But she had snuck out with him before; it used to be something of a tradition when she would visit her Mama. But the Digital World presented a much more real and immediate danger than their quiet neighborhood.
You know you're annoyed we lost this afternoon
Mirai grumbled, sent back a "fine" and summoned her Digivice. She hadn't been annoyed about the loss, not until Taki brought it up just now. But he always knew how to get under her skin and she was always annoyed that it worked. She quickly loaded Dracomon from where he had been dozing under her bed, startling him awake. Warm fuzzy feeling from her bath forgotten, she threw on her sweats and slipped across the hall to Chassy's room.
"Chassy?" she whispered as she entered. She tucked the door closed behind her as quietly as she could. "I'm headed to the Digital World with Taki, so cover for me, okay?"
"You're doing what?" her sister asked, aghast. "At this hour? After what happened this afternoon?"
"We're going together, at least?" Mirai said, not totally convinced it was a good idea but determined to do it anyway. "We don't have school tomorrow, so it's fine, right? Just make sure Mama and Zoya don't find out. I promise we'll be careful."
Chassy sighed.
"Fine, you two can go do whatever it is you need to do, but don't be mad at me when Floramon is curled up asleep in your bed pretending to be you when you get home."
"GreatThanksBye!" Mirai whisper-cheered as she slipped back to her own room. She performed a quick equipment check – goggles, exercise clothes, Digivice, Dracomon – even as Taki threw another rock at her window to get her to hurry up. She pulled on the pair of sneakers she kept in her closet for just these sorts of occasions and pushed open her bedroom window. Taki gave her a small wave and then backed up as she prepared to make the leap into the tree in the yard.
With practiced ease, she jumped, grabbing onto a branch as her feet found purchase on a thick bough below. She frowned at how it bent under her weight and wondered how much longer she would be able to do this. Mirai hoped she wouldn't have to start sneaking out the front door like other kids – her Mama kept weird hours.
"Do you need to hun… do the thing first?" Mirai asked as she landed, suddenly mindful of Kudamon's presence around Taki's neck. Taki looked a bit uncomfortable, stammering,
"I-I took care of that earlier this week. Let's just get to the Digital World, okay? We can use the park around the corner to gate."
"We're sneaking out in the middle of the night and you don't even need to do the thing?" Mirai grumbled, her annoyance with Taki returning. "This is stupid and reckless and you shouldn't have been in the Digital World by yourself anyway so it's your fault we even had a battle to lose earlier. One of these days we're going to get caught and our parents will kill us and what will the Digital World do then?"
For all that she was complaining, Taki couldn't help but grin at the way she reloaded Dracomon and then pulled up the map and gate without hesitation. He liked that about her – enough common sense to recognize danger but not enough to stop her from doing the thing anyway. It's why she was the fun cousin.
The Digital World at night was quiet, bathed in the light of countless stars above. The air was warmer than Mirai expected for the rocky hills, and she took a deep breath of the fresh air. She could hear the stream bubbling nearby, serving as their directional guide. Taki, Kudamon, and Dracomon stood out fairly well against the dark navy background, although their finer features were hard to make out. At her feet, Dracomon sleepily stretched.
"Mirai, what are we doing in the Digital World?" he asked.
"We're finishing what Taki started this afternoon with Ogremon and Fugamon," she explained. She had looked up both Digimon in her Digivice that evening, already plotting how to deal with them before Taki had contacted her. She turned to Taki. "Any idea where to start?"
"Yeah, I think they hang out on the edge of the jungle to the south," he said, turning towards the sound of the stream. "At least, that's where we found them terrorizing some Mushmon."
"What were you even doing there?" Mirai asked, exasperated. "Wasn't it your idea to make today an off-day?"
"I didn't actually mean I wanted to take the day off! I just didn't want Haruki to feel like he had to come out again. He was getting pretty worn out from all the hiking by the end of the week and he's not as fit as we are, you know?"
Mirai let that sink in a bit. She was less frustrated, but still incredulous.
"Doesn't he normally keep up with you?" she asked.
"Yeah, you two spend a lot of time together!" Dracomon added.
"Sure, but we don't normally go out and do something like this every single day. We play video games a lot of the time."
"You sure you're up for this?" Mirai asked him. She folded her arms behind her head. "If you've been slacking on your own exercise, I don't want you pulling a muscle."
