Standard Disclaimer: This work is a non-profit derivative work. I claim no ownership to Digimon or its characters.
Sparks Fly - Final Part
It was mid-afternoon in Odaiba and the prefecture of Tokyo, was sunny, warm, and full of life.
There were also monsters on the loose. This was a worrying and dangerous concern.
It was not, however, a new concern.
The residents of Odaiba largely responded to the sudden appearance of dangerous monsters with a kind of practiced panic. People fled. People hid. People locked their doors. People called family and friends in fear of their safety and to share dire warnings.
And then, as they always did, the monsters started to vanish. One moment there was a huge Tyrannosaurus tromping down the street, another moment it was gone. A huge bird that flew past an apartment building suddenly vanished in a flash of light. A relieved businessman called his wife to let her know that he had gotten away from some kind of giant praying mantis and would be home soon.
Soon enough life was close enough to being normal again that people felt safe enough to start telling jokes. A middle-aged woman out shopping suggested to the cashier that maybe the monsters wanted to see the Rainbow Bridge when it lit up but had gotten their time zones mixed up. A salaryman in an office building sighed and wished aloud that the monsters had come tomorrow so he wouldn't have to give another dumb report. A terrified Russian tourist was reassured by the chef in a small restaurant on the ground floor of an apartment building that things like this just happened, and that these days it would usually just blow over.
"Monsters eventually just go away," the chef explained, patting the man's arm.
Eighteen stories up Lowemon had closed his eyes and was focusing on the city spread out around him.
After defeating the Snimon in the park Lowemon had also been forced to dispatch another violent Digimon, a Fangmon that had been racing down the street slamming recklessly into parked cars. As violent and destructive as the beast Digimon was, it had been no match for Lowemon. But after that Lowemon hadn't been able to find any other Digimon.
One by one the obviously nonhuman shadows had started to vanish. Clearly Hikari and her fellow Warriors had also sprung into action at the sudden appearance of the other Digimon. But at the same time this wasn't over. A Digimon could get a sense for other Digimon, and so Lowemon knew there were at least a couple left somewhere in the city.
Lowemon could feel the afternoon sun up above him, its warm light the source of all the city's shadows. But Lowemon didn't need the sun to see, he didn't need light to look out over Odaiba. He could read the entire city just from the shadows it cast. Humans and cats and dogs and trees and cars and power lines and streetlights and buildings, all of their shadows were mirrors reflecting life and the living. He could see it clearly even with his eyes closed, a vast portrait painted in the thousand hues of black only he understood. Over the pitch black canvas the wind blew, made cool from the height and sea and bringing with it the sounds and smells of Tokyo. There was the salty scent of the ocean, the foul smell of car exhaust, the faint scent of plants and flowers, and the varied scents of food and drink. There were also the sounds that carried on the wind; sound effects played in the theater of shadows. Cars and trucks and trains, voices talking and shouting and laughing, birds chirped, the hum of power lines, the whirring of machines, the loud roar of an air conditioning unit as it kicked into life, the flapping of vast wings…
Lowemon turned and jumped. In seconds he was across the street and three stories up on top of another towering apartment building. His boots hit the gravel roof and kept going across it as he jumped to another building and then another. Wind whistled in his ears, his own shadow a tiny speck far below, his eyes focused forward without fear.
Half a dozen buildings further Lowemon touched down in front of his target. He blinked in recognition.
"Devidramon?"
The gargoyle-esque Digimon turned about restlessly. Sometimes it stood on its rear legs, sometimes it was on all fours, sometimes it fell back onto its haunches. Devidramon's long neck craned from side to side, its four red eyes rolled about in every direction. The Digimon's mouth opened and shut, its wings flapped out of sync with each other, its tail lashed violently.
"Devidramon!" Lowemon called more loudly.
The other Digimon shook suddenly and then froze, two or three of its eyes rolled downward and seemed to see Lowemon for the first time.
"You, you… Are you? How? You… Lowemon? You were…" The dragon Digimon slurred his words, and his eyes had started to roll around again, but it could talk still and that alone meant there was reason to hope...
"That's right, I'm Lowemon. We met this morning on File Island in the Digital World, do you remember?" Lowemon spoke as calmly and clearly as he could, stepping slowly towards the larger Digimon.
"Yes… This morning on the mountain…" Devidramon managed, with what must have been intense effort, to get three of his four eyes to focus on Lowemon.
"Do you remember this morning? You gave me advice about going into the city. Do you remember it? Do you remember what you said to me? Focus on my voice. Stay here with me here."
"The city, it it, I said that it… did not… Did not like Dark Digimon, Dark Digimon species like us." The Digimon spoke haltingly with his deep voice, but some of the the light in Devidramon's red eyes seemed to be returning.
"That's right, you warned me about the city. And I told you that I had something to do there anyways. Easy now, do remember what else you told me?"
"Yes... yes I do! I told you that if you wanted to stay you should come to Overdell cemetery. I remember, I told you that if you needed anything you could ask for me…" The dragon's eyes had all come back into focus on Lowemon now. The Digimon had stopped thrashing about, but his body still shook and his tail still fidgeted around. "Where… Where are we, Lowemon?"
"This is the Real World, the world where humans live. Do you remember how you got here? Do you know what happened?"
"I was, I was out on the cape, I was fishing, then… The water shook… Everything was spinning and spinning, then I was…"
"You ended up here," Lowemon finished for Devidramon.
"This is where humans come from? There are so many… How can they live here?" The dragon Digimon shuddered suddenly and growled. "The noise…"
"Humans are from Digimon," Lowemon said simply. "Just stay calm for me, it will be okay."
"But this place… With the noise... And the smells! And the sounds! And these giant things! Rock towers! And there's no- No peace! None!" Devidramon suddenly dropped to his knees and covered his ears with its long clawed arms.
"Devidramon! Are you okay!? Stay with me! DEVIDRAMON!"
"I- I have to… I must… This place... Can't... Have to... RRRAAAAAAAH!" The black dragon reared back and screamed, jaws wide and flecked with saliva, eyes lolling about wildly, its entire body suddenly shook and lunged forward.
Lowemon jumped back as Devidramon flailed its claws blindly all around, then it shrieked mournfully and spread its tattered wings. Lowemon's eyes narrowed. He tensed, ready to dive into the fray before Devidramon could lift off. He would probably have only one shot at this so…
He had no choice. Strike now.
Lowemon leapt forward between the dragon's swinging claws, both of his gauntlets charged with black energy. In no more than a second Lowemon had grabbed both sides of Devidramon's head with his hands, forcibly channeling a surge of dark power through the other Digimon.
Instantly, Devidramon froze, its arms fell limply to its sides as everything went black.
The noise was gone. The maddening lights and the ever present wailing cry of thousands and thousands of creatures was finally gone. It was like he could breathe again, like he had been holding his breath for hours and had only finally noticed it and could finally let it go. It was like he had been underwater for so long he was choking and had finally reached the surface, gasping and wheezing for air. The tight knot of stress in his chest began to slowly unravel; the tension in his arms and legs and wings slowly ebbed away. His tail was still. Devidramon relaxed. He was at peace again.
The black dragon wondered for a moment if he had died, was this it? Just blackness and silence? But no sooner had the thought crossed Devidramon's mind that he could hear a voice, quiet and kind.
"Are you okay now?"
"Lowemon? Is that you? What happened? Where are you?"
"Don't worry, I'm right next to you. I know it must have been painful for you to suddenly arrive in the world of humans. You were about to lose control, so I did this to stop you. I can help you get used to this world, if you'll let me," Lowemon's voice seemed to be right next to Devidramon, but still there was nothing but black.
"Let you? Of course, but what is this? How did you do this?"
"That's not important right now. I'm going to bring you back slowly, so you can get used to to the Real World."
And true to his word he did. First came the familiar sounds of nature, sounds that Devidramon recognized. Wind blowing, waves, water splashing, and the quiet hum of electrical wires. Then came some of the faint smells, grass and engines that carried on the breeze. Then a little light flickered in, sunlight no brighter than the dim flicker from the end of the tunnel. And then more, bit by bit. A few distant voices became a nearby voice became many nearby voices. The scent of engine exhaust doubled than tripled than quadrupled. The great sprawl of the city slowly came into view as if it was being lit up by a long sunrise.
And all this time Lowemon spoke calmly about what he was doing. Before every step he spoke of what part of this world he was now going to unveil, and after each step he asked Devidramon if the dragon felt alright and was ready to move on or if a larger Digimon needed more time. Not once did Lowemon's voice waver, not once did he sound impatient or annoyed or frustrated or anything but kindly determined to helping Devidramon no matter how long it should take.
Finally, Lowemon pulled his hands away from Devidramon and the whole of the world returned.
Devidramon blinked its four eyes and fell back into a crouch. Right as his full sight had come back Devidramon thought he had seen a human child in place of Lowemon, but now under the sunlight that thought was foolish. Lowemon was no doubt as much a Digimon as he was.
"Do you think you'll be okay now?" Even now, Lowemon's voice confirmed he was more than willing to start all over from the beginning if it would help.
"I think I will be okay," Devidramon said. "This world doesn't feel overwhelming anymore… But what was that, Lowemon? What was that power?"
"That? That was the Power of Darkness," Lowemon said. And he said it so matter-of-factly...
"Impossible, that power healed me," Devidramon protested.
Lowemon shook his head. "I barely did anything. All I did was give you another chance. Whether you could or not was up to you." He seemed, sad? For who?
"You did much more than that, Lowemon," Devidramon looked down at the warrior Digimon with something between confusion and awe, "that power purified me. But… The power to purify, that power is a Sacred Power…"
Lowemon said nothing, instead he closed his eyes. Devidramon continued to stare. After a moment the dragon began to ask something, something about what the two Digimon should do now now or how Lowemon got here to question why Lowemon knew about the world of humans, but Lowemon held up a hand to silence Devidramon. After another moment Lowemon nodded to himself and drew forth a small black device.
"There. I know this world is unpleasant for most Digimon, but this won't take long. If you can hold on for a little longer I'll return you back to your home in the Digital World."
Devidramon's jaw dropped.
"That's… That's a Holy device, a digivice… Lowemon WHO are you?"
Lowemon looked up at Devidramon. He considered for a moment, and decided on the truth.
"I am Lowemon of Darkness, one of the Legendary Ten Warriors who inherited the power of the Spirits to protect the harmony of the Real and Digital worlds. When Digimon cross over the boundary to the Real World it is our mission to return them to where they belong, for the sake of both worlds. I know you must have other things you want to ask me, but for now let me complete my duty to you."
Lowemon held out his digivice, pointing it toward Devidramon. Then he began to walk in a long circle around the great black dragon. As he walked, a streamer of shimmering DigiCode appeared, trailing from the sparking tip of his digivice and hovering weightless in the air. Lowemon drew a circle of DigiCode all around Devidramon, taking care to fit his wings and tail as well. Then, after some 30 careful steps, Lowemon returned to where he started and brought the tip of his digivice back to where he had begun. Immediately the circle of code came to life, bobbing and spinning around Devidramon all on its own. Lowemon raised the digivice up.
"Stray Digimon who has crossed from your world, return to your home by the path of night. Digital Dive!"
Lowemon swung down his digivice, slicing through the circle of code. Instantly the shining code turned to raw, liquid darkness and dropped onto the roof the Digimon stood on. Flowing like water, the inky streamers spread quickly inward from the circle Lowemon had traced until there was no more stone and concrete beneath Devidramon, only blackness. Then the dragon began to sink into the dark. At first he pulled back in alarm, but then from the other side of the dark circle the unmistakable shape of File Island came into focus.
"Is this really the path between worlds?" Devidramon asked, uncertainly.
"Yes. Each of us have different roads, this one is mine." Lowemon seemed almost apologetic now. And yet, his words did seem to reassure Devidramon as the dragon Digimon visibly relaxed while he sank downwards.
"I owe you my life for this, Lowemon. I'll never be able to thank you enough for this," Devidramon said as their eyes were level with each other.
Lowemon said nothing, but as Devidramon fell through the world he thought he could imagine Lowemon smiling. But of course with that mask there was no way to tell.
Lowemon turned from the gate (which had vanished completely, leaving behind only gray concrete) and closed his eyes once again. There was maybe one or two other Digimon left in the city? Maybe three?
The black Digimon cast about reading shadows, looking for something that wasn't a human or a real-world animal or a car or a building or anything else that would be normal in the city. No sooner than he had started he found something. And not even that far away! A tall shadow with two arms and two legs like a human, but unlike a human this shadow had broad wings. Devidramon had said that Overdell was home to dark Digimon on File Island, perhaps this was another one of them? Had a Devimon been stranded in the human world?
Lowemon took a running start and jumped diagonally across an intersection to a lower building, then crossed that building and leapt down to the street.
Lowemon landed, light as a shadow. As he turned towards the winged Digimon, hovering in the air, he saw that his guess was ALMOST right. It wasn't a Devimon, it was an Angemon.
Which might have been better actually, Angemon was a holy Digimon with a heroic nature, and as a Human-type Digimon would be less likely to go berserk. All that meant Lowemon could probably talk things out which-
Lowemon drew his spear on reflex and swung, parrying Angemon's staff and blocking the other Digimon's surprise attack.
Angemon fell back a couple of paces readying his Holy Rod before him. Lowemon matched him, dropping down into a combat stance. That was when he saw the small group waiting a ways behind the angel Digimon.