"Shut it, I'm in shape," he grumbled. He went a few more paces before he said, "I worry that Haruki is too out of his element with all this DigiDestined business. Our parents have prepared us for weird survival scenarios practically since we were born, and Jonah survived on the streets for years, but Haruki is about as normal as they come. Which is fine," he emphasized the word to make it clear to Mirai that he didn't think Haruki was lame or anything, "I just don't want to throw him in the deep end before he's ready for that kind of thing."
"He can't be that normal, he's got you for a best friend," Mirai joked. Even in the dark, she could see Taki blush and kind of panic for a moment, but she laughed it off. "And he's holding his own fine. Seriously though, you're allowed to take a break, too."
"Taki was bored," Kudamon said. "And avoiding doing his homework."
"Kudamon!"
"Ah ha! The real reason for today's little fiasco comes out," she teased.
They soon reached the cliff above the stream. Kudamon's markings glowed a faint purple, providing them all with a little bit of light to find their way to the path down. Mirai was glad that Taki and Kudamon had climbed down the path once already, because between Kudamon's light and Taki's better night vision they were the most likely to be able to locate the tiny path again. Even in the day, she wondered if she would have been able to find it.
"Let me know if you need homework help," Mirai said once they had started their descent. "Or if you or anyone else starts falling behind. The Digital World is important but so is school. If Chassy can take off-days for dance club, I think the rest of us can take breaks for homework."
"Thanks, but it's just boring," Taki complained. "I hate rote memorization and drills."
"I hear your best subject is P.E.," Mirai said through a grin. "I knew you were a muscle-head but I had no idea it was that bad."
"It is not! And you're one to talk, what's your best subject?" Taki challenged.
"English," Mirai answered proudly. "Since my parents all use it a bunch for travel and stuff."
"What's 'English'?" Dracomon asked.
"It's another language spoken on Earth," Taki explained. "Do they not have English in the Digital World?"
"It's possible," Kudamon said. "Lunaria is but one country. Although I must say that watching you practice English is quite novel. Vocabulary aside, I cannot think of a time I have witnessed a Digimon have to learn to speak."
"Yeah, the littlest babies maybe don't talk, but once they evolve, they can!"
"Man, lucky them. English is my worst subject," Taki begrudgingly admitted. He could feel Mirai's gaze boring into him, so he added, "Not that I'm bad at it! We could totally have a battle of the grades."
"Sure, one more thing for me to beat you at," Mirai said happily. "And since we haven't sparred in a while, we can do English review while we fight."
"What? No, I like sparring, don't make it more schoolwork," Taki complained.
"Then do your homework and don't let your grades slip," Mirai rejoined.
"Fine! I'll do my homework and then we'll see whose grades are better."
Mirai smiled to herself, glad she could get under Taki's skin the same way he got under hers. Her smile faded when Taki held up a hand, motioning for silence. She could just see him point down the valley path towards the river. After a moment, she saw two lumbering shadows moving in front of the moonlit water. Pulling Taki with her, she ducked down behind a boulder that had miraculously been spared in the scuffle earlier that day.
"Do either of you have a plan?" Kudamon asked. His markings no longer glowing, he was able to stand atop the boulder as their eyes. Mirai looked up and down the small valley, judging the cliffs on either side and looking for any sort of cover.
"Okay, this might be reckless," she started, and she hated the grin that appeared on Taki's face, "but I'm thinking a pincer attack. Have Taki and I lure them down the path, then once they're in deep enough, have you two Digivolve and come up from behind."
"Are you sure, Mirai? Won't you get hurt?" Dracomon asked quietly.
"Maybe," Mirai admitted. "But Taki and I aren't useless in a fight, especially not if we're prepared for it."
"Sounds like a good plan to me," Taki smirked. "Oh, but since Reppamon is on the smaller side, I think I should get him evolved ahead of time and he can stay hidden and I can cover Mirai, so we don't have a repeat of this afternoon."
One fist-bump later, the two kids stepped out from their hiding place, standing in the middle of the path. Digivice in hand, ready to Digivolve Kudamon, Taki asked,
"Wanna go all out?"
"No way," Mirai said immediately, her tone final.
"What? Why not? It's just us."
"You know we aren't supposed to."