Three humans and two more Digimon. One of the Digimon was a Shurimon, a Human-type Mutant Digimon, the other a Digmon, a Beast-type Insect Digimon. The Shurimon stood at attention behind a girl with glasses and violet hair holding a laptop PC in her arms, the Digmon stood to flank a smaller boy with a bowl-cut of hair and a severe expression. A third human stood a couple of steps ahead of them, he had blonde hair, blue eyes, a plain white hat, and a look of intense anger on his face.
"Angemon!" He shouted, and the Digimon responded, moving to attack.
Angemon charged forward, quarter staff out for a powerful thrust. Lowemon braced and countered with his own thrust. He could feel the impact of his spear meeting the staff, the air rippled, the blow sending shockwaves through his body. Keeping himself steady, Lowemon suddenly pushed forward, knocking away Angemon's weapon.
The angel retreated flying back and up, but then flew back down in a wide loop to shoot at Lowemon. Angemon flew forward, parallel to the ground as a white streak cutting through the air, his staff still held tightly in front of him.
Lowemon steadied his spear, ready to catch Angemon's next thrust, but was caught off guard when the angel suddenly dropped even lower going down until he was inches from the ground. That moment of confusion was enough for Angemon to dive past Lowemon's spear and suddenly change his grip and shoot upwards, throwing all the white Digimon's speed and momentum behind a rising strike.
Reflex alone pulled Lowemon back, even that wasn't fully fast enough: the tip of Angemon's Holy Rod clipped the lion maw of his helmet breaking off a fang.
Angemon swung down again, the force of gravity behind him, but Lowemon had caught up and managed to dodge backwards leaving the staff to smash through pavement. Angemon, now on the ground, pulled his staff out of the crater of his strike and stepped forward.
Though Angemon wore a mask there is no doubt that at this moment both Digimon locked eyes. Angemon shifted the grip on his rod. Lowemon rebalanced his spear in his hands. His attention was on Angemon, but his mind was on the ones Angemon seemed to be guarding...
Three kids with Digimon… Partners?
"Iori is a couple of years younger than us, but he always seem so stern."
"Miyako wears glasses and has violet hair, she's amazing with computers."
"Takeru has pretty blonde hair and usually wears his favorite fishing hat."
This couldn't be a coincidence, he could never be that lucky. Hikari's descriptions for her friends matched perfectly. This was yet another worst-case situation…
Angemon flapped his wings and shot forward, throwing a flurry of blows the tip of his staff. Lowemon dodged the first blow with the tilt of his head, dodged the second with a tilt the other way, pulled back from the third, and was just out of range of the fourth and fifth. By the sixth he was ready and with spear in both hands Lowemon spun his weapon turning it into a whirling shield to deflect the angel's blows.
Lowemon held his defense, carefully stepping back one foot at a time, focusing everything on holding steady against the onslaught. Each strike made his spear shudder but did no more than that. Angemon's rapid blows came at the expense of power and even after nearly four dozen strikes Lowemon's stance remained unshaken.
In frustration, Angemon pulled back and put his all into one single powerful thrust with the strength to break through the black Digimon's guard, and missed as Lowemon turned cleanly to the side. Angemon pulled back trying to regain his balance, but Lowemon transitioned cleanly from spinning his weapon into an upward swing right at the angel Digimon's wrist.
The strike knocked the Holy Rod right out of Angemon's hands. The quarterstaff spun through the air before landing and embedding itself in a patch of grass by the side of the road, nearly half a soccer field's length away. Lowemon held his spear up and once more carefully backed away from Angemon, careful to keep the other two Digimon in sight.
The two Digimon and three Warriors still held back. The girl and the younger boy (Miyako and Iori?) and their respective Digimon seemed unsure what to do. Angemon glanced over his shoulder at the blonde boy (Takeru?), he seemed to get some kind of instruction because he nodded and flew up into the air.
"Sir Angemon! Take this!" Lowemon spun at the sound of the voice behind him, the ninja Digimon Shurimon had suddenly appeared next to Angemon's weapon. Shurimon wrapped a vine arm around the staff then spun and tossed it through the air to Angemon, who caught it with ease.
"Thank you Shurimon. Fall back, I'll finish this." The plant Digimon nodded and vanished, reappearing a moment later in a puff of leaves next the girl with glasses.
The white Digimon's wings shined. He raised his rod high and and spun it, faster and faster and then...
"God Typhoon!"
...Let loose a cyclone of holy wind, curving down at Lowemon below.
Lowemon crossed his arms and focused his power into his chest. An attack to meet an attack.
"Endlich Meteor!"
The blast of searing dark power pierced right through the whirlwind scattering it into nothing. Angemon spun to one side to dodge, avoiding the counterattack. Almost. Lowemon's attack clipped one of the holy Digimon's wings.
A handful of angel feathers fell to the ground like glittering leaves.
"Who IS this guy?" The girl, Miyako (maybe?), said. She had her laptop open and balanced on one hand as she tried to type something in it with her other hand.
"I am at a loss, but that Digimon DOES seem to be more dangerous than the others…" Shurimon said.
"Yeah, that guy seems pretty strong, you think we should go help out, Iori?" The Digmon said.
"He stopped moving…" Iori said, quietly.
"Angemon! Don't give up! Go for it!" Takeru shouted.
Angemon held out his right hand, his Holy Rod held tightly in his closed hand. The weapon glowed and transformed entirely into light. The Holy Ring around his wrist shined as well. All that light gathered into his fist, gleaming with a brilliant aura. Angemon pulled his arm back and readied a punch. The shadows lengthened. Lowemon could feel it, this would be the big one…
"Heaven's Knuckle!"
A stream of burning light rained down on Lowemon like a falling star. When the holy light collided with the Warrior of Darkness it exploded sending smoke and debris everywhere.
"Did that do it?" Miyako asked, uncertainly. Shurimon had leapt directly in front of Miyako when the attack had landed to shield her from the shockwave. Digmon had done the same for Iori, but Takeru had held his own against the force of the attack in a show of sheer determination.
"It had to," Takeru said, his fists were clenched tight.
As the smoke began to thin, two points of red light came into view at the center of the blast. When the smoke finally cleared the lights revealed themselves to be the red eyes of a sphinx's impassive face held in the black Digimon's left hand. Lowemon let his shield drop to his side. He was singed and scratched, but otherwise unharmed.
Takeru stared at the black Digimon, then his mouth curved into a snarl.
"Angemon!" He shouted. Takeru had yanked out what was unmistakably a digivice, holding it out in front of him.
Lowemon's eyes went to the boy, Takeru's green digivice looked different than his did, but that wasn't surprising. But the blonde had it out now, did this mean that the boy was going to join the fight alongside his bodyguard Partner?
"Dark One," Angemon's stern voice interrupted Lowemon's thoughts. "You are an interloper who does not belong in this world. For the sake of harmony, lay down your arms and return to the dark place you belong. Surrender, or face divine punishment!"
Lowemon bit back something nasty.
The angel had CLEARLY underestimated him. Angemon had attacked assuming it would be an easy win, he had looked down on Lowemon for his element and assumed he was beneath him. Maybe the angel had thought the fight would be so easy that his Warrior Partner wouldn't even need to get involved. That would explain why the blonde boy hadn't bothered to lift a finger to help. And even if he was used to it, Lowemon still didn't like being looked down on. When he was a human he had to knuckle under and endure it, but he had some pride as a Digimon, some pride as a Warrior in who he was and what he had done and in his mission. Angemon knew nothing about him and scorned him anyways.
But who cared? Angemon wasn't who was important, Angemon wasn't why he was here in the first place, Angemon wasn't why Lowemon had fought those wild Digimon, why he had saved Devidramon. And it wasn't just Angemon's arrogance that had given him this heaving knot a frustration, no it wasn't the Digimon's high and mighty attitude that had him biting back words. No, it was much simpler.
Why hadn't he said something sooner?
"Then I surrender," Lowemon said, he made a show of letting go of his spear and shield and holding his hands up. "I don't know if you'll believe me when I say this, but I really don't like fighting, and I'm not interested in becoming the enemy of the Legendary Warriors."
Angemon was instantly speechless. The angel had obviously never imagined Lowemon would ever cede the fight which made this whole ordeal even stupider. The other two Digimon seemed similarly confused.
"That's good, I think? Isn't it? Uh… What did he say about warriors?" The Digmon asked.
"Clearly he has heard of our fearsome martial prowess, and has chosen wisely to avoid further engagement," said the Shurimon.
"Well, that just means it's easier for us!" Said Miyako, fishing for something in a pocket. "Now if you'll just wait a second, Mr. Digimon, I'll just, hang on, okay! We can send you back to the Digital World-"
"No, wait!" Takeru shouted. All eyes turned to the boy, still standing apart from the others. "We can't trust him! This is some kind of trick! It has to be!"
"I'm not so sure, Takeru, I think that Digimon might be telling the truth," Iori said quietly.
"No, he's just trying to fool you. I know it, we can't trust a Digimon like that," Takeru called back. "Don't let them get too close to you, he'll attack if you let your guard down!"
"Well, I mean I guess maybe? But maybe if I-" Miyako started,
"This is pointless. If you want me gone from the Real World then fine, I'll leave." Lowemon turned and made a show of deliberately walking away from the Warriors and their Digimon. But a few steps out Lowemon stopped and turned to look over his shoulder.
"And you may even be right. Maybe Digimon like you and I are intruders into the Real World. But I know you're wrong about one thing, Angemon. No matter what kind of Digimon I am, I am the one who chooses how I live and I choose where I belong. The sun shines down the same on both of us."
Lowemon dropped to one knee. Turned away and hidden from the others, he drew his digivice and put its tip to the sunbaked street. Shadows streamed from the device forming a black circle around him and then pooled inward turning into a round, black puddle. Then, in the blink of an eye, Lowemon dropped through it and was gone from the world.
The three Chosen Children and their Digimon partners stared.
"Where is he?" Takeru asked in disbelief.
"I think he's gone, Takeru," Angemon said.
"Without a Gate?" Miyako said.
"Maybe, uh, he just hid somewhere kinda fancy?" Digmon said. "What if he's underground or something?"
A D-Terminal started beeping. Iori flipped his open.
"It's Koushirou, he says that all the Digimon have been returned to the Digital World. He says 'good job' and that we should meet up at the Computer Club room to report."
The assembled group stared a little longer.
About 20 minutes later Hikari knocked on the schoolroom door.
"Digi Digi!" came a voice from inside.
"Mon Mon!" Hikari and Ken said together.
Sliding open the door confirmed that the Odaiba Middle School's computer room was just as disorganized as always. The Computer Club's PCs were, as usual, arranged in a loose circle around the edge of the room. Koushirou sat at one of them, furiously typing away on a keyboard. Miyako stood next to him bent over his shoulder. Iori sat on the floor nearby next to his and Miyako's Partners who were both snacking on some kind of candy. Takeru paced back and forth at one side of the room, Patamon stood on a desk next to him looking worriedly at his human. Daisuke leaned against a wall on the other side of the room, Chibimon bouncing about his feet. He waved at the newcomers.
"Ken, Hikari, you finally made it!"
"What's going on?" Ken asked as he looked around. "Did something happen? Everyone seems on edge."
"Apparently when all the Digimon came through, there was this weird dark Digimon that Angemon couldn't beat," Daisuke said with a shrug.
"Angemon couldn't? What kind of Digimon was it?" Hikari asked, as she and Ken let out their respective Digimon and moved over to near Koushirou.
"We don't know, that's the thing," Koushirou said. "None of the Digimon recognized him, so I've been working to copy the data from their D3's to see if we can get any information on that black Digimon from the Digimon Analyzer."
"That is a strange. Digimon can usually recognize each other," Ken said.
"I've noticed that as well, but Armadimon didn't recognize the Digimon no matter how hard he tried," Iori said.
"Nope! NosirreeBob! Never seen him before in my life," Armadimon confirmed.
"And it's the same thing for Hawkmon and Patamon, but even if they couldn't recognize him I know that black lion Digimon was dangerous," Takeru said.
Hikari froze.
"There we go!" Koushirou said. "Let me turn on projector and I'll display the analyzer data for our mystery Digimon."
Hikari held her breath as the projector warmed up and started to whir and hum, she knew exactly whose picture would appear on screen, she knew exactly that her horrible dream hadn't been a fluke, that those things were coming for her still and soon everyone would know…
The projector's light hit the screen and Hikari's breath came loose in confusion.
Miyako tilted her head to look from the projection screen to Koushirou's computer screen and then back and then back again. "Uh, Koushirou, sir, are you sure you got all that right?"
"I should have, there aren't any errors in the log, so why…" Koushirou trailed off and started to mutter to himself.
Right in the center of the analyzer page where there should have been a picture of the Digimon there was a garbled mess of pixels like a damaged image file. The profile box below the scrambled picture, meanwhile, was completely empty, and the box that should have contained the Digimon's level instead had a line of corrupted and unreadable text.. And yet, there were several bits of the Digimon's profile that were filled in properly in clear Japanese.
"Lowemon, Vaccine type, a Warrior Digimon," Miyako read out, "special attacks are Endlich Meteor and... 'Evig Shraafu?"
"Ewig Schlaf," Ken corrected, "it's German for 'Eternal Sleep.'"
"A Vaccine type like Angemon? That's impossible!" Takeru yelled. He flew around the desks to see for himself.
"That does seem unusual given your description of the Digimon," Koushirou said. He went back a screen on the analyzer. "Maybe if I go back and load the data from the master list… No, it's the same thing."
Koushirou clicked back and forth from the broken profile to the index several times when Miyako suddenly chimed in. "Hey wait! Koushirou, look at that! This Lowemon has three different entries. Maybe one of them will work."
The boy at the desk clicked through them, but:
"No good, they're all the same," Koushirou sighed. "I wonder why there are multiple redundant entries in the analyzer, what kind of error would make it do something like this…"
"They aren't the same," Iori said. All eyes turned to the younger boy as he stood up, stepped forward, and pointed at the projector screen. "The Digimon's attribute was different in all three profiles."
Koushirou scrolled back, opening all three entries side-by-side. Sure enough, the attribute had changed. All three profiles had the same broken picture and the same empty profile box, but one said Vaccine, one said Data, and one said Virus.
"Hida is right," Ken said simply.
"That's not possible," Takeru said.
"Maybe that guy can change his attribute or whatever? So what? Does it even matter?" Daisuke asked from his side of the room, hands behind his head.
"It matters because it shouldn't be possible. A Digimon's attribute is a consistent aspect of their data. In many, but not all, cases it can be used as a predictor of their behavior," Koushirou said.
"So it's something that can't be changed?"
"Not normally. There are instances wherein a Digimon's attribute has varied from the norm like due to outside modification on their data, but in all such cases it had a clear physical effect on the Digimon's body. Furthermore, even in those instances a Digimon's attribute was set when it evolved, it wasn't able to alter its attribute at will. I assume from your description nothing like that happened during your encounter?"
Miyako shook her head. "Not at all, he just had the same black armor the whole time Angemon was fighting him"
"But how can we tell that the Digimon's attribute was correct when so much data is missing? How does the analyzer gather data to begin with?" Ken asked.
"I believe it has to do with what you said, Ichijouji, about Digimon being able to identify each other. The Digimon analyzer is able to read our Digimon's scanned data and pull up information based off of that. Or maybe it pulls from a central database that our Digimon also use? I'll have to look further into this…" Once again Koushirou trailed off and started muttering to himself.
"Well okay, if that isn't gonna work, can someone just tell me what happened already?" Daisuke's voice was pitched up in annoyance.
"I agree, maybe we can learn something if you share what happened," Ken said more evenly.
"Sure!" Miyako perked up immediately, "I had a pretty good view the whole thing, we had just sent a Monochromon back to the Digital World and we weren't sure if there were any Digimon left when all the sudden that black Digimon, Lowemon or whatever, just drop down right in front of us! And then…"
Miyako, with some interruptions by Takeru and one or two additions from Iori, explained the rough outline of the fight. She covered Angemon's initial attack, the two Digimon trading blows, the way Lowemon had disarmed Angemon, how Shurimon provided help ("my excellent shuriken style ninja arts" as Hawkmon said, holding up a feathery finger), and Lowemon's attack completely overpowering Angemon's God Typhoon. However, when Miyako got to the part about Lowemon blocking Heaven's Knuckle, Tailmon suddenly cut in:
"The attack had no effect?"
Tailmon had climbed onto a desk and was looking across at Patamon with her sharp blue eyes narrowed.
"It barely did anything," Patamon answered.
"At best, I would say it scratched him," Hawkmon provided from the floor.
"Looked like he could've taken 'em all day," said Armadimon, next to Hawkmon.
"And that's important because Angemon is a holy Digimon, right?" Daisuke asked.
"That's right, Angemon's Sacred power is supposed to be effective against dark Digimon like him, only an incredibly powerful evil Digimon wouldn't be affected by an attack like that." Takeru's fists were balled up tight.
"How strong was he, Patamon? Could you get a sense of that Digimon's level?" asked Tailmon.
"I'm not sure," the little Digimon stood on his hindlegs with his forepaws crossed. "He didn't feel like an Adult Digimon, but he didn't feel like a Perfect or an Ultimate either, somehow…"
"And he couldn't have been a Child Digimon, either," Iori said.
"But that Lowemon, I think he was holding back. When we crossed weapons I could tell he was really strong… If he really wanted to, he could have beaten me. I think he might've been able to beat all of us there…"
"All right, but, what happened?" Daisuke asked. "If this guy was so strong he beat Angemon-"
"He DIDN'T beat Angemon!" Takeru interjected, turning to glare at Daisuke.
"All right, if he was strong enough that he COULD HAVE beat Angemon, maybe" Daisuke corrected, testily, "what happened? He didn't just leave, right?"
"No, he did. He just left," Miyako said.
"What?"
"Yeah it was weird, Angemon gave him a speech about how he would protect the world and then Lowemon just surrendered and said he didn't like fighting and some other stuff. I was getting the gate ready on my laptop to send him back to the Digital World, but Takeru thought it was a trick-"
"It WAS a trick," Takeru insisted.
"-so Lowemon got annoyed and so he just turned around and said something about how he was just like Angemon and did something and, vanished, I guess?" Miyako finished.
"Where did he go?" Ken asked.
"I believe he returned to the Digital World," Koushirou said. "As best as I can tell from tracing Digimon signals, there aren't any Digimon left in Odaiba but the six in this room."
"And that's also supposed to be impossible, right?" Daisuke said.
"No, it isn't. Demon could do it," Takeru said.
The words hung in the air as he said them, like a dark cloud hovering over the room. Koushirou stopped typing and steepled his fingers. Miyako looked up from the computer screen to stare worriedly at the broken image on the projector. Ken looked at the ground. Iori focused his stern gaze on Takeru who was still quietly fuming. Hikari held her arms across her chest and shivered, Tailmon hopped down beside her to put a paw her partners leg. Daisuke looked around and took a few steps forward.
"Well maybe it's not that bad, maybe Lowemon is a good guy." Daisuke suggested to clear the air.
Takeru wheeled on Daisuke again. "Wrong. He's not and he can't be, a Digimon like that is our enemy, Daisuke!"
"Geez, calm down, I was just asking, Takeru. Didn't you say he surrendered? That he didn't want to fight us?"
"And I told you already, it was a trick! He was trying to make us let down our guard for sneak attack."
"Why would he need a sneak attack if he was beating Angemon already?"
"That Digimon DIDN'T 'beat' Angemon!"
"But Patamon said-"
"Enough already you two!" Miyako shouted. "You aren't getting anywhere arguing like that, cut it out and stop yelling at each other!"
"I agree," Ken said. "We simply don't know enough about Lowemon to know what kind of threat he represents."
"All right then, what do we do now?" Daisuke asked.
"I think in discussing Lowemon we've all been distracted from a more important question," Iori said. All eyes turned to the smaller boy. "Why did the Digimon cross over into the Real World? Finding out why that happened may be more important than an encounter with one specific Digimon."
"Maybe Lowemon was responsible for that as well," Takeru said. "If he can travel between worlds maybe he's the reason why."
"Are you just gonna blame everything on this one Digimon from now on?" Daisuke asked, his voice somewhere in between mocking and incredulous. Takeru was about to explode again but Koushirou quickly started talking.
"I may be able to find that out, actually. After the world tour last Christmas I began working on a modification to the Gate Sensor program to be able to track more kinds of travel between both worlds and measure disturbances in the boundary between them. The program is on my computer at home, and it's still in a prototype stage so it's too inefficient to be useful in a real-time situation, but if I input the data from this afternoon I might be able to gain a certain amount of information about why this all happened. At the very least, if the source of the distortion is a specific place in the Digital World I should be able to find out where it is."
"Well okay then!" Miyako said cheerily. "Until Koushirou can figure out what happened there's no point fighting about it. And until the program finishes I hereby declare that the Chosen Children are on standby! Dismissed!"
Takeru was about to say something heated, but as he opened his mouth he seemed to think better of it. "You're right, Miyako. If that Digimon did go back to the Digital World we'll need the help of Koushirou's program to find him. I just wish I knew what he was doing right now…"
Lowemon ran a finger along the varnished wood of the restaurant's piano. There wasn't a speck of dust on the instrument, and he wondered idly if someone had been maintaining the piano or if pianos just didn't get dusty in the Digital World.
Three steps lead down from the entrance of Digitamamon's restaurant to the pretty glass enclosed patio that was the dining area, and immediately to the left at the bottom of those gentle steps stood the piano in a rounded little enclosure. By the time that Lowemon had returned from the Real World and begun to examine the instrument, other Digimon had begun to file in for dinner. Bakumon, a floating little tapir Digimon, acted as waiter leading the guests in and seated them at the various round tables and took orders.
Lowemon was not particularly surprised when both the chairs and the tables grew and shrunk slightly depending on the Digimon who sat around them. He was also not particularly surprised when he finally took a seat at the piano bench and felt both it and the instrument grow larger to match his frame. He was not surprised at all that the book of sheet music on the music rack contained a bizarre mixture of music, or that many of the songs were not actually supposed to be played on the piano at all. However, after flipping through probably more pages than the thin booklet should physically have contained, he found a song that was for the piano that he actually recognized from the Real World. His Real World.
The black Digimon had received one or two curious, if not furtive, glances from the customers, but those stopped when he began to play. Lowemon started with a quick warm-up to make sure the piano was working properly, and when he heard that it was he launched directly into the song proper. The music flowed with surprising ease, each note came effortlessly after the previous and lead onto the next in perfect time. In fact, the song played so well it made Lowemon a little bit uncomfortable.
After more than a year Lowemon was used to being a Digimon, even comfortable being a Digimon. Digimon lived and worked and dreamed no differently from humans, but Digimon were still fundamentally not human. Digimon had different bodies with different senses and different abilities formed differently from humans who could do things humans couldn't. Digimon grew in a way completely unlike humans and Digimon lived in a world far apart from the world of humans. A Digimon is not the same as a human, and being a Digimon was not the same as being human, so in order to use his powers to the fullest Lowemon had to put aside being human to be a Digimon. He didn't become a different person, but he did become a different kind of being. When Kouichi evolved he became a Digimon in mind and body, but by the same token when Lowemon devolved he became a human in every way. And Lowemon had long since accepted the differences between his two states of being. He'd even wholeheartedly embraced them and been proud to feel like he understood the worth of both of his overlapping lives. Nonetheless, no matter how comfortable Lowemon was with being a Digimon, he still spent most of his time as a human. Playing piano and taking lessons on it were not things he did when he was a Digimon.
The next movement also came effortlessly. Back home that sequence of chords always frustrated him. It sounded so simple when you heard it in a recording, but the movement of the notes was so finely tuned and so precise that even the most casual listener could hear the slightest mistake. And make mistakes Kouichi had, yet he always came back to try the song again.
"First try to play like a child, then a student, then like a machine, and after that you can start to play like a musician."
His teacher had said that to them once, what felt like ages ago. Kouichi's piano teacher was thin and balding. He had a head like an boiled egg and a face wrapped with tight little spectacles, but he had a smile that was almost impossibly wide. When he listened to his students play he beamed so widely it almost seemed like the top of his head could flip off entirely. And after every song, or sometimes even after an individual movement (or line, or measure) he would flash that smile of his and praise his student, and then patiently point out Kouichi's mistakes and make suggestions for how his pupil could improve. He had other things he liked to say to try and encourage his students, things like how the journey was more important than the destination, or how experience was more important than talent, or how even the greatest of all musicians practiced ceaselessly even at the height of their skill.
Don't be discouraged by failure, take your time, practice makes perfect… They were all things he had said to try and encourage his students. And now remembering his words felt like a punch to the gut. Because Lowemon knew all too well that he was not this good at playing the piano when he was a human. He had not practiced, and now he was playing perfectly. It was a fluke, some weird twist of fate that the Digimon he became had the natural reflexes, timing, and dexterity to imitate this song so well.
Lowemon moved into the last quarter of the song, frustrated and flawlessly. The point his teacher had made was that hitting all the right notes with the tick of the metronome was not the same thing as playing music. Doing something perfectly was not always the same thing as doing it correctly. If it was, Lowemon wouldn't have become Angemon's enemy. He'd done everything like he should have that afternoon, everything absolutely perfectly. No human civilians got hurt on his watch, he'd sent back every rogue Digimon he could find, he'd managed to save Devidramon without a fight, and he'd still become the mortal enemies of Hikari's friends. He'd been warned he wouldn't be welcomed before he ever came to this world, but still... The look in the blonde haired boy's eyes had been... Ugly.
It was better that he hadn't revealed himself Hikari.
If his brother were here it probably tell him to lighten up, and then Kouichi (in whatever form he was) would smile and say something like "look who's talking". Why on earth was it him and not Kouji (or Wolfmon) who had been sent here?
The song came to an end, and Lowemon was actually surprised when the Digimon at the restaurant applauded. A Yaksamon clapped loudly, a Vegiemon called something eager and unintelligible and whipped its tendrils together, a pair of Kiwimon tapped their beaks on a table, and Bakumon, fresh off of bringing in a meal, patted its forepaws in delight.
Lowemon stared around for a long moment, then turned back to the sheet music and rifled through looking for another song. Like it or not, he was here and there was no changing that. The Digimon surely didn't care he was making a mockery of the music, they were having a good time living their lives. Maybe just this once the right thing to do was to just keep playing.
And so he did. The second song was an easier piece to perform, one he could have done as a human. It was far from his favorite song, but he felt a little bit less guilty playing it to mechanical perfection. The third song was a little bit harder, but it was one that Lowemon had managed a number of times when he wasn't a Digimon. He went through the opening, a pleasant up and down, back and forth leading into the next sequence of notes that rose higher and higher and slowly higher, upwards to a-
"Oh yeah? Say that again to my face, will ya! I dare ya!"
"What? Ya didn't hear me the first time? Are ya dumb AND ugly?"
-Crash.
Lowemon pushed the piano bench out, stood up, and turned around.
Standing in the middle of the dining room at a table were two Flare Lizamon, arguing. Loudly. The two fire Digimon were yelling and roaring, waving their claws and spitting insults at each other. The ever present flames on their bodies were burning hot and bright, rolling and rippling down arms and legs like magma. The gunmetal helmets both Digimon wore were starting to turn red with heat, indeed the entire room had begun to heat up uncomfortably from the crackling flames. To his side, Lowemon could see that Bakumon had come out of the back room clumsily holding a fire extinguisher in his paws.
Lowemon stepped forward into the inferno, taking a moment to push the two Digimon's table with its white tablecloth away from the quarreling dragons. "Excuse me…"
Both Digimon ignored him. Lowemon slammed a hand on the table, rattling bowls and dishes.
"Excuse me!" Lowemon said, louder and more forcefully.
"What do you want?" "Who the heck are you?" Both Flare Lizamon responded at once.
"My name is Lowemon, I am a friend of this restaurant. In that capacity, I apologize but I must ask you to leave," Lowemon bowed properly as he spoke. "You are bothering the other guests."
"Yeah! You heard him! Get out of here!" Said the Flare Lizamon on the left.
"You butt out of this, it's none of your business!" Said the Flare Lizamon on the right.
"I'm afraid I must disagree, like I said I'm here as a friend of the restaurant. My concern is that all of the restaurant's guests have a pleasant experience. Though it pains me to single you out, you are causing them all a great deal of distress."
As he spoke, Lowemon gestured around the room at the other Digimon. The Yaksamon in the back had opened a window and was poised to leap through it, the three Kiwimon had ducked behind their table and were peaking their beaks out nervously, the Vegiemon was sweating and panting and attempting to fan itself with its vines. The Flare Lizamon on the right deflated a little, the flames on his body burning lower, until he saw his counterpart sniggering at him. Immediately its body blazed white-hot again.
"I told you, this isn't about you or them or anyone! This is between me and him! And you aren't gonna get in my way!"
Lowemon nodded. "I'm sorry you feel that way. Very well then, if you aren't willing to reconsider I'm afraid I will have to eject you. Bakumon, if you would please get the dining room door."
"Eh?" the Flare Lizamon turned from Lowemon, to Bakumon who had nodded and quickly floated over to pull open the double doors, and then back to Lowemon. "Alright, you want to start something too? You think you're hot stuff? Well too bad! I'm way too hot for you to handle!"
The Flare Lizamon lunged at Lowemon thrusting his right claws at the black Digimon. With fluid ease, Lowemon caught the Flare Lizamon's arm and pulled hard, heaving the dragon Digimon overhead and slamming him against the floor. Then, without letting go of the fire Digimon's arm, Lowemon began to spin Flare Lizamon around and around through the air.
Flare Lizamon howled and flailed, the restaurant spun around him, air rushed past his face, tears vaporizing on the flames of his face, his stomach churned. The black Digimon had a grip like iron. "Let go! Let go! Let me go!" He pleaded.
Lowemon let go. The Flare Lizamon sailed through the air, end-over-end, right out the door, crashing into the back wall of the building opposite. After a moment, gravity caught up with the hapless Digimon and he fell on his head with a clang.
"Once again, I apologize it had to come to this, but I'm sure Bakumon can get you a box for the rest of your meal." Lowemon said without hostility, standing at the door. The holy Digimon nodded and hurried off. He dusted off his hands off impassively, his darkness had smothered most of the heat from holding the flaming Digimon.
"Hah! That's what you get!" Said the other Flare Lizamon from beside Lowemon.
"I'm afraid I'm also going to have to ask you to leave, sir," Lowemon said, turning.
"What? Why me? HE's the one who started it!"
"Maybe so, but I insist nonetheless."
The second Flare Lizamon opened his mouth to argue, but then looked at his double sprawled out on the ground and then back at Lowemon's firm gaze.
"Can I get a box to go, too?"
"Of course. I'm sure this restaurant will be glad to have you back, some other night, as long as you can respect your fellow guests."
The Flare Lizamon mumbled a word of thanks, helped his counterpart to his feet, received the leftovers of their meal without a word, and walked off into the darkening night with only a single, short, backwards glance.
"It seems like I got here too late," said a new voice from behind Lowemon. He turned and found himself eye to eye with a Leomon.
"Well what's it matter? The problem's solved and now you're around for once, Leomon!" Digitamamon had emerged from the front door of his restaurant, a chef's hat perched on the tip of his eggshell and with an apron tied around what was probably his waist.
Lowemon bowed apologetically at the sight of the restaurant owner. "I'm sorry if I was out of line there, but I was worried that-"
"No, no, you were great! Another minute and I'd have gone out there to smack em around myself! Only reason I wasn't out sooner was I was calling Leomon here, he's always great to have around when troubles brewing, and it's the only way to get him to come around these days!" Digitamamon playfully nudged the lion man with his egg. "By the way, you were great on that piano! If you were sticking around I hire you full-time!"
"Then I take it that this is your mysterious guest, Digitamamon?" Leomon asked. His eyes were focused keenly on Lowemon.
"Yep! This is Lowemon, funny thing ain't it? I guess I just can't get away from lions," Digitamamon made a jerking motion that might have been a shrug. Leomon chuckled.
"Maybe so. May I ask you something, Lowemon? I only saw the last part of it, but you ejected both of the Digimon who were fighting. Only one of them started the argument, why did you send the other one off as well?
The boy had had to put a thick encyclopedia on the folding chair to be high enough to reach the table in the little storage room, but he was used to that by now. Laid out neatly on the table was his schoolwork, a textbook, a composition notebook, and an old pencil case. He was supposed to be doing his homework, but he wasn't looking at them. Instead, the boy was leaning back as far as he could in his seat to try and see out through the little crack in the door. When that wasn't enough to see, he kicked his dangling legs out and dropped neatly onto the floor, then he snuck up to the door and peeked outside.
Through the sliver of light he could see the restaurant, the few small tables along the walls opposite the bar. Two men were fighting, he had heard them, and now he could see them. Both of them were in business suits, both had their ties undone, and both of them were very red in the face, from shouting and from something more. One of them suddenly stood up and said something the boy had been taught never to say to the other man. And then she came out from behind the bar and smiled pleasantly and put a hand on both of their shoulders and smiled politely. The boy gasped as the standing man drunkenly threw a punch, but she merely stepped to the side and the man tripped over his own feet and fell on his face. Then, she leaned down and handed the man a moist towel to wipe off his face and helped him to his feet, spoke with him softly, and patted him on the back. Then she turned the other man and gave another smile and said something, and when he complained she said something else and smiled again. The other man stood up, put an arm under the first man, and the two of them stumbled out of the restaurant.
"Why did you tell both of them to go home?" The boy asked, sometime later. "Didn't only one of them start the fight?"
"That may be true, Kouichi, but it takes two people to have an argument," his mother said.
"It takes two people to have an argument," Lowemon said.
Leomon nodded approvingly. "Wise words. Very wise indeed."
"See? You two are so alike it hurts!" Digitamamon said.
"Will you be busy tomorrow morning, Lowemon?" Leomon asked.
"I don't believe I'll be, why?" Lowemon said.
"I'm a member of the File Irregulars, a group of Digimon who are dedicated to ensuring the peace of this island. I know you won't be staying with us for very long, but I would be honored if you would consider joining us. You don't have to decide right now, but I would be grateful if you would come to our morning meeting tomorrow."
"I would be honored to come, but are you sure you want to Digimon like me?"
"I am. The moment I looked into your eyes I could tell you had a heart that beat with justice, and after seeing you in action and hearing your words just now there can be no doubt. Whatever else you are, Lowemon, you are an upright Digimon of just the sort this city needs."
"Haha, there you go again talking like an old man Leomon," Digitamamon cut in. "I remember you giving me that speech before you asked me to join back in the day!"
Leomon smiled. "And I wasn't wrong about you, was I? You may have had the exterior of a ruffian, but you had a noble and heroic heart in the end. It feels so long ago, now, when you were with us. We still have room for you if you ever wanted to come back."
"That's sweet, but I told you I'm retired from that. I'm an ex-heroic ruffian now! If you'll excuse me this former 'hero of justice' has to make dinner for a bunch of hungry Digimon."
As Digitamamon went back to his kitchen, Leomon turned back to Lowemon. "We'll be meeting at 700 hours in gear savanna south of the city."
"I'll be there. Until then, I also have another set to play."
"Are you okay, Hikari?" Tailmon asked. She knew it was probably futile, but she asked anyways.
"Of course I am," said Hikari, unsurprisingly. "Why wouldn't I be?"
It was the evening, Hikari had come home, had dinner, reassured her brother everything was okay with the Digimon incident, had a bath, turned off her lights, and had climbed into bed and was about to lie down. Tailmon sat at the foot of the bed just like she had early that morning.
"You didn't say much at the meeting, earlier."
"I guess I didn't have much to say." The girl didn't meet Tailmon's eyes.
Tailmon grimaced. She was frustrated, not surprised. "Well, what did you think about Lowemon. Do you think he's an enemy?" Tailmon had expected Hikari to be evasive and give another nonanswer. Instead, the girl suddenly turned ashen. She shivered. "Hikari?"
"I don't know," she managed. Tailmon saw the flicker of a tear in the dim light.
"Hikari! You know something, right? What's happening? Please, just tell me what's wrong!"
"It's nothing," Hikari said desperately. In a flurry of movement she ducked under the covers and turned away from Tailmon. "I'm fine, okay!"
Tailmon stood there a little while longer.
"You know I will always protect you, Hikari, no matter what."
Hikari said nothing.
She was not okay.
Iori was mostly through his nightly rituals when his D-Terminal beeped. He flipped it open and found a message from Daisuke.
*What was up with Takeru today? He seemed really pissed off. What did this Lowemon guy do to make him totally lose it?*
Iori thought for a second, going carefully through that afternoon's action. Takeru had taken a very aggressive stance right from the beginning, but if there was one thing in particular…
*I think Takeru believes that Lowemon was taunting him. Right before that Digimon returned to the digital world he stated that he could choose how he lived and that both he and Angemon were equal in the eyes of the sun.*
*Weird. That made him angry? I don't get it,* came the reply from Daisuke shortly. Then a few moments later another came in: *well, whatever. Keep an eye on him, okay? Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid.*
Iori allowed himself a minute to appreciate the irony of that statement.
Doing a Digital Dive was different for everyone. Takuya described it in terms of heat, moving from one warm place to another. Tomoki said he saw it as a passage of crystal. Kouji experienced it in terms of streamers of light, and by contrast as Warrior of Darkness, Kouichi naturally navigated by shadows. They were not merely guideposts he used to travel, they were themselves his path.
Shadows were cast not just by people and places but by entire worlds. In the space between them normally one world cast a shadow into another world. It was easy to go from this Real World to this Digital World and back, much easier than it was at home. Were the worlds just naturally closer here? But tonight when he left the Digital World he wasn't intending to go back to the Real World, no he went in completely the opposite direction. He was going back there.
When he had left behind this world's Warriors he had seen long jagged shadows that had been falling away from the Real World. Seeing them he knew immediately that those shadows, those paths, weren't cast by the Digital World. No, they came from behind it, beyond it. That dark world had reached out for the Real World, piercing right through the Digital World. No doubt those desperate grasping shadows were how they had snared Hikari, and the violent force of those shadows punching through the Digital World were probably why Digimon had been flung from their homes.
Following the path of those fading shadows led to that dismal place once again. With a flap he touched down on the roof of one of the weathered beach houses that overlooked the dark ocean. Everything was still as deathly quiet as it had been after Hikari had vanished. Nothing was happening. Rather nothing could happen, at least not yet. No, rather it was astonishing that anything happened in the first place. This empty place was… Maybe he had been too generous when he said he'd be here for a week.
He watched the inky tides of that ocean wash onto the chalky sand of the shore for a little while longer. There was nothing tonight and would be nothing tonight. With that, he flew up and out, away from that faded world.
Well this was longer than I thought it would be. Not just this chapter, this whole story. I honestly thought at this word count I would be a lot further along than I am, but here we are. And I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way, but I was honestly surprised with how long some of these scenes went. I thought there would be a lot more perfunctory, but no, they just kind of kept going. And again, I don't say this is a bad thing, just that it is a thing. On the other hand, my output is still better on this chapter than on my previous chapters, so I can honestly say that my plan for self-motivation is going along pretty well!
Seeing that I have no idea how long my expected "chapters" are going to be I will probably be splitting them into multiple parts for the sake of having a semi-consistent output. I thought I was going to be splitting my planned chapter 3 in half, but this posting was twice as long as the previous one so what do I know? More parts it is! I make no promises in terms of timeframe, and indeed I'm legitimately amazed the people who can put up chapters weekly or even monthly. I can only say I am going to post something "when it is done", but hopefully I can get to that point more readily. Though after this chapter I promised myself I was going to write something else that I had always wanted to write, so look for that sometime "soon" TM.
In terms of content I point out that once again we know very nearly nothing about the personal life of any of the characters from Frontier, everything I put into Kouichi's background is entirely invented. It is sometimes extrapolated, but even then I'm extrapolating it out of whole cloth. Meanwhile, as for what's going on in the 02 side I'm also extrapolating stuff, but I feel more confident that I am basing that stuff off of a couple of things from the series. Most especially episode 13, which on multiple levels is the inspiration for this final version of the story, but I'm also building off of a couple of episodes in the mid-30s. As for the rest? I figure if you're writing fanfiction why not pull stuff from the entire franchise?
I want to once again thank everyone who is left review for me. Shout outs to Moonstruck, zeldawolf, rulehenge, reemi, and my anonymous guest, you have all helped me more than you know. And shout outs also to everyone else who chose to read my story. Once again, thank you. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you'll continue to enjoy it into the future.
Next - Illumination