"We're fighting Digimon! No one'll get hurt."
"We could get hurt, idiot. So for the last time, NO!"
"Ugh, fine, be that way," Taki grumbled, pressing the button for Digivolution. The flash of light attracted the attention of Ogremon and Fugamon, so Taki called out, "Hey bones for brains! Over here!"
"Is puny humans!" Ogremon shouted. He stomped into the valley path, and once they were sure that Fugamon was right behind him, Taki and Mirai turned and ran.
"You wanna take Fugamon and I'll take Ogremon?" Taki asked, sounding way too relaxed for their current circumstances.
"Any particular reason?" Mirai asked, distracted as she prepared for Dracomon's Digivolution. She just had to wait until the ogres were past their hiding place.
"The dark energy won't hurt me as much?" Taki answered, sounding unsure of his logic.
"God, you're such an idiot. That makes no sense, but I owe Fugamon for this afternoon so fine, let's do that."
"Sweet!"
"You better not die," Mirai said, throwing another glance over her shoulder. Her depth perception sucked in the dark, so she struggled to tell if they had lured the enemy Digimon far enough. What she could tell was that they had almost caught up. "Cover me!"
"On it!" he said, skidding to a halt and facing Ogremon. "You want a piece of me, big guys?" Taki's eyes went wide as he narrowly avoided getting hit with a flying club. "Gonna take that as a yes."
Taki squinted as the light from Mirai's Digivice burst out behind him, illuminating the ugly pair of mugs in front of him. They winced from the brightness, the dark cloud of the virus flickering around them as they fought to see against the blinding light. Seeing an opening, Taki slid in with a jab to Ogremon's torso. He followed it up by kicking the side of Ogremon's knee, knocking him off balance and away from Fugamon.
"Whoopsie," Taki said as he jumped back to avoid getting hit by one of Ogremon's flailing limbs. His eyes caught movement above, going wide when he saw that he had backed straight into the path of Fugamon's club.
"Heavy-"
Fugamon's attack was intercepted by a stream of blue flames. Mirai followed Taki's earlier example and ducked in close for an attack, except rather than a jab she punched Fugamon full force in the crotch. She missed Taki's sympathetic wince, too satisfied with her own payback to pay him much mind except to scold him for being open.
"That's why I've got you with me," he awkwardly chuckled. "And didja have to hit him there?"
Mirai grabbed Taki and pulled him back away from the battle as their partners took over the fight.
"It was open and there's a less than zero chance it's a weak point, so yes." Taki groaned at her blunt response, so she added, "What do you care? It's not like you were the one who got hit."
"Yeah, but you shouldn't just... It's a cheap shot!"
"No such thing as cheap shots when it's life or death," Mirai pointed out, her expression grim. Taki very maturely stuck his tongue out at her, refusing to consider the "life or death" part of her commentary. Their partners were handling things just fine! In fact, Reppamon and Coredramon had just slammed Ogremon and Fugamon together.
"Lighten up, Mirai, before you get a stick up your ass like your dad."
"Hey! Papa does not have a stick up his butt!"
"But you knew which one I meant~!"
"Just about done over here," Reppamon called to them, snapping the two kids back to attention.
"Not done yet!" Fugamon grunted. As he got to his feet, Ogremon added, "Still fight!"
"Well, if you're so sure," Coredramon shrugged, glancing at Reppamon for confirmation. Reppamon gave a slight nod, and the two launched their attacks simultaneously.
"Blue Flare Breath!"
"Shinku Kamaitachi!"
Whatever fight the ogres still had evaporated under the intensity of the attacks, the virus flickering around them as they collapsed on the ground in a heap. Mirai and Taki wasted no time in purifying them.
"Gah, I think I'm blind now," Taki complained, squinting and blinking as the purifying light left spots in his vision. "Double the bright light in the middle of the night was not a good idea."
"Quit being a drama queen," Mirai said, blinking a few times herself. She held her fist up. "Mission accomplished?"
Taki took a few tries to find her fist through all the spots, but he eventually met it with his own.
"Mission accomplished!"
A/N: I had fun playing around with the variety of character dynamics this chapter. My beta wanted to shake Jonah so hard re: Chastity's crush, lol. It took me a while to figure out how I wanted the fight to go, but once I did I had fun writing it. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